Time Frames and Taboo Data Blog

Paul of Tarsus, the self-proclaimed apostle of Jesus, appears conveniently upon the scene when the floundering Jesus cult that had arisen c.65 was in need of redirection to attract more followers. Unfortunately no genuine records or legal accounts have ever been found to support that he ever existed.

With the character of Paul introduced into the scheme of things c.95 the original focus of the Jesus cult was skillfully shifted away from spiritual/moral teachings attributed to the Jew Jesus (as in Matthew and Mark) and redirected to more mundane values of attracting a broader-based sector of converts and setting up an operational structure of the sect. The awkwardness of the transitional period (c.84-100) has been buried under countless rewrites by the faith business, and Pauline graft-ons to the Peter foundation is all but forgotten by present day devotees.  But where the character of Paul is portrayed as having labored to broaden the principles of Christian faith to welcome and enfold the diverse ranks of man–not just the Jews–the character of Peter (the alleged “rock of the church”) had, in the earliest gospel tales, openly rejected Gentile faithful!

There are curious parallels in the presentation of Paul which seem like a distant echo of events that distinguished Old Testament characters. For beginners, this New Testament character has his name changed from Saul to Paul–which oddly echoes the Jewish myths in which Abram becomes Abraham, and Jacob becomes Israel. The life-parallels then proceed with suspicious similarity. To quote from Time Frames and Taboo Data:

“Savants have pointed out that Paul’s conversation, conversion and mission closely parallel the story highlights of Moses’ calling. Moses, by Old Testament accounts, was raised as an Egyptian but became the leader of the Israelites, and Paul was born a Jew and became leader of the Christians; God allegedly revealed himself to Moses in a burning bush, and Jesus supposedly made himself known to Paul in a blinding light; Moses became the lawgiver of the Israelites, and Paul is credited with laying down the principles of salvation. God allegedly instructed Moses to go to Sinai and do god’s work, and Paul is depicted as having been instructed to go to Damascus to further Jesus’ uncompleted work.” (page 201) In addition, just as Moses was portrayed as clashing with the rigid policy of the pharaoh, Paul was cast as clashing with the policy of Peter in Rome.

Unaswered in Gospel is how Paul was able to finance the many travels he is said to have undertaken to spread his version of Jesus’ sacrified for them. As noted in Time Frames and Taboo Data, “…although accounts of his travels indicate genuine knowledge of the places mentioned, there is never any account of how he could have financed so many wide-ranging journeys. And he did not travel alone; others are mentioned in letters attributed to him. Any long journey necessitated carrying along food, drink, clothing, and arrangements had to be made for ships or pack animals. How could a mere missionary pay for all that activity?” It was also noted that only aristocrats and/or ranking military persons could have financed such extensive travels.

Paul is portrayed as having traveled to many major cities and several provinces of the Roman Empire: places such as Damascus, Antioch, Troas, Ephesus, Philippi, Thessalonia, Athens, and Corinth. The provinces he is claimed to have visited included Syria, Cilica, Galatia, Macedonia, Achaia, and Illyricum. Noted in the book, “Even if financial support could have been offered from various fledgling churches, they could not have afforded such monumental costs, for in this time period the outlying churches would have been struggling just to exist.”

At this time the movement that would become Christianity was being redirected, with earlier “gospels” being altered for broader appeal. In 2 Corinthians, for example, it is averred that Paul’s account of Jesus’ life is the only true one: the apostles that are said to have actually associated with and interacted with Jesus–some of whom were supposedly still preaching–are called deceivers! In 1 Timothy (1:3), Paul struggles with so-called heretics of his doctrine. Also in 1 Timothy (6:3), Paul’s usurpation of the earlier cult movement is muscled into place with Paul stating that anyone who disagrees with him will go to hell.

But it would not be until 325 CE and the Council of Nice that Paul’s theories and doctrine would be voted into near-“official” status. Then in 382, with the Council of Rome, the doers and shapers of faith made it bindingly official, and accepted only four books as coming closest to Paul’s ideas—those being the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. This was all in spite of the claim that it was Peter on whom the church was built! As they say, god moves in mysterious ways. Thus a vast library of early books was relegated to the trash bin and the business of Christian domination of the people was officially launched.

And the Roman Empire collapsed not long after.

This entry was posted on May 23, 2009 at 3:13 pm and is filed under Atheist, Bible, Christianity, culture, freethought, history, random, religion, Uncategorized with tags Council of Nice, Council of Rome, early Christianity, echoes of Moses, Paul, Peter, Saint Paul. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.