The book sounds like the kind of imaginative popular literature that would not past muster with scholarship.
Was Paul the first apostate?
by Gill 14 Replies latest watchtower scandals
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under_believer
Speaking anecdotally (please read with your salt shaker firmly in hand,) there has been speculation in the past that early "Christianity" was just an Essene sect. In other words, Jesus was born to Essene parents, Joseph and Mary. Indeed one can see Christian, or at least proto-Christian beliefs in the Essenes, if one looks from a certain point of view. Certainly Essenes would have been regarded as heretics by the other major Jewish sects of the time, the Pharisees and the Saducees. As the story goes, Jesus was such a successful leader that his martyrdom gave his particular flavor of Essenism the boost it needed to turn into full-fledged Christianity.
Continuing the speculation, the Romans saw this movement (which, by the way, never referred to itself as "Christianity" but rather used the term "The Way") as a big threat, because it was a particularly virulent strain of meme that was infecting not just Jews but people outside of Israel. Fortunately they detected schisms in the burgeoning movement and quickly moved to exploit them, by sending a Roman agent named Paul in to co-opt the faith for their own uses. Paul was overwhelmingly successful in this mission, effectively declawing it and turning it into something that didn't threaten the established Roman power structure.
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At least, that's the crazy story. Probably as full of holes as a big block of Swiss cheese, but still fun to speculate about. -
Gill
Hi All!
Joe Grundy - Thanks! I've put that in my favourites this morening and am reading it.
Leolaia - I understand what you say, but to me, the whole christian thingy is just not hanging together right. The bible, to me makes no sense. It's two completely different lots of scrolls glued together. It was glued together by people with an axe to gring, RC church, and though I am neither for or against them, it all smells fishy.
I do not believe that God came to earth, born of a virgin, brought people back to live, performed miracles. The possibility that it is 'all some kind of lingual misunderstanding' makes more sense. In saying that, it doesn't automatically mean that I accept exactly what the 'Hiram Key' says, but it does fit a pattern of critical thought that makes more sense than the afore mentioned.
Greendawn - My understanding of where Paul goes against the 'ordinary Christians' or original christians, comes very much along the lines of under_believer's post, with a few more details thrown in.
Paul didn't even know Jesus Christ. He showed a very unpleasant character which is different from the 'Jesus Character' in that he did not view men and women as equals whereas the Jesus character did.
Star Moore - But in the end, it's all in the mists of time isn't it? We don't know for sure the real understanding of what was in the scrolls that were translated into the Bible. There is NO definitive, this is the one that says it properly, scroll. We just have to be expected to believe that it is 'So'. But, Pauls teachings were different from Jesus, in that he was a giver of numerous commands, wheras the character Jesus, was a giver of two commands.
It all makes no sense to me.
The Hiram Key, is a study really on the development of Free Masonry and its links with religion/christianity.
If anyone has read it, or wishes to read it, it is by Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas.
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Joe Grundy
This is also interesting, but lengthy:
http://www.comparative-religion.com/articles/pauline_conspiracy/
My own opinion, though I make no claim to be a scholar, is that what we know as 'christianity' today was essentially created by Paul.
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tetrapod.sapien
as far as xians go, i would say jesus was the first apostate. as far as the bible goes, i would say satan was the first apostate.
TS
ps: apostates rule. jesus, though i doubt he existed, was way cool too... most of the time. very buddhist. if xians really, truly imitated christ, there would be no such thing as xianity. imo, the greatest gift any holyman can give his disciples, is the freedom of mind to apostasize against his own teachings, and become as gods themselves.