'Am I not an apostle? Am I not free? Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord?' (1 Corinthians 9:1).
Paul was a witness of the resurrected Christ.
I think the question is did Paul see the risen Christ in bodily form at His conversion. Va
There is no Scripture for that to be the true. In the absence of Scripture, one should not assume permission of that sort.
That does not negate the statement that Paul was an Apostle, but he most certainly did not meet all the standards established by Peter.
What is certain is that Paul’s opening of 1Cor. 9 includes that even in His day the Apostleship was in question.
The church fathers considered it important that there be twelve, there is nothing to suggest they sought the Lord’s leading in the choosing of the replacement of the betrayer.
Paul was certainly an apostle, but as he said, “...as one abnormally born.”