30 Apr Must Apostles See Jesus?
The twelve apostles walked with Jesus, so they certainly saw him.
Paul also saw Jesus, he had a specific encounter with Christ that actually left him blind, but additionally he was caught up to heaven. He wrote saying, ‘Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not the result of my work in the Lord?’ 1 Corinthians 9:1
This seems to be saying that to be an apostle, you must have seen Jesus, but is this in fact the point being made in the above verse?
A closer examination reveals that Paul is giving a list of points to support something else he is saying. He is actually in the middle of discussing an issue of whether to eat idol-meat or not, and whether he has the freedom to do that, and whether to eat or not if it harms someone else’s conscience. He makes several points, he is free, and in Christ’s economy he has a significant role, but even as someone like this, as someone who has seen Jesus, even he will give up his meat-eating rights or the sake of a weak believer.
The chapter division between 1 Corinthians 8 and 1 Corinthians 9 messes up the flow of the argument to modern readers, but remove that break, and read from earlier and it makes sense.
Paul is making a list
- He is free
- He is an apostle
- And he has also seen Jesus.
He isn’t an apostle because he is free, and neither has he seen Jesus because he is free, and neither is he an apostle because he has seen Jesus.
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