How long was it from the time Jesus returned to heaven after his death and when Paul was called to be an apostle?

Answer 1

The accounts in the book of acts are reliable as is the complete bible. A better date for the begining of paul's ministry is 37 a.d. Stephen is myrtered about 36 a.d. And paul's conversion is shortly after.

Answer 2

The year of Paul's conversion remains a debated topic, with various estimates. These estimates are usually based on interpretations of Acts of the Apostles, which is seen by many scholars as an unreliable history. Whenever possible, scholars prefer to rely on Paul's own epistles, rather than Acts.

Paul provided some information from which we may be able to estimate the date he commenced his mission. In his Epistle to the Galatians, Paul said that after his conversion, he travelled to Arabia, then Damascus (bypassing Jerusalem), Jerusalem, then Syria and Cilicia, and back to Jerusalem (1 Galatians 1:16-2:1). At some stage after the last visit to Jerusalem, he appears to have visited Antioch with Peter. He must have spent 3 years in Damascus, 14 years in Syria and Cilicia, and indeterminate periods in the other centres. Therefore, his conversion would have been at least 18 to 20 years before he wroteGalations. All we have to do is estimate approximately when he wrote Galatians.

Several of his epistles mention a collection for the 'poor', who can be identified as the Christians in Jerusalem. The best explanation for the urgency of this collection and the effort and political capital he put into seeking contributions is that the collection took place during the empire-wide famine that occurred between the years of 44 and 48. True, Acts places this famine almost immediately after Paul's conversion and gives an entirely different reason for Paul's own collection, but I believe that the author was mistaken, and that Paul wrote his epistles largely to seek help for the famine-struck Jerusalem church, and that his conversion took place many years earlier. The Jerusalem Christians needed help from abroad, perhaps because the famine was more severe in the eastern Mediterranean area. The Galatian Christians, geographically closest to Judea, were initially keen to contribute but finally unable to assist, probably because they were also suffering. Therefore, in my view, the best date for Galatians is 44 CE, or very shortly afterwards.

18 years before 44 CE is 24 CE, placing Paul's conversion long before the traditional date for the crucifixion of Jesus, which most non-academic people will say is a nonsense. Nevertheless, however we look at it Paul must have been preaching his gospel long before that famine and therefore long before Acts says his conversion took place. The reason for this is that Paul says that he escaped from Damascus after preaching there for three years, when the governor under Aretas, king of the Nabateans, had a garrison deployed to arrest him because of his Christian activities (2 Corinthians 11:32-33). Aretas was king from 9 BCE to 40 CE and even given the improbable coincidence of Paul's escape occurring on the very last year of his reign, Paul's conversion could not have occurred as late as reported in Acts. Once we say that Acts is entirely unreliable, we must rely on Paul's own account and this can lead to the conclusion that his conversion took place as early as 24 CE.

Many modern scholars see the very early history of Christianity rather differently than than the traditional view.