Why did it take Paul 3 YEARS before meeting the Apostles?

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I mean THREE WHOLE years?

From what I can tell, it wasn’t until 3 years after his conversion that Paul met the Apostles in Jerusalem. Acts 9 says that when Paul got to the Apostles, they were suspicious of him. I assume this means that, even after 3 years, Paul still had a reputation of being a persecutor.

I just wonder what Paul was doing all that time? Did it really take him 3 years to figure out his own faith? Or did it take him a while to determine he was to be a missionary? OR, was he like a renegade preacher on his own – without the need for the other Apostles?
 
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He might have been attempting to come to terms with the fact that the religion he had killed for was being fulfilled by the people he had murdered.

That’s not exactly an easy thing to come to grips with.

Even if it’s not this, we have to remember that it was not always easy to track specific people down and travel was dangerous. There are any number of reasons it might have taken that long.
 
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I’d expect some of the time was discerning his path too. Discernment isn’t just one minute you know what your path is, especially for a new convert, is a path of growth. I’d expect the enemy tried to get in there and confuse him and he had worldly temptations and his own will to battle. I would imagine the whole time he was prayerful and learning and no doubt preaching and working on his faith like any one of us. This is my 2cents worth anyway, as well as finding the Apostles and growing in faith enough to be taken seriously and be trusted by them. I can see how it would take that time, in fact I think God’s grace speeded it up quite a bit for him.
 
He was in far flung places, and imprisoned much of the time.
 
Paul or Saul persecutedChristians, he HATED Jesus and Christians, Jesus talked to him in the desert, Saul, why do you persecute me. He went temporarily blind, Jesus restored his sight. If I’m wrong, please forgive me, it’s been 555 years since I attended Parochial School. Hope this helps answer your question, have a great day. God Bless, Matt
 
55 years, I’m not in the Old Testament. At 555 years I would have been just a kid. HAH
 
Heck, and the people he had killed were likely the tiniest but cautious!
 
Aquinas has some very good commentary on these passages in Galatians 1:11-18. He proposes that one of the reasons Paul went into Arabia (non Christian territory) was to show that he got his instruction straight from the Lord and not from the apostles or other Christians.
"After showing that he did not receive the Gospel from man before his conversion, the Apostle now proves that he did not receive it from man after his conversion. About this he does two things:

First, he shows that he did not receive the Gospel from man at the time of his conversion;

Secondly, nor after his conversion (v. 18).

Regarding the first he does two things:

First, he shows that he did not receive or learn the Gospel from the apostles;

Secondly, nor from any other believer (v. 17): I went into Arabia, and again I returned to Damascus."
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And he was taken to Damascus to a specific man, a teacher, who probably instructed him on the doings and teaching of Christ. That probably took some time. In addition to his travels to other places beside Jerusalem.
 
No cars back then…ships , which he used quite a bit, were always crashing and took time to get anywhere
 
Travel took a lot longer back in those days.

Jet airplanes just move a lot quicker that a big ship powered by galley slaves.
 
Wasn’t he always being thrown in prison too. On his sea voyages
 
Formation takes a long time, for all of us. There may be delays in our journeys but God works things out in His own time.
 
Hi!

…yeah, there are seemingly conflicting things happening in Scriptures; what we have to take into account is the fact that what we find in Scriptures is not always in a chronological narration.

Things are happening from day One (Incarnation of the Word); as time allows St. John’s Ministry begins, then Jesus’ and finally the Apostles’.

For the formative years of the Apostles they only have the Old Covenant’s Writings; Jesus does not employ scribes to take down His Teachings; the Apostles, in turn, do not employ scribes (though they must have communicated by text as a normal means of communication); then, when the Holy Spirit Inspired, the Teaching of Christ began to be Unfolded through the New Covenant’s Writings–these would address Worship, Doctrine, and fight heresies–but they would not include everything, Doctrinal and otherwise, that is taking place.

St. Paul was not part of Jesus’ Ministry; not only that but he persecuted the Church; his conversion was special (I would say singular) and it was through Divine Instruction that he Receive the Gospel directly from Christ (no need to be a disciple of anyone to come to his conversion).

But the Twelve did not wait around till Saul found his way, through Christ’s direct Intervention. So when he comes to the Christian Understanding, Saul, now Paul (noticed how only two are given new names by Christ?) begins his Missionary work right where he was sent:
16 To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the Gentiles, immediately I condescended not to flesh and blood. 17 Neither went I to Jerusalem, to the apostles who were before me: but I went into Arabia, and again I returned to Damascus. 18 Then, after three years, I went to Jerusalem, to see Peter, and I tarried with him fifteen days. (Galatians 1)
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We know that not everything is found Written in Scriptures; yet, from the context, we can ascertain that there was some question as to St. Paul’s authority and his Christian origins.

He equaled the other Apostles in the Gospel of Christ and he did not Teach error/contradicting doctrine since we find that not once is his teaching denounced as error or anti-Christian; rather, we find that when this issue arouse in a catholic (universal) format, St. Peter addresses the matter as he chastises those who are teaching error and promoting heresy–St. Peter states that St. Paul’s Writings are Sacred Scriptures.

What exactly took place during those three years between Saul’s conversion and his work directly with the other Apostles? Who knows? We only know that his Ministry began in Arabia–remember, he was Called to be an Apostle to the Gentiles, Israel already had Twelve working within her boundaries.

Maran atha!

Angel
 
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He probably had to study and start from the ground up—not to mention many probably didn’t trust a former Pharisee at first. I doubt he could just show up and decide to sit in on meetings with the Apostles. He had to learn, convert, gain the trust of others, travel and make connections to the other early Christians.
 
The commentary I have read on this passage (Galatians 1:16) points out that Arabia was largely desert and not a populous place. Some suggest that Paul’s 3 years here were his time of being taught by the Lord (just as the apostles followed Jesus for 3 years). In other words, it wasn’t necessarily that Paul was out traveling and preaching at this time. That came later.

I’ve always found it to be a very provocative detail. Paul went into the desert of Arabia for three years, and we really don’t know anything specific about what transpired there.
 
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