The establishment of Christianity as a religion by Apostle Paul

Jesus believed himself to be a messiah in the kingly line of David sent by God to establish his kingdom on earth among his chosen people, the Jews. He did not start a religion after his name.

He was put to death on the cross. The movement he started was taken up and led by his brother James. However, it was smothered by the alternative movement started by Paul which became the official Christianity of today.

Earlier, I have given a brief CV of Paul. (April 8, 2015)

Around the year A.D. 36 Paul had a “conversion” experience in which he claimed to have “seen” Jesus in a “vision”. He said that he had received both a revelation and a commission. The revelation was that ‘Jesus was the heavenly exalted Christ’; the commission was that he, Paul, was to preach the good news of ‘salvation through faith in Jesus to the Gentiles’. who were the non-Jews

Paul was a contemporary of Jesus. Yet, he never mentions the crucifixion of Jesus.  His connections to Jesus was based on “his own visionary experiences” in which he claimed to have seen Jesus many years after crucifixion. He also claimed to hear a disembodied ‘voice’ that he identified as words of Jesus.

What Paul preached and taught:

·         Jesus was a divine pre-existent heavenly being.

·         He was created as the first born of all creation.

·         He existed in the form of God and was equal to God.

·         The world was brought into existence by God through the agency of Christ.

·         He emptied himself, took the human form and was born of a woman and sent into this world from heaven.

·         The purpose of his life on earth was to live without sin and die on the cross as atonement for the sins of the world.

·         God then raised Christ from the dead and transformed him back into his glorious heavenly body.

·         Christ then ascended into heaven and is seated in power and glory at the right hand of God.

·         Those who accept the atoning sacrifice of Christ are forgiven of all their sins.

·         At the second coming of Christ, both the living and the dead would rise in the air to meet Christ in the clouds of heaven.

(T: p259-262)

Let us now have a look at the Apostle’s Creed recited at Catholic masses.

The Apostles Creed
1.      I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.
2.      I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord.
3.      He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.
4.      He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell.
5.      On the third day he rose again.
6.      He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead.
7.      I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.  As you can observe, much of this creed is taken from Paul’s teachings based on his ‘visions’ and the ‘disembodied voice’ of Jesus.  Re-enactment of the Last Supper during Catholic Mass Just like the ‘resurrection’ and physical ‘ascension’ of Christ, the re-enactment of the ‘Last Supper’ during Christian mass has become another corner stone of the Christian belief system. It was Paul who wrote that the followers of Jesus should re-enact ‘the Lord’s Supper’ in which they would drink wine as ‘blood’ of Jesus and eat bread as his ‘body’. Improper observance of this meal could cause illness and even death. (T: p264) [More on this when we get a chance to discuss the mythological origins of Christian practices and rituals] To conclude: Jesus Christ is not the founder of Christianity. It is Paul of Tarsus, known commonly as Apostle Paul, who established Christianity as we know it today in the name of Christ, based on what he claimed as ‘visions’ of Christ during which he heard the ‘disembodied’ words of Christ.

Summary of the discussion so far on the historical (human) Jesus.

Jesus was a Jew, not a Christian. 

He was born around 4 B.C. His mother was Mary, his father unknown. There is mention in contemporary writings of the time that a Roman soldier by name Panthera was his biological father. His conception took place when Rome sent its soldiers to put down a Jewish revolt. There are many clues to suggest that he was regarded as a mamzer, a person of questionable parentage, by members of his village and community.

Joseph married Mary after Jesus was born. Jesus had 4 half-brothers and 2 half-sisters. Since Joseph is thought to have been much older than Mary, and since very little is heard about Joseph after the birth of Jesus, he is assumed to have died early. As per Jewish custom his brother Clophas married Mary and is believed to have fathered his half-siblings.

When he was born, Jesus was named Yeshua (Joshua) ben Yoseph, Jesus son of Joseph. When the Greeks translated his name, it became Jesus and it stuck. He was regarded as the messiah, meaning the anointed one. Since the Greek word used for the oil used for anointment was khrisma and the person anointed khristos, Yeshua ben Yoseph became Jesus Christ!

As a Jew, Jesus was circumcised; he observed the Passover, read the Bible in Hebrew, and kept Saturday as the Sabbath day.

He joined a messianic movement begun by his relative John the Baptizer, whom he regarded as his teacher and as a great prophet.  John and Jesus together filled the roles of the two Messiahs who were expected at the time, John as a priestly descendant of Aaron and Jesus as a royal descendant of David. Together they preached the coming of the Kingdom of God.  Theirs was an apocalyptic movement that expected God to establish his kingdom on earth, as described by the prophets. John and Jesus preached adherence to the Torah, or the Jewish Law.

Like all Jews of the time, Jesus was expected to marry and produce children. There are hints in the gospels as well as other sources that he married Mary Magdalene.

He was charged before Pilate of sedition amounting to treason of claiming to be ‘the king of the Jews’ for which he was condemned to death. 

There are those who say that he survived death; some say by feigning; others say he fell into a comatose state from which he recovered; still others say that he plotted the whole thing – having himself drugged to escape death.

Most accept that he died.

Did Jesus rise from the dead?

No human who actually died has ever come back to life. 

However, the cornerstone of Christian faith is the resurrection of Jesus. So how did this belief come about?

To understand this, one needs to briefly talk about the gospels.

Gospel means ‘good news’.

Gospels are the 4 biographies of Jesus written by his biographers Mark, Mathew, Luke and John called ‘evangelists’ meaning ‘bringing good news’. Their true identities have not been discovered so far.

The first 3 gospels of Mark, Mathew and Luke are similar; hence they are called ‘synoptic’ (meaning ‘with one eye’) gospels.

Gospel of John is quite different.

Approximate times the gospels were written:

Mark      – A.D. 70

Mathew – A.D. 80

Luke        - A.D. 90 (The only gentile, the rest being Jews)

John        - A.D. 100

Mark, a diehard fan of Paul, was written around 70 A.D. a few years after Paul’s death. It contains the messages that Paul preached projected backwards into the life of Jesus. E.g. he has copied more or less verbatim what Paul wrote about turning bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ at the last supper.

Mathew and Luke base their narratives on Mark.

According to Tabor, the original manuscripts of the gospel of Mark, ending at 16:8 says nothing about Jesus rising from the dead. It appears some pious scribes (people who makes copies of the bible) made up the versus 9-20 sometime in the 4^th century reflecting the various appearances of Jesus to different people after his resurrection.

Paul, it seems, was the one who made up the stories of Jesus rising from the dead. In a letter he wrote to the Corinthians around 54 A.D. he claims to have received this information about the resurrection of Jesus through a ‘vision’. The gospels of Mathew, Luke and John were written between 40 to 70 years after Jesus'  death and in the meantime, Paul’s stories of Jesus’ resurrection had become the cornerstone of the Christian faith.

What were the charges that led to Jesus’ arrest? Did Jesus actually die on the cross? Did Jesus die on Good Friday?

What were the charges that led to Jesus’ arrest?

Jesus was accused of the following:

1.      Before the Jewish authorities he was accused of blasphemy by claiming   to be God (Luke 22:70-71; John 10: 33)

2.      Before Pilate he was accused of perverting the nation, forbidding to give tribute to Caesar and calling himself the Messiah, the King (Luke 23: 1-2).

Before Pilate however, the religious charges of blasphemy were laid aside as were the other two charges of perverting the nation and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar. What remained was Jesus’ claim that ‘he was the king of the Jews’. (G: p 185-187)

Did Jesus actually die on the cross?

Many people believe that Jesus did not die on the cross.

When Joseph of Arimathea begs for Jesus’ body Pilate is astonished that he died so quickly. In fact Joseph asks for the body (soma) rather than the corpse (ptoma) of Jesus. This implies that Jesus was still alive when he was taken from the cross. When the soldiers check, they found the two thieves still alive and so broke their legs to hasten their death. If they survived till then, Jesus too could have been alive. Why Jesus’s legs were not broken – still a mystery. It could be due to negligence, forgetfulness, bribery or some such reason.

After his ‘resurrection’ when he visited his disciples, he appears to have a healthy appetite. (John 21:13) He eats bread and fish. Why would a dead man eat?

Irenaeus,   one of the early Church leaders believed that Jesus lived to be an old man. He learned this from Bishop Papias, who heard it from the Apostle John.  (G: p 205-206)

Tabor, on the other hand, accepts the death of Jesus as a fact.

Did Jesus die on Good Friday?

The following, according to Tabor (p 199), is the chronology of events of the Holy Week:

         April 3, Wed:  Jesus Last Supper, Gethsemane, Arrest

            (Did not eat the Passover meal)

April 4, Thurs: Crucifixion at 9 a.m., Death at 3 p.m.

       

             

April 5, Fri:      Sabbath – Passover day - Jesus in the tomb

April 6, Sat:     Sabbath - Jesus in the tomb

April 7, Sun:    Tomb found empty.

Jesus died on Thursday. 

Was Jesus married?

(G: p 117-127)

At the time of Jesus, all Jews were expected to marry. They were bound by the sacred oath to be ‘fruitful and multiply’ (Genesis).

The name that is most favored to be Jesus’ wife is Mary Magdalene. She has been wrongly labelled ‘prostitute’/’sinner’. This smear campaign was started early in the 6^th century by Pope Gregory the Great. It was only in 1969 that the Catholic Church removed that stain from her memory.

There are a number of hints about the marriage of Jesus in the gospels both canonical and otherwise.

Mary Magdalene is presented as a single woman who accompanies Jesus. This is rather curious by Jewish standards of the time.

Some have claimed that the wedding at Cana (found only in the gospel of John) represented Jesus’ own marriage edited to make it appear to be some anonymous person’s wedding. 

In Jewish weddings of the time, only the bridegroom or the parents could order the servants as Mary did.

Another clue is that Mary Magdalene let her hair down to wipe Jesus’ feet. Only a husband was allowed to see his wife’s hair untied.

Outside the canonical gospels, in the gospel of Peter, it is said that Jesus loved Mary Magdalene more than all other disciples and ‘often kissed her on the mouth’.

In conclusion, it would be more than probable that Jesus was married and his wife was Mary Magdalene.

Was Mary a perpetual Virgin? Did Jesus have brothers and sisters ?

Jesus was the eldest child of Mary. He had 4 brothers and 2 sisters. Mark (6:3) names the brothers as James, Joseph, Judas and Simon. He also mentions 2 sisters but does not name them. Early Christian tradition names them as Mary and Salome.

The early christians under the leadership of Paul and later Augustine were taught that human sexuality was degrading and unholy at worst, and a necessary evil to be struggled against. (T: 73-76) [More about this when we will discuss Paul’s theology/philosophy]. So Mary was made a perpetual virgin who never had any sexual relations to keep her at an elevated position. 

The Western Catholic Church explained these siblings of Jesus as “cousin brothers and sisters” while the Eastern Church claimed that these were the children of Joseph by a previous marriage. In fact the Western theologians made Joseph a “lifelong virgin” as well since the average catholic would be scandalized and shocked to hear that Joseph and Mary had a normal sex life as a married couple.

St. Joseph

It is probable that Joseph was much older than Mary. After the birth of Jesus, Joseph disappears from the scene. The gospels mention Jesus’ “mother and brothers” a number of times but not Joseph. As per the Torah or the Law of Moses, if a person died childless, the oldest surviving unmarried brother was obliged to marry his diseased brother’s widow and bear a child in his name.

If Joseph died childless, the possibility was that his brother Clophas married Mary and had the 6 children. Tabor (p 77-79) analyses a number of passages in the bible to show that Clophas could be the father of Jesus’ siblings.

According to Tabor, what is certain is the following: Joseph was not the father of Jesus; Mary’s pregnancy by an unnamed man was ‘illegitimate’ by societal norms; Jesus had 4 half-brothers and 2 half- sisters, all children of Mary, but from a different father – Joseph or his brother Clophas.

Some hints from the gospels about Jesus’ illegitimate birth

One

David and Bathsheba

Judah and Tamar

Any standard Jewish genealogy at the time of Jesus was based only on male lineage. Yet in Mathew’s account of Jesus’ genealogy (1: 2-16) 4 women connected to 4 males are listed: Judah and Tamar, Salmon and Rehab, Boaz and Ruth, and David and Uriah’s wife. Each of these women had a scandalous sexual reputation. Tamar, dressed herself up as a roadside prostitute and enticed her own father-in-law. Rehab was the madam of a brothel. Ruth crawled into the bed of Boaz after getting him drunk. Uriah’s wife had an adulterous relationship with King David and ended up pregnant. She was the infamous Bathsheba.

They don’t belong in a normal genealogy. They stand out because of their shocking sexual details. It seems Mathew is trying to put the scandalous birth of Jesus in the context of his fore-fathers and fore-mothers. The last line gives the entire game away: Mathew writes:

Jacob fathered Joseph, the husband of Mary, from her was fathered Jesus called Christ.

What should appear in a normal genealogy would have been:

Jacob fathered Joseph, Joseph fathered Jesus, called the Christ.  (T: p 49, 50.)

Mathew uses the verb fathered (begot) 39 times in the active voice with a masculine subject. When it comes to Joseph, he used the same verb in the passive voice with a feminine object. So a fifth woman unexpectedly gets into the list: Mary herself! (T: P 51)

Two

The gospel of John describes in chapter 8 a debate Jesus had with some of his believers. At one point, when it became quite acrimonious, they tell him: “we were not born of fornication; we have one father, even God” (John 8: 41) implying that Jesus was an illegitimate child. [The Good News Bible that I use has edited out the sentence ‘we were not born of fornication’.]

Three

Calling Jesus in the gospels ‘the son of Mary’ indicates an unnamed father. Among Jews, children are always referred to as sons and daughters of the father, not the mother.

Four

Was Jesus’ rebuke of Mary on a number of occasions a sign of his bitterness towards her for his illegitimate birth? (Luke 8: 19-21; 11: 27-28)

Among the Jews of Jesus’ time, if your conception was not legitimate, you are going to stand out. They had a word for it – mamzer. It meant questionable paternity. Everyone who sees you will think “There goes that Jesus kid, the one whose mother…” (choose from the following)

·         slept with that Roman.

·         was raped by that Roman.

·         had intercourse when she shouldn’t.

·         claims she was impregnated from God.  (G; p76)

Life would be difficult for that child. A mamzer in effect was an untouchable.

Edward Edinger

Edward Edinger (1972), a Jungian Psychiatrist ‘believes that Jesus exhibited the characteristics of an illegitimate child.’ (G; p76)

Jesus who? Myth vs Reality

To understand Paul’s message and its problematic nature, one needs to learn about Jesus and his mission on earth.

According to James Gardner who wrote the book “Jesus who? Myth vs Reality” there is the religious Jesus and the historical Jesus. The historical Jesus is invisible, hiding as he does in the shadow of the religious Jesus who is all around us. What are the myths, and what is the reality?

Although many have questioned the very existence of Jesus, most authorities these days agree that such an individual existed. What is questioned is the information that is passed down as ‘gospel truths’ sourced from the New Testament. When weighed against historical evidence, they do not often tally with the findings of history. Some pieces of information come into existence out of ignorance but many are woven deliberately into the narrative to fit certain agenda.

I would like to discuss a few such inaccuracies and myths surrounding Jesus the man and Jesus the savior based on my readings of Tabor and Gardner.

(Hereafter, for reference, I will use ‘T’ for Tabor and ‘G’ for Gardner followed by the relevant page/s)

What was Jesus’ name?

Yeshua (Joshua) ben Yoseph, Jesus son of Joseph. When the Greeks translated his name, it became Jesus and it stuck. He was regarded as the messiah, meaning the anointed one. Since in Greek the word for the oil used for anointment was khrisma and the person anointed khristos, Yeshua ben Yoseph became Jesus Christ! (G; p 51, 52)

When was Jesus born?

Jesus was not born in 0 A.D. His probable date could be somewhere between 6 B.C. and 3 B.C.

Was Jesus conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary? Who was Jesus’ biological father?

Christians and in particular, Catholics, are very sensitive about the questions of Jesus’ virgin birth and the legitimacy or otherwise of his birth.

That Mary became pregnant with Jesus by the Holy Spirit is physically impossible. It was added much later to the gospel narrative to elevate Mary to a position far above the normal woman. This was to suit a specific agenda. With the coming of monastic life, virginity and celibacy became holier and more pleasing in the sight of God as compared to married life. (More about this later). 

Prophet Isaiah had foretold that a “virgin will conceive and give birth to a son”. Unfortunately there was a mistranslation. The original Hebrew word almah (young girl or young woman) had been mistakenly translated into the Greek parthenos (virgin). (G; p 69. T; p 46)

Regarding Jesus’ father, two possibilities, one charitable and the other rather scandalous, emerge.

To understand both, one needs to look at the Jewish world of the time. Jews were divided into four sects based on their way of life and beliefs: Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, and the Zealots.

The Pharisees believed that God was in control of everything, there is an afterlife, and that there will be the eternal judgement of the departed souls. They were more integrated with the common folk.

The Sadducees denied the afterlife and put their emphasis on life in this world. They did not believe that God controls everything. Humans freely choose either good or evil and they are rewarded accordingly. The Sadducees were elite and aristocratic and belonged to the priestly class.

The Essenes consisted of a brotherhood of holy men and women, living together in a community. They practiced initiation rites involving baptism and sacred meals. They were anti-Roman and detested both the Pharisees and the Sadducees. They expected the end of the world to happen soon and were awaiting the arrival of two messiahs – a Priestly figure and a Davidic King. (They later turned out to be John the Baptist and Jesus respectively).

The Zealots were the followers of Judas the Galilean. Judas was a fiery figure who preached that God was the only master and that they should throw off the yoke of Roman rule.

According to Gardner, Mary and Joseph, are believed to have belonged to the ultra-orthodox Essenes sect. Mary became pregnant following the first marriage ceremony of the Essenes. As unorthodox as this was, they received the blessings of the Essenes leadership and proceeded to the second marriage ceremony before which Jesus was born.

However, Tabor (p 40-46; 64-69) has a different version of Mary’s pregnancy. Mary lived with her parents Ana and Joachim in the town of Sepphoris, close to Nazareth. 

             Herod the Great

In 4 B.C, when she would have been about 14/15, Herod the Great died. Shortly after, a certain Judas, son of Ezekias, led a revolt against Rome. The Romans reacted quickly and harshly. They burned Sepphoris to the ground, put the inhabitants to slavery and crucified 2000 men. At the time of revolt, Mary was considered a woman and pledged in marriage to a local artisan named Joseph. However, Mary became pregnant. Joseph still accepted Mary and adopted her son. According to Mathew (1: 25) the couple had sexual relations only after the child was born, implying that Jesus was an illegitimate child. 

So who is the biological father of Jesus?

    Celsus

Tabor quotes the historian/philosopher Celsus who in an anti-Christian work titled “On the true doctrine” (178 A.D.) claims that Mary was pregnant by a Roman soldier by name Tiberius Iulius Abdes  Pantera. During times of war, pillage and rape by the victorious soldiers is a common phenomenon. Perhaps Joseph continued to accept Mary since he realized that she was not at fault.

   Tomb of Panthera

Who is Apostle Paul?

Paul was born in A.D. 4 (or 5) at Tarsus to Jewish parents. He was named Saul after the first king of Israel. Paul is his Roman surname, meaning ‘small’. The family was into tent making. His father being rich and influential, managed to get Roman citizenship which Paul inherited by birth. His father had the means to send his son to Jerusalem to study with Gamaliel, the leading rabbi of the day.

He was a contemporary of Jesus, but never met him.

He had a ‘conversion experience’ in A.D. 36. On the way to Damascus he had a “vision” of Jesus. “He said he had received both a revelation and a commission - that Jesus was the heavenly exalted “Christ” and that he, Paul, was to preach the good news of salvation through faith in Jesus to the Gentile world.” (Tabor: page 261; emphasis mine)

He called himself the thirteenth apostle and claimed to be given authority over the Gentile world to prepare them for the ‘second coming’ of Jesus as Messiah.

There are two distinct ‘Christianities’ embedded in the New Testament. One is the now familiar Christianity as followed by billions all over the world today for the past two thousand years. Its main proponent was Apostle Paul. The other is mostly forgotten and got marginalized and suppressed by the former by the turn of 1^st century A.D. This ‘version of the Christian faith best represents the original beliefs and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth and John the Baptizer – founders of the Messianic Movement.’ James, the brother of Jesus, took over the leadership of this movement after the death of Jesus from A.D. 30 until his violent death in A.D. 62.

Paul was beheaded in Rome around A.D. 68 during the reign of Nero.

Apostle Paul can be regarded as the founder of Christianity as we know it today. [not Jesus]

What was Paul's message and why is it problematic?