Derek Thomas

He can't speak like James, the Lord's brother.

By the way, that's one of the reasons why I'm convinced by the truth of the New Testament that Jesus is divine, because his brother James, in his epistle, says so.

He calls him Lord.

He calls him kurios.

He calls him the Greek equivalent of Yahweh.

I have an older brother, and it never dawns on me to call him Lord.

I respect him.

He's four years older than me.

I was even fearful of him as a teenager, but no way would I ever call him Lord.

But James does.

James worships his older brother and calls him Lord.

But Paul had none of that.

It's an interesting question, and scholars debate it at length.

You know, what is the origin of Paul's religion?

There's a wonderful book written over a hundred years ago now by Gresham Machen called The Origin of Paul's Religion, and it's outdated now because of advance in knowledge and so on over the last hundred years, but that's what Gresham Machen was addressing.

Where did Paul get all this doctrine from?

We know that after his conversion, he goes immediately to Arabia.

He says in verse 17, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia and returned again to Damascus.

Actually, Luke tells us in Acts that he went and preached in some synagogues before he actually arrived in Arabia, and then he returned again to Damascus.

And then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him 15 days.