MERGED: The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ (Part 1) & (Part 2)

[abaris]

I tend to think that Paul thought his revelation was genuine. And as such it is far more likely that Paul saw something he more or less expected to see rather than something he just made up. After all, when people report being abducted by aliens their reports are often very similar to pop culture depictions and almost never as something never conceived of by human beings.

Paul was a raving mysogonist madman. He may have heard some campfire tales going around at the time in question. And as it is with campfire tales, they grow larger an larger with every person telling them.

Also Palestine was ripe with self declared Messianic figures roaming the land. Could well be, some people encountered this one or that one and then they came together and built Jeshua, which wasn't such an unusual name either, given the time and the region.

And this messianic figure is attributed with preexisting myths. Changing water into wine is what Dyonisos did, raising the dead and curing the sick, too many mythological figures to count did this. Coming back to life after three days is also pretty common for relgional deities.