Paul's "persecution" of the early Christians?

[RoadRunner79]

It's a minority opinion with respect to 2 Corinthians, but that is not to say that there was not some redaction after the death of Paul.  A simple majority of his New Testament letters were forgeries, and so, it is likely that some of the "authentic" letters got modified as well.

This is not an issue that is open to a vote.  Academia is not a democracy.

I agree very much, with the part I bolded above.  Which begs the question (if this statistic is correct) why do they believe what they do.  Why should I believe it for that matter?

In my experience most of the time it comes down to petty textual criticism of this letter doesn't sound like this one, in which the facts are niggled  in to fit an a priori conclusion.  They don't have the ability to stand on their own, and normally wouldn't foster these conclusions (especially when amanuenses are considered).

There was a time, not that long ago, when it was popular opinion among "scholars" that Proverbs must have been written after Jesus's death.  That was until they where shown to be horribly wrong.   I could be mistaken, but I would ask for the facts and reasons here, and not just rely on mere popular opinion.