(January 30, 2016 at 4:55 pm)Rhythm Wrote: Just as Paul had never heard of the great majority of the jesus narrative. Paul himself gives the strong impression of what would later be deemed a docetic heretic in the narratives attributed to him. Supposedly, Marcion had nothing but praise for the man....not that he'd ever met him, of course.
According to the Bible Paul was the first character to preach about Jesus. Paul created the Jesus character to sell his idea about resurrection and eternal life. Everything people knew about Jesus they got from Paul. The Gospel writers developed the Jesus character and showed why he was worthy of being worshiped. Since life sucked at that time it was easy to gain converts, especially once they dropped the circumcision and communism requirements. It wasn't a peer pressure religion and there was no expensive rituals or pilgrimages. It was a religion for the common poor man that taught obedience to the status quo.