1 Corinthians 15:8

Remember in your prayers the Church in Syria, which now has God for its shepherd, instead of me. Jesus Christ alone will oversee it, and your love [will also regard it]. But as for me, I am ashamed to be counted one of them; for indeed I am not worthy, as being the very last of them, and one born out of due time. But I have obtained mercy to be somebody, if I shall attain to God. My spirit salutes you, and the love of the Churches that have received me in the name of Jesus Christ, and not as a mere passer-by. For even those Churches which were not near to me in the way, I mean according to the flesh, have gone before me, city by city, [to meet me.]

903. – Last of all. Here the Apostle recalls the appearance made to him alone. In regard to this he does two things: first, he shows the order of the appearances; secondly, he assigns its reason (v. 9). 904. – He says, therefore: I have …

This is a word of humility. And he employed this humility prudently, so that when he says something lofty about himself — "I labored more than all of them" (1 Cor. 15:10) — they would not refuse to believe him as a boaster. An "untimely …

These three concurrent visions or certainties, the angelic, the prophetic, and the apostolic, provide the certainty of faith and Scriptures. Paul had all three, for he saw Christ bodily: And last of all, he writes, as by one born out of due time, He was …

), an abortive, ektroma, a child dead born, and out of time. Paul resembled such a birth, in the suddenness of his new birth, in that he was not matured for the apostolic function, as the others were, who had personal converse with our Lord. He was called to the office when such conversation was not to be had, he was out of time for it.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens

And last of all - of me also - It seems that it was essential to the character of a primitive apostle that he had seen and conversed with Christ; and it is evident, from the history of Saul’s conversion, Act 9:4-7 (note), that Jesus Christ did appear to him; and he pleaded this ever after as a proof of his call to the apostleship. And it does not appear that, after this time, Jesus ever did make any personal discovery of himself to any one.

Compare the similar image from childbirth, and by the same spiritual power, the resurrection of Christ (1Pe 1:3). "Begotten again by the resurrection of Jesus." Jesus' appearance to Paul, on the way to Damascus, is the one here referred to.

PAUL thus describes himself. It was necessary that Paul, as an Apostle, should have seen the Lord. He was not converted at the time of Christ's Ascension, yet he was made an Apostle, for the Lord Jesus appeared to him in the way, as he was going to Damascus, to persecute the saints of God. When he looked upon himself as thus put in, as it were, at the end of the Apostles, he spoke of himself in the most depreciating terms, calling himself, "one born out of due time." Those who are acquainted with the Greek tongue know what a despicable term Paul here applied to himself—as though he was scarcely a man at all. At any rate, as the very last of the family, "born out of due time," and not only the last, but also the very least, for he says, "I am the least of the Apostles, that am not meet to be called an Apostle, because I persecuted the church of God." Scholars will know why I cannot exactly explain the word which Paul uses, but rather keep to the rendering of our translation, which, although it may not have the force and full meaning of the Greek expression, is, perhaps, none the less useful for public reading. "One born out of due time." Paul thought very humbly of himself. He reckoned himself less than nothing and put himself down at the very lowest estimate—and mentioned that he was brought to Christ and made an Apostle when the time for such a work was apparently over. Out of date altogether, beyond the period when it might have been thought that another Apostle would be called of God, there was Paul—found as "one born out of due time." My subject tonight is, first, the singular time of Paul's spiritual birth.

PAUL thus describes himself. It was necessary that Paul, as an Apostle, should have seen the Lord. He was not converted at the time of Christ's Ascension, yet he was made an Apostle, for the Lord Jesus appeared to him in the way, as he was going to Damascus, to persecute the saints of God. When he looked upon himself as thus put in, as it were, at the end of the Apostles, he spoke of himself in the most depreciating terms, calling himself, "one born out of due time."

And last of all - After all the other times in which he appeared to people; after he had ascended to heaven. This passage proves that the apostle Paul saw the same Lord Jesus, the same “body” which had been seen by the others, or else his assertion would be no proof that he was risen from the dead. It was not a fancy, therefore, that he had seen him; it was not the work of imagination; it was not even a “revelation” that he had risen; it was a real vision of the ascended Redeemer. He was seen of me also - On the way to Damascus, see Act 9:3-6, Act 9:17. As of one born out of due time - Margin, Or, “an abortive.” Our translation, to most readers, probably, would not convey the real meaning of this place. The expression, “as of one born out of due time,” would seem to imply that Paul meant to say that there was some unfitness “as to the time” when he saw the Lord Jesus; or that it was “too late” to have as clear and satisfactory a view of him as those had who saw him before his ascension. But this is by no means the idea in the passage. The word used here (ἔκτρωμα ektrōma) properly means an abortion, one born prematurely. It is found no where else in the New Testament; and here it means, as the following verse shows, one that was “exceedingly unworthy;” that was not worth regard; that was unfit to be employed in the service of the Lord Jesus; that had the same relation to that which was worthy of the apostolic office which an abortion has to a living child. The word occurs (in the Septuagint) in Job 3:16; Ecc 6:3, as the translation of נפל nephel, an abortion, or untimely birth. The expression seems to be proverbial, and to denote anything that is vile, offensive, loathsome, unworthy; see Num 12:11. […]