(March 9, 2015 at 6:20 pm)watchamadoodle Wrote: Just to be sure I understand, you are suggesting that those mentions in the letters of Paul are later additions by proto-orthodox, and Paul was more of a gnostic? Isn't there something in the NT that suggests that nobody knows where Jesus came from?
Aside from the Bible, we know about this guy "Paul" as he was promoted by Marcion, who was the leader of the nothing-to-do-with-Judaism Christian sect. It seems very curious that his letters include tidbits that support either Christian orthodoxy or some Jewish elements like the "seed of David". If Jesus was a higher god, never born on earth but appeared one day, then he doesn't have a human ancestry of any kind, does he?
This would be like discovering letters from Muhammad that praised Jesus as the "Son of God" and intercessor with the divine. It makes no sense. How could Paul be the prophet of Marcionite Christianity and yet promote a view of Jesus inconsistent with Marcionite Christianity?
...unless the letters from "Paul" that we have now are either altered from their original or less than authentic in their entirety.
I do note how "Paul" is depicted in Acts of the Apostles, in stark contrast to his nature as revealed in the letters. In the letters, Galatians in particular, Paul seems like a bombastic bully, not afraid to disagree openly with other early Christian leaders and a man who's on a mission under direct orders from the Big Guy Himself. The Paul of his letters answers to no earthly authority, kind of like Darth Vader after the Death Star was destroyed, no longer subject to anyone other than the emperor.
But the Paul in Acts is a most submissive fellow after his conversion. He is passively "sent here" and "sent there". He is a team player. When the Greeks saw him with Peter at one point, they thought Peter (the poster boy for the ascendant Catholic Church) was Jupiter and Paul was Mercury (the messenger godling). The joke on Paul was hard to miss.
Was Acts doing to Paul what the Gospels did to John the Baptist? Take the poster-boy for someone else's religion and incorporate them as a submissive cheer leader for your own?
If so, were the letters of Paul also doctored?
Atheist Forums Hall of Shame:
"The trinity can be equated to having your cake and eating it too."
... -Lucent, trying to defend the Trinity concept
"(Yahweh's) actions are good because (Yahweh) is the ultimate standard of goodness. That’s not begging the question"
... -Statler Waldorf, Christian apologist
"The trinity can be equated to having your cake and eating it too."
... -Lucent, trying to defend the Trinity concept
"(Yahweh's) actions are good because (Yahweh) is the ultimate standard of goodness. That’s not begging the question"
... -Statler Waldorf, Christian apologist
