Jesus Never Existed Com

[DeistPaladin]

I'm leaning towards Marcion inventing him (Paul) and later xtians finding the concept useful.

This is something I find most curious. Paul was the poster boy of Marcion, the primary prophet of his religion (even historists like Bart Ehrman acknowledge this). That later Orthodox Christians would later incorporate him and turn him into a docile servant in The Book of Acts seems consistent with early Christian theology. After all, they did the same to John the Baptist, whose followers were rivals of the early Christians. Muhammad would later use the same tactic with Jesus.

What I find curious is that Paul's letters are wholly incompatible with Marcionite theology.

The Marcionites believed Jesus was a higher god, superior to Yahweh. He was never born on earth and had no parents. He appeared in the temple one day as all gods do: fully formed and an adult.

Now if I read Paul's letters (or those attributed to him) it seems that he believed Jesus was born of a woman and of the seed of David (which btw is also inconsistent with the virgin birth since David's bloodline through Joseph wouldn't have been passed on since the child was The Holy Spirit's and not his).

So there are three possibilities that I can see:
1. Marcion advocated for Paul as his prophet, basically "discovering" his letters the way most pseudo-epigraphy was done but never actually read what his manufactured prophet wrote.
2. Marcion knew what Paul had written but hoped nobody else would ever read his letters.
3. The letters of Paul that we have today are different from what Marcion had.

Guess which one I consider most likely.

By the way, speaking of John the Baptist, our resident Anglican maintains that his baptism of Jesus is a historical event, accepted by all scholars. Curious. I read what Josephus had to say about John the Baptist. It seems he had a large following and was preaching his own Gospel. There was no mention of him being a mere "forerunner" of anyone nor is there any mention that he claimed only to be a warm-up act. It seems like, shocking I know, he had his own religion going and was only later assimilated by the Christians.