Texts
Paul
- Philippians
- 1 Thessalonians
- 1 Corinthians
- 2 Corinthians
- Galatians
- Romans
- Philemon
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Non Pauline
- Hebrews
- James
- Jude
- Colossians
- 1 Peter
- Ephesians
- 2 Thessalonians
- Revelation
- 1 John
- 2 John
- 3 John
- 1 Timothy
- 2 Timothy
- Titus
- 2 Peter
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Other early non canonical Christian records similar to the Epistles:
- The Shepherd of Hermas
- Odes of Solomon
- The Didache
- 1 Clement
- Barnabas
- Theophilus of Antioch
- Tatian
- Athenagoras of Athens
- Minucius Felix
They are not covered in this page but in
| The oldest Christian Scriptures and |
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Two Opposite Theories
In the 1st century, the Epistles testify that a Jewish messianic sect in large Greek cities between Rome and Alexandria
was worshiping a heavenly Christ Jesus (literally 'Messiah who Saves').
Two Theories exist for the Origin of this new faith:
| Jesus of Nazareth |
The Jewish Mysteries of the Messiah |
| The deification of Jesus of Nazareth, an unknown illiterate Jewish peasant who
had a minister with presumably miracles in Galilee. |
The syncretism of a pre-existant intermediary Son and Jewish Archangel
with Greek philosophy and Ancient Mysteries.
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the origin of the Sacremental Meal and Crucifixion
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Real historical events undergo by Jesus of Nazareth in Jerusalem around 30 CE.
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Mysteries without date nor location that were revealed through vision to some people.
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the source of this information
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The words of those who knew Jesus of Nazareth
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Revelation and re-interpretations of passages in the O.T.
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Method to judge each theory
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Accepting the concensus on Who, Where and When.
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A thoroughly analysis on everything the Epistles say about Jesus
Investigating 50 elements
| Comparison with the Religious Context |
6 |
| Everything the Epistles Say about |
Jesus |
24 |
| the Death of Jesus |
9 |
| How the Authors Knew it |
9 |
| The Christian Church in the Second Century |
2 |
|
- Conclusion: A New Birth
This page doesn't take into account the following passages that are fully examined in the home page:
Who, Where and When
Here, we are accepting the Concensus on Who were the Authors, Where and When they were preaching.
|
Who?
Before 70 CE, the most important and earlier apostle we know of was a hellenized
Jew called Paul.
There were also many others: James, Cephas, John, Apollos, Barnabas, Timothy, Titus...
and Roman residents like Andronicus & Junia
"who also were in Christ before me" Romans 16:7.
Where?
From Rome to Alexandria, big cities in the eastern part of the Roman Empire.
When?
Our earliest records by Paul date from 40s-50s CE
but they testify of a cult that started many years before.
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What and How
Investigating Everything the Epistles say about Jesus
|
Jesus of Nazareth |
The Jewish Mysteries of the Messiah |
Religious
Context |
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|
Preaching
Jesus
Was |
- A Recent Man in Galilee
- Jesus of Nazareth, including
- A Hero Founder and Role Model
- A new Moses/Elijah/Elisha
- Born in Bethlehem to the Virgin Mary
- 40 days in the desert
- Baptized and Transfigured
- A Performer of Miracles
- A Reformer
- A Wandering Cynic Philosopher
- An Apocalyptic Prophet of the Kingdom
- Acclaimed during his entry in Jerusalem
- Teaching in the Temple
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Preaching
a Passion
Story |
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| How |
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2nd Century |
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Scholarship |
- Current Consensus & Presented as a Fact
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| *All links in the table above are described in the page |
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| We can find in the Epistles |
- Everything that the Myth hypothesis predicted
- Many main things that the Historical Jesus hypothesis predicted not there
|
Bart Ehrman has dismissed the book Jesus, Neither God nor Man, behing this web site as:
"filled with so many unguarded and undocumented statements and claims, and so many misstatements of fact,
that it would take a 2,400-page book to deal with all the problems...
Not a single early Christian source supports Doherty's claim that Paul and those before him thought of Jesus as a spiritual,
not a human being, who was executed in the spiritual, not the earthly realm."
Bart Ehrman (2012) Did Jesus Exist?
As shown above, all these letters do support Doherty's idea much better than the one of the Galilean peasant.
Many passages are also positive evidence of heavenly/mythical events
Philippians 2:8-11, Hebrews 8:4,
1 Corinthians 15:45-47, 1 Corinthians 2:6. Just the fact that they were
only known by revelation & vision is already such a powerful argument.
If scholars are unable or unwilling to understand the ancient texts in their religious context
and to interpret them according to their own culture of savior gods, angels, demons and heavenly worlds inhabited by heavenly beings living in heavenly cities
(Philo, Tobit, 4 Ezra,
Book of Enoch, Book of Daniel, Apocalypse
of Elijah, Book of Zechariah, Apocalypse of Zephaniah,
Martyrdom of Isaiah, Ascension of Isaiah...),
what stop them to consider the crucifixion of Christ in some unknown place on earth in the mythical past?
Because, not a single early Christian source supports scholar's claim that Paul and those before him thought of Jesus
as a recent human being who was executed in Jerusalem.
A New Birth
Preliminary Estimations* for the origin of Christianity
a mystical-revelatory faith
in a celestial Messiah |
A Syncretism |
95% |
the death and perceived resurrection
of a recent man in Galilee |
Jesus of Nazareth |
5% |
* Without the 4 passages discussed in the home page.
"For Christ to be imagined as a cosmic power that created the world and held it together is weird and monstrous
only when we insist on imagining that Paul and his contemporaries had turned a human being, a crucified criminal,
into this cosmic force—especially when they never show any sign of having that man in mind.
But to imagine a divine entity of this nature, who existed and worked in this great spiritual cosmos,
one who was “the effulgence of God’s splendor and the stamp of God’s very being, who sustains the universe by his word of power,”
(without mentioning one little detail: that he used to be a humble Jewish preacher by the name of Jesus of Nazareth),
this would have been quite acceptable in the context of ancient world philosophy."
E. Doherty
"Between Paul and his schools, the Johannine Community, Hebrews
(maybe from Egypt) and Revelation,
the Epistles already show a wide range of belief. We find the same thing in non canonical records.
They too show virtually no knowledge of the Galilean Tradition and corroborate the Mythical Jesus found in the Epistles
(see ).
If the documentary record of the first century and a half is examined without preconceptions,
we find a remarkable diversity of theologies and soteriologies;
of abstract, revealer, and sacrificial entities; varying blends of philosophy and religion,
varying reliances on the Jewish scriptures and traditions.
We find a disconnectedness, except in a few very general ways, between all these manifestations,
which often coexisted at the same time.
Beside them thrived Jewish non-mainstream sects with their own blends of faith and expectation,
there were similar groups among the Greeks and Romans.
Again I appeal to John Dillon's fortuitous phrase, "a seething mass of sects and salvation cults"
Thus, Christianity was born in a thousand places, in a host of different forms, growing out of the broad,
fertile religious soil of the time. It sprang up in many independent circles and sects, . . . . the product of many minds.
All of it was an expression of the prevailing religious philosophy of divine intermediaries and the cravings of the age for “salvation.”"
E. Doherty
*Reminder: this conclusion doesn't take into account several passages that are examined in the home page.
The Eleusinian Mysteries of Demeter and Kore
The Andanian Mysteries of Messenia
The Greek Mysteries of Dionysos & Orphism
The Anatolian Mysteries of Cybele & Her Lover Attis
The Egyptian Mysteries of Isis and Osiris
The Roman Mysteries of Mithras
The Jewish Mysteries of the Messiah
"to have all the riches of assured understanding
and the knowledge of God's mystery, of Christ,
in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge."
Colossians 2:3
"the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations,
but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people. To them God has chosen
to make known among the Gentiles
the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you,
the hope of glory."
Colossians 1:26-27
"my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to people in other generations
as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets."
Ephesians 3:5
"Regard yourselves as dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus"
Romans 6:11