Out of Due Time

On the Way to Damascus-Caravaggio, 1601¹

"And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time" (1 Corinthians 15:8).

"I saw in the way a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me and them which journeyed with me. And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me, and saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?" (cf. Acts 26:13-14)

Paul, was not one of the eleven who were "born again" of the water and of the Spirit and companied with the Lord all the time that He went in and out, "beginning from the baptism of John, unto that same day that he was taken up" (cf. Acts 1:21-22).

Paul, was "born out of due time" "of the water and of the Spirit" three days after "being led by the hand of them that were with him, to Damascus." There "fell from his eyes as it had been scales," and he received sight and was baptized calling on the name of the Lord, and was filled with the Holy Spirit (cf. Act 22:11, Act 9:18).

However, where was the "Hebrew of the Hebrews" that first Passover when the Lord whom Saul was seeking suddenly came unto his temple? And where was Saul that final Passover three years later when "Jesus entered into the temple of God , and [again] cast out all that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those that sold the doves" (Matthew 21:12)? From Paul there is only silence!

Perhaps, the Scriptures are not altogether silent:

"And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? ... Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me. And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved" (cf. Mark 10:17 -22, emphasis added).

Perhaps Paul's "in due time" regret is latent in this or in some other Scriptural account, be that as it may:

"And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time" (1 Corinthians 15:8).

Paul here, humbly but incontrovertibly and emphatically, authenticates his "apostleship" and "his gospel," declaring that the Risen Lord "was seen of me also" (1 Corinthians 15:5-7)!

"For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me" (1 Corinthians 15:9-10, emphasis added).



¹By Caravaggio - scan, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15219516