by I Want to Believe 34 Replies latest watchtower bible
Larsinger 58,You are too deep for me my friend, right
over my head. How about this, when Costantine united
Rome and declared Christianity as the official religion, he
figured Jesus was to passive so he added Pauls Letters
to the Bible in case the people got out of line, and for added
insurance he told them to include Revelation to scare the
B-Jesus out of them.
I recommend on this subject:
Hermann Detering, The Falsified Paul, Early Christianity in the Twilight
He comes to the conclusion that Paul never existed.
Taking a closer look on what we know today about early christianity shows, that things were not so, as the WT teaches.
The NT was put together und redacted by the young catholic church to establish their interpretation of Christ and the related tales and teachings.
All we find in the bible about Paul or even Jesus are not original statements. Everything went through al lot of minds, bevor it came on paper the way we can read it today.
Paul had much to say on how the 1st century christians were to act, but a lot of what he stated was not based on scripture but more on extant culture of his day. What is interesting is if you read the greek scriptures in chronological order - it is no wonder the likes of of Peter, John and Matthew needed to set the record straight and move what was transfered orally to written forme before they passed away. Putting the Gospels first completely changes the context of what follows. It explains why it took Paul 14 years to get to Jerulsalem - he did not go to see a governing body, congregations in Antioch were getting pretty upset and some matters needed to be set straight. I like Paul and did a remarkable job despite the culture he was in.
My take on Paul is that he prefigured Rutherford.
History would have been very different if not for both.
Oz
