For the past 200 years, after holy writ was placed under the microscope of modern science, an alternative view has espoused Jesus as the figurehead and Paul as Christianity's true founder.
Figurehead is a tricky word, but an accurate one, for if we accept Jesus as the historical figure -- by definition -- he would have been the original man. Yet, in spite of this fact, he was not the actual founder of the religion.
George Lucas was the figurehead of Pixar Entertainment, but it was Steve Jobs who purchased it and built its success. Lucas, though the original person responsible for the company, meant almost nothing.
Jesus' ministry was primarily a message to the Jewish people in preparation for a Messianic Kingdom. But it was Paul who targeted a larger Greco-Roman (outside) community after being forced out of synagogue.
Gerd Ludemann states, "Without Paul there would be no church and no Christianity. He's the most decisive person that shaped Christianity as it developed. Without Paul we would have had reformed Judaism... but no Christianity."
While there was overlap between Paul and Jesus, there were also large divides between Pauline Christianity and Judean Christianity, which only grows -- if you trace Paul's letters in chronological order -- into a full-blown chasm by the end of his life.
In fact, Paul's new "gospel" broke with the original followers of Jesus, and ultimately got him almost killed in Jerusalem. His assassins charged, "He taught Gentiles to ignore the Mosaic Law."
On the other hand, Jesus said not a "jot or tittle" of the Law would pass away. And he would not have put aside his religion in light of a lawless Gentile mission or a new cosmic encounter with a Holy Spirit or Holy Trinity -- which would have been polytheism!
Paul transformed the Passover "common" meal into a blessed sacrament, eating the body and drinking the blood of the savior, an abhorrent idea for a kosher people. And from a common act of self-cleansing, Paul used baptism as a form of initiation to replace circumcision.
However, the central theme fusing the life of Paul in his letters with Jesus from the Gospels was the coming Kingdom of God; one tradition found in the Synoptic Gospels has -- on the supposed lips of Jesus "in red letters" -- the expectation of a sudden return in his lifetime.
This "visitation" was not the Jewish understanding of the general resurrection. When Paul confronted Jesus in his Damascus vision, he also faced a new idea of resurrection -- but there was no kingdom, no destruction of Rome, no end times. In other words, there were no signs of Jewish Messiah.
From this moment forward, the Christian movement pivots from Figurehead to Founder. Paul's interpretation of this vision of the Messiah would determine the meaning of his life, his mission and eventually the Western World.
There were no models for dying and rising Messiahs, and though passages for suffering Messiahs would be "teased out" of the Hebrew Scriptures later, Paul had to improvise why this unexpected appearance occurred, and the general resurrection for the Jews did not.
Paul's response -- not totally original -- was that a delay in the Kingdom allowed time for a Gentile Mission, in which he -- as a new Abraham -- would play the leading role; a pre-Mosaic relationship with the Gentiles. This is a plausible conclusion, but -- in light of how his peers reacted -- highly questionable.
By the mid 50s AD, late in his ministry, Paul's Christian mission had one "true" gospel --his. Those who wished to add religious law or restore the Gentile believers to a Jewish faith were, to him, "messengers of Satan" and enemies of Christ, certainly not candidates for a new religion.
His opposition included Jesus' brother James, Peter, John and the others, Jewish Christians never fully accepting of his "gospel." Jesus as Messiah was merely the completion of their Jewish faith. And, Paul's message of a new kingdom shared with the Gentiles -- in the end -- was rejected.
After the Jewish War of 66-70 AD, the Judean Church was wiped out; the Temple was razed when the Romans invaded Jerusalem; the Messiah had not returned; and the geographical home to the Jesus cult (The Way) was transplanted.
Others would later collect the letters of Paul from the diaspora, bundled as encyclicals and used to create the first canon; the core of Christian teachings were codified into the orthodox teachings of the Messiah's life, death and resurrection.
Paul's cosmic message was expanded into a historiography in Acts of the Apostles or in the Gospels and eventually -- without an apocalypse -- an institutional church became necessary, with bishops, deacons, governments and, by the 3rd century, an Empire.
Paul never intended to begin a religion himself, but as scholar Amy Jill-Levine states, "It is because of Paul that the worship of the God of Israel actually made it out to the Gentile world." A view that is emerging once again in New Testament studies.
Still a common argument against Paul as founder of Christianity was the fact that he had a movement to convert to, but again, this is not what is in question. The question is, would this original cult of Jewish Christian believers in Judea -- without Paul -- have come to found the Christian church?
History has claimed Jesus "the Christ" as the figurehead, but without Paul the Apostle, the founder, who improvised his message -- free of the Jewish religion -- and broke the resistance of his original followers there would be no church and perhaps not even a Jesus.
Paul vs. Jesus -- disagreement and contradictions between the ...
So ask yourself: do I really want to know and understand, or do I merely want to defend what I believe ? If the latter, you belong to the same tribe as millions of other believers of many religions and convictions. If the former, be prepared for painful discoveries and unwelcome insights.
The truth will set you free, but if you're afraid of it you bind yourself to ignorance.
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No models for dying and rising Messiahs? You mean other than Horus, Mithras, and Krishna? All born of virgins on December 25, in a stable, attended by angels and wise men. Each was a child teacher in the temple, had twelve disciples, performed miracles (walking on water, raising from the dead), was killed, buried in a tomb, and resurrected.
But other than them, there were no models.
http://www.stellarhousepublishing.com/originsofchristianity.pdf
pages 12-16
www.currentlychicago.com
(1) Jesus came to offer salvation to the Jews only;
(2) Paul altered Christianity and is therefore and not the authentic teachings of Jesus
(3) Paul was solely responsible for Hellinistic converts
On the first point Jesus gave the Great Commission to the Apostles and disciples in Matthew 28:16-20
"Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of ALL nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
cont...
On the second point the author neglected the fact that Paul was in communication with Peter and the Jerusalem Church. At times there were theological diagreements with the Jerusalem Church but Peter himself gave Paul a recommendation. See 2 Peter 3:14-18
"Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, and regard the patience of our Lord to be salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard lest, being carried away by the error of unprincipled men, you fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen."
cont...
On the third point, I've already mentioned that St. Mark, an Apostle was responsible for setting up the Christian Church in Egypt. Today those descendants of the early converts are the Copts surrounded by a sea of Egyptian Muslims. But the author forgot to mention that there were other Hellinistic Jews who were spreading Jesus' message to the gentiles at the same time as St. Paul. an example from Acts 11:19-21:
"So then those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose in connection with Stephen made their way to Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except to Jews alone. But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who came to Antioch and speaking to the Greeks also, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a large number who believed turned to the Lord"
cont..
and again in the following extract from bible.org on Peter and Paul:
"Philip, one the seven “deacons” selected in Acts 6 (verse 5), began to emerge as an evangelist (see Acts 21:8) and was used of God to win large numbers of the Samaritans to faith in Christ (Acts 8:5-13). In response to the salvation of the Samaritans, the Jerusalem apostles sent Peter and John to Samaria, where they laid hands on the believers who received the Holy Spirit (8:14-17). Philip then was directed to witness to the Ethiopian eunuch, bringing about an ever wider spread of the gospel—this time to a man who was clearly a Gentile God-fearer."
So, in summary, Jesus may have come to save the Jews first but it didn't exclude gentiles There was no real conflict about the interpretation of Jesus' message and mission between Peter and Paul athough there were disagreements between Paul and the Jerusalem Jewish converts on certain Judaic rites. Finally, Paul wasn't acting alone in spreading Jesus' message to the gentiles.
And from that you can conclude that Christianity would have spread anyway among the gentiles but without St. Paul's energy and enthusiasm it may have taken longer. As I have said before, "God works in mysterious ways"....
Robert Orlando..."He taught Gentiles to ignore the Mosaic Law."
Throughout the Bible, there is a contrast between the physical and the spiritual. The apostle Paul wrote that the physical comes first, then the spiritual (I Cor. 15:45-47). The first man, Adam, came from the earth and was physical. The second Adam, Jesus Christ, came from heaven and is spiritual. Likewise, the Old Covenant was physical, and has been superseded by the New Covenant, which is spiritual.
Unlike the Old Covenant, which required obedience only to the letter of the Law, the New Covenant is based on obedience to the spiritual intent of the Law. For this reason, Christ came as the spiritual Lawgiver to amplify and magnify the laws of God:
“The LORD is well pleased for His righteousness’ sake; He will magnify the Law and make it glorious” (Isa. 42:21).
The Gospel accounts of Jesus’ life and ministry reveal that God requires obedience to His commandments not only in the letter of the Law, but in the spirit of the Law as well.
Throughout His ministry, Jesus taught repentance from sin—which is clearly defined as the transgression of the laws of God (I John 3:4).
"Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated." Mark Twain (and many others).
So He could not preach redemption as Paul did. Why was Jesus under the law? There had been no redeemer before Him. Plus He was sent to pay the price for the law being broken.
That is why God called Paul to preach Complete Redemption.
Jesus being under the law could only say so much. It would take the Holy Spirit to reveal the things of God to us. Be filled with Gods Spirit to not miss a beat.