RE: Why are Paul's writings in the Bible?
October 1, 2023 at 9:48 pm
(This post was last modified: October 1, 2023 at 9:56 pm by GrandizerII.)
(October 1, 2023 at 7:45 pm)Bucky Ball Wrote:(September 29, 2023 at 1:30 pm)GrandizerII Wrote: Too many historical factors to take into consideration, but roughly speaking it partly has to do with Paul being one of the prominent leaders among the mid-first century Christians, and had quite a number of epistles written in his name - some of which he himself didn't write but nevertheless were accepted/believed as such by later Christians.
What evidence is there that a "Paul" was a prominent leader among "First Century Christians" ?
I am going with what the NT scholars say here. Evidence (assuming you agree with a lenient sense of the term in this context) would have to be the seven or so authentic epistles written in his name, the ones deemed by scholars as authentic upon analysis as opposed to the other ones written in his name that are either debatable or clearly not the original Paul's work, which appear to show that he was quite a high status figure among the first century Christians (i.e., believers in Christ).
On the other hand, there is a lack of evidence to suggest there wasn't really such a Paul in the first place and that this was all made up later on.