(July 16, 2010 at 12:33 pm)In This Mind Wrote: This Paul bloke founded Christianity. He probably invented 'Christ' too, possibly basing him loosely on a person who existed combined with parts stolen from various myths.
Maybe. Or maybe Marcion 'founded' Paul...or at least edited a bunch of letters to suit his purpose.
http://www.marcion.info/
Quote:Christians like to tell us that Marcion changed the Bible to suit his theology. However it appeared to me from the beginning that before Marcion there was no documented history of Christianity as we know it. So for example there are no reliable historical contemporary accounts of Paul, Peter, Luke, Mark or even the Jesus that we think of today. Likewise archaeological New Testament fragments have been dated starting around 190 AD, again consistent with the first New Testament being written 140 AD.
In addition Bible scholars who actually question things have come to the conclusion that some of the Pauline epistles were added later than whoever wrote the first ones. Their conclusions are consistent with Marcion's Bible being the original text.