(December 20, 2017 at 3:32 am)Wyrd of Gawd Wrote: That's a theory but it isn't very credible considering all of the turmoil going on in the region at that time.
So there's this guy Paul who's racking up frequent boat and donkey miles flittering around the towns in Asia Minor and the Western Med. Every once in a while he would zip off a long scroll to his buddies in some far off town giving them a prop talk on his magic man. In the meantime rebellions and wars are breaking out all over the place but Paul's letters survive all of the havoc and end up in a central library. That's really turning water into wine.
Sure, there was a very real Christian religious movement at that time but the idea that it was written down in detail is almost certainly false. Like all of the other religions it was most certainly based on oral stories that varied among the regions.
It was around 690 A.D. before all of the stories were actually written and compiled into an unified book, the first Bible and it was written in Latin by a committee based in England.
I think few doubt the historicity of Paul. I'm pretty sure scholars agree that Paul is the genuine author. Other books in the NT are considered to be written "in the name of" various apostles. Dishonest practice, but hey, it's religion.
