How is this “gospel” related to the four gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—from which we mainly derive our knowledge of the teaching and deeds of Jesus?
The “Jesus story” in Paul’s letters is not a narrative of the events centered on Jesus of Nazareth nor does it contain elements that characterize Jesus’ public ministry. It lacks elements that would form the narrative thread in the memory of the apostles and the disciples of Jesus: e.g., the miracles, the proclamation of the Kingdom, the parables, the intimacy with the Twelve, the conflict with the official Judaism, the journey to Jerusalem, the passion events, and the resurrection appearances. Paul is not a disciple as Peter, John, and others. He did not see Jesus in his earthly life. He cannot appropriate the privilege of a witness pronounced by Jesus: “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. For I say to you, many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it” (Lk 10:23-24).
And yet Paul was given a grace by no means inferior to that of the original witnesses. He encountered the Risen Christ: “Have I not seen Jesus our Lord?” (1 Cor 9:1). “He appeared to me” (1 Cor 15:8). In this encounter that Luke dramatizes in the Acts of the Apostles (chapters 9, 22, 26), Jesus “apprehends” the former persecutor and totally changes his perspectives. The “revelation” of Jesus causes a complete turnabout in Paul, so that what he held dear he now considers so much rubbish, loss, before the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus his Lord (see Phil 3:7-8).
