Paul of Tarsus

Pseudonymous writings in the name of Paul:

Saul
Saul of Tarsus is the man we now call Paul. Saul was a Roman, working for a Sadducee High Priest as a type of hired goon. Some say that he was likely a follower of Mithraism, which was a popular religion in the first century Roman Empire especially in Paul's home town of Tarsus.

Saul was a powerful and outspoken critic of the troublesome sect of Jews that were led by the Rabbi Yeshua Nazaret. Acts 8:3 describes Saul ridiculing and arresting the followers of Yeshua. On the way to Jerusalem it was believed that Saul was going to continue to harass the followers of Yeshua. Instead, at about the age of 30, Paul revealed himself as a convert to the Jewish sect of Yeshua and changed his name to Paul, which is the name we know him as.

"Paul was originally a Jewish Pharisee from outside Palestine, who had heard the Christian proclamation of Jesus, found it blasphemous, and worked to oppose it with all his heart and strength, one of the first the most forceful persecutors of the new faith (Gal. 1:13; cf. Acts 8:3). But Paul himself then had some kind of visionary experience of Jesus (Gal. 1:15-16; 1 Cor. 15:8-11) and changed from being the Christian movement's chief adversary to being its chief advocate, transformed from persecutor to proclaimer."

Bart Ehrman, "Lost Christianities", p96

2. If Jesus did exist, how did Paul come to believe he was the messiah?
Some text taken from www.elpaso.net/~spoon/advocate/wcs

Yeshua Nazaret
Yeshua, a Jewish rabbi, likely a Pharisee, began a failed Jewish revolt against the Roman authorities. He wanted to institute a Jewish theocracy in Judea. He attacked the Jewish temple, because the Jewish religious hierarchy supported the Roman Empire. Yeshua also claimed to be the rightful king of Judea by divine right, as Kings were always assumed to rule by divine right.

Saul was convinced from his Mithraistic roots that the Christ would return within his lifetime. After working for such a high ranking High Priest he probably had religious aspirations for himself. Saul decided that Yeshua, (or Jesus for the Greek), was a living Christ.

Saul is likely to have admired Yeshua immensely and to feel much guilt for persecuting the cult of Yeshua despite it being part of his job. Now not only did it make theological sense to Paul to convert, but it presented a personal chance of guilt abstination and controversial fame, appealing to Paul's aspirations.

He became the holy man he desired to be and was vindicated of all the wrong he had done in persecuting Yeshua. He naturally still felt guilt, and changed his name to Paul and declared himself born again. He began actively preaching about Jesus Christ.

Paul, the 13th Apostle
In Damascus Saul began to preach his new belief but the locals forced him away. He arrived at Jerusalem but the original followers of Yeshua did not trust Saul, their old enemy. Paul left Jerusalem and went to his home town, Tarsus, in Cilicia/Cesarea, in an area now called Turkey.

Paul was the original preacher of "Jesus Christ". Yeshua was not called "Jesus" nor "Christ" until Paul concluded that Yeshua had been the Messiah predicted in Scripture. Paul also added much of his own beliefs to the story of the Messiah, including many rituals and parts of the Mithraism religion. He confused the Hellenic Christ theme with the Messiah theme of Judaism, and the result was the sacrificial nature of Christ that Christianity has.

Paul opposed Jewish tradition and preached a new covenant from God that included women and Gentiles (non-Jews). This was an important move, allowing many new converts and followers. He gained a new life of which he could be proud. However many of his attempts to preach his new way in the synagogues were rebuked and he spent more than one stretch in prison. He travelled throughout the Mediterranean bringing the Good News to the Gentiles. Paul died in about 64CE after a two year stretch in a prison in Rome.

When the New Testament was compiled, over two hundred years later, it included many of the writings, letters and teachings of Paul, who became the first evangelist and founder of Christianity. The four gospels are written using Paul as their main source, although none of the originals of Paul's writings have survived.

By the time the New Testament was compiled, Christianity had become the official religion of the Roman Empire.

Paul's Mistake

"Paul mistook the Jewish "Messiah" to mean the Hellenistic "Christ". This happened before anything was written down; it happened during Paul's conversations with people as he was working through what had happened. A messiah is a person who is a great leader who leads your people to freedom. The title was taken by Jews from Persian culture. A christ is a god-king who dies as an offering to some divine being as a sacrifice in return for prosperity, especially agricultural prosperity. Both are anointed with oil as a mystical, sexual rite."

Jesus didn't exist (Quoted in 1999, site is now down)

Christianity
The christ theme was inserted into the story of Yeshua by Paul and his subsequent followers. This was the christ theme taken from the Hellenistic Greek traditions and Mithraism had a large influence, through Paul, on the myths that Christianity assimilated.

"Christianity is a "Paulist Doctrine;" far removed from the teachings of Rabbi Yeshua (Jesus). This is where "Judaic Christianity" became "Hellenistic Christianity," and where the two religions finally, completely split."

www.dimensional.com/~randl/tarsus.htm (Quoted in 1999)

The section on Mithraism describes in detail Paul's line of thinking and the influences on the rituals and theory of the Christ. Paul returned to Tarsus in about 40ad. Tarsus was a very old seaport, over 2000 years old, and Mithraism was popular there with shrines and imagery stretching as far West as the Danube river. Paul no doubt found a large audience there for his preaching of Jesus Christ and salvation as Mithraism contained many compatible and defining features of his Christ theory.

Historians, History and Story Telling
In the time of Paul, it was normal protocol and expected that in recording an event an author should glorify the persons and events in question and illustrate moral precepts, which may or may not have been present in the historical event. Much of the myths included in the stories we have of these times are likely to be such insertions, exaggerations, moral metaphors and rumour considered to be good enough to be included. My page on Matthew demonstrates much of the effect of this type of writing.

Some Older Myths and Traditions
Here are some older myths that were common which Paul would have known as a Roman.

Attis

"He was the son of the goddess Nana's earthly incarnation. She was a virgin. "He grew up to become a sacrificial victim and savior, slain to bring salvation to mankind. His body was eaten by his worshippers in the form of bread. He was resurrected to become the most high god, who holds the universe together. Like his priests, he was castrated, then crucified on a pine tree, whence his holy blood poured down to redeem the earth"

Untraceable source

Osiris
Osiris started out as an Egyptian God of Vegetation, Resurrection and the endless seasons. (Married to Isis). Osiris evolved to become a dominant God in the Egyptian religion.

Osiris presides over the tribunal of the dead, who must appeal to him with gifts and tokens of goodness gained whilst they were alive, because he can give them new life. The Cult of Osiris and Isis, found in Rome, were directed towards Salvation and making sure that they would please Osiris when they die.

Osiris was tricked and killed (but returned to life), and for a period of time his enemies ruled in his place. (Similar to Revelations20)

Asklepios: 5th century BC
The majority of the miracles performed by Jesus appear to have their root in Asklepios' miracles, healings etc. A blind healed by Asklepios see at first only trees, like the one healed by Jesus. Asklepios heals poor and rich, men and women, slaves and free, like Jesus. He raises the dead, the details being the same as in the Jesus stories.
Herakles: 5th century BC
Like Jesus he was born of a virgin (God Zeus as a Father), like Jesus he walked on the waters, like Jesus he left mother and father to live a life of pains, was viewed as a savior, dies with the words "father, it is done" and rises to heaven, and there are many more parallels.
Dionysios: 8th century BC
Like Jesus he is the son of a god (Zeus) and a mortal woman, like Jesus he was a healer, like Jesus he turned water into wine (the marriage at Kana) and was a mortal and resurrected god.
"My El, why have you forsaken me?"
Spoken by a pagan Messiah, "El" is a pagan God and this is the word used in older Biblical texts.

christ theme
The pagan kings were often assumed to rule by divine right, and the ritual sacrifice of them often involved a judas. The judas would take the place of the true king for the sacrifice, the point of which was to renew the Earth and to bring salvation to mankind. Mythically the sacrificed people were rose again from the dead at the same time as salvation was given (through the sacrifice).

There are many different books that the Christian church decided to expunge. We have snippets and scraps from many such books including the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Gnostic Gospels, the Apocrypha, 1Infancy, 2Infancy, Nicodemus and the first and second Book of Adam and Eve.

It is revealing that in one such book Jesus is not crucified, but Judas is instead whilst Jesus stands laughing on a hill. Try these two sources for copies of some of these texts: The Lost Books of the Bible and the Forgotten Books of Eden published by World Bible Publishers, Inc. and The Other Bible: Ancient Alternative Scriptures edited by Willis Barnstone.

3. Mithraism

"Spirit of Spirit, if it be your will, give me over to immortal birth so that I may be born again - and the sacred spirit may breathe in me."
Prayer to Mithras

"Mithraism and Judaism merged and became Christianity. Jesus, son of the Hebrew sky God, and Mithras, son of Ormuzd are both the same myth. The rituals of Christianity coincide with the earlier rituals of Mithraism, including the Eucharist and the Communion in great detail. The language used by Mithraism was the language used by Christians. St Paul as the first "Christian" bears much of the responsibility for merging the two in his preaching and teaching, and also comes from Tarsus, a major Mithraist center.

The idea of a sacrificed saviour is Mithraist, so is the symbolism of bulls, rams, sheep, the blood of a transformed saviour washing away sins and granting eternal life, the 7 sacraments, the banishing of an evil host from heaven, apocalyptic end of time when God/Ormuzd sends the wicked to hell and establishes peace. Roman Emperors, Mithraist then Christian, mixed the rituals and laws of both religions into one. Emperor Constantine established 25th of Dec, the birthdate of Mithras, to be the birthdate of Jesus too. The principal day of worship of the Jews, The Sabbath, was replaced by the Mithraistic Sun Day as the Christian holy day. The Catholic Church, based in Rome and founded on top of the most venerated Mithraist temple, wiped out all competing son-of-god religions within the Roman Empire, giving us modern literalist Christianity."

"Mithraism" by Vexen, 2002

"It was in Tarsus that the Mysteries of Mithras had originated, so it would have been unthinkable that Paul would have been unaware of the remarkable similarities we have already explored between Christian doctrines and the teachings of Mithraism. [Footnote:] Tarsus was the capital of Cilicia, where, according to Plutarch [46-125CE], the Mithraic Mysteries were being practiced as early as 67BCE"

"Jesus Mysteries" by Freke & Gandy [more info], p199

Paul conversion an interpretation of Yeshua's death, his old Mithraistic beliefs and the Messiah/christ confusion combined to forge a new religion distinctly separate from all the various sects of Judaism. The fact that Judas was not killed, but Yeshua (the real king, in the eyes of Paul) led Paul to believe he had been the sacrificed christ sent from Mithra/God.

4. Gnosticism

Jesus Mysteries Buy from amazon.co.uk More info and quotes

So, was Paul himself a gnostic and a teacher of the Jesus Mysteries, or was he a Literalist? Freke and Gandy conclude that he was neither. A large chapter of their Jesus Mysteries hypothesis is dedicated to showing us the many ways in which early Christianity was a Mystery religion, which was later replaced Christians who only interpreted its vegetation myths literally rather than spiritually. They conclude that although Paul's genuine teachings were gnostic, Paul was neither for or against gnosticism, because literalist Christianity did not yet exist, so there was no "side" to be on.

"Upon reflection we felt that to call Paul a Gnostic was, in a sense, misleading. The more we looked at the evidence we had uncovered, the more it seemed that to apply to the terms 'Gnostic' and 'Literalist' to the Christianity of the first century was actually meaningless. From Paul's letters it is clear that the Christian community of this period was deeply divided, yet this schism was not between Gnostics and Literalists, as was the case by the end of the second century. Paul is neither anti-Gnostic nor pro-Gnostic, because in his day the great schism between Gnostics and Literalists had yet to occur.

At the time of Paul, the strands of thought that would become Gnosticism and Literalism were harmoniously co-existing as the Inner and Outer teachings of the Jesus Mysteries. The theological battle that Paul is engaged in is between those initiates of the Jesus Mysteries who want to maintain a traditional and distinctively Jewish identity and those, like himself, who wish to make their new Mysteries completely 'modern' and cosmopolitan."

"Jesus Mysteries" by Freke & Gandy [more info] p214

That Christianity actually started out as a Mystery Religion is not accepted even by many liberal Christians, but nonetheless the evidence is laid out comprehensively that Paul taught gnostic teachings, not because he was a "gnostic" as opposed to a "literalist", but because Christianity was inherently gnostic from its conception, another god-man myth like Mithraism, Osiris-Dionysis myths and other common religions of the time. Taking the bullet points from Freke and Gandy (Ibid. p212-213), here is some of the simplified evidence that Paul taught the same things that the Mystery religions, because Paul was himself an gnostic, being an initiate of The Jesus Mysteries:

What does this mean? It means that the rebirth of Jesus was not thought of as a historical event. This explains why, for example, early Christians had no traditions on the birth of Jesus, nor did they know where he was buried, nor are there any mentions of a historical Jesus by historians. All the elements of the birth narrative that we know are false are easily explained by the fact that they were gnostic stories, designed to teach initiates greater truths than the mere literal value of the stories. All of this not only lends support to the suspected truth that Jesus did not exist, Chrsitianity as a literalist religion based on historical truth is a mistake.

5. St Paul Was Converted to Christianity by a Seizure

William James, the well-known psychologist and author on the history of religion, is convinced that St Paul's vision of Christ (his only "contact" with Jesus, ever) was a seizure (ref: Acts 9:3-9). His claim is scientifically likely and has been made by scientists and doctors many times in history₄. The prominent book on brain neurology, Neuroscience states that some people have a once-in-a-life seizure that can include visual hallucinations. In the general (non-epileptic) population, it occurs in 7 to 10 percent of people's lives₅.

• "Biological Neuronal Dysfunction as a Cause of Religion" by Vexen Crabtree (2007)

6. Paul's Funky Laws

"The "glad tidings" were followed closely by the absolutely worst tidings - those of St Paul."

"The AntiChrist" by Friedrich Nietzsche

The teachings of St. Paul are infamously misogynistic. The following text is copied and slightly edited version of text from hansss/Pauls-laws.html, which is no longer online.

• Don't marry unless you 'cannot control yourselves' (1 Cor. 7:1, 1 Cor. 7:38 - From genuine teachings of Paul)

• Don't get divorced (1 Cor. 7:11 - Genuine)

• Don't get circumcised (1 Cor. 7:19, Gal. 5:2 - Genuine)

• Don't seek freedom from slavery (1 Cor. 7:21, Tit. 2:9 - Former genuine, latter a fake)

• Don't worry about eating food sacrificed to idols (1 Cor. 8:4 - Genuine)

• Don't have long hair [men] (1 Cor. 11:14 - Genuine)

• Don't wear gold, braids, expensive clothes (1 Tim. 2:9 - Fake)

• Don't let women teach/have authority over men (1 Tim. 2:12 - Fake)

• Don't give welfare to women under sixty (1 Tim. 5:9 - Fake)

1 Corinthians 7:1 Now for the matters you wrote about: It is good for a man not to marry. ²But since there is so much immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband. ³The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. ⁴The wife’s body does not belong to her alone but also to her husband. In the same way, the husband’s body does not belong to him alone but also to his wife. ⁵Do not deprive each other except by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. ⁶I say this as a concession, not as a command. ⁷I wish that all men were as I am. But each man has his own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that. ⁸Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I am. ⁹But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion. ¹⁰To the married I give this command (not I, but the Lord): A wife must not separate from her husband. ¹¹But if she does, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband. And a husband must not divorce his wife. ¹²To the rest I say this (I, not the Lord): If any brother has a wife who is not a believer and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce her. ¹³And if a woman has a husband who is not a believer and he is willing to live with her, she must not divorce him. ¹⁴For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy. ¹⁵But if the unbeliever leaves, let him do so. A believing man or woman is not bound in such circumstances; God has called us to live in peace. ¹⁶How do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or, how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife? ¹⁷Nevertheless, each one should retain the place in life that the Lord assigned to him and to which God has called him. This is the rule I lay down in all the churches. ¹⁸Was a man already circumcised when he was called? He should not become uncircumcised. Was a man uncircumcised when he was called? He should not be circumcised. ¹⁹Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing. Keeping God’s commands is what counts. ²⁰Each one should remain in the situation which he was in when God called him. ²¹Were you a slave when you were called? Don’t let it trouble you although if you can gain your freedom, do so. ²²For he who was a slave when he was called by the Lord is the Lord’s freedman; similarly, he who was a free man when he was called is Christ’s slave. ²³You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men. ²⁴Brothers, each man, as responsible to God, should remain in the situation God called him to. ²⁵Now about virgins: I have no command from the Lord, but I give a judgment as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy. ²⁶Because of the present crisis, I think that it is good for you to remain as you are. ²⁷Are you married? Do not seek a divorce. Are you unmarried? Do not look for a wife. ²⁸But if you do marry, you have not sinned; and if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. But those who marry will face many troubles in this life, and I want to spare you this. ²⁹What I mean, brothers, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they had none; ³⁰those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; ³¹those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away. ³²I would like you to be free from concern. An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord’s affairs how he can please the Lord. ³³But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world how he can please his wife- ³⁴and his interests are divided. An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord’s affairs: Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world how she can please her husband. ³⁵I am saying this for your own good, not to restrict you, but that you may live in a right way in undivided devotion to the Lord. ³⁶If anyone thinks he is acting improperly toward the virgin he is engaged to, and if she is getting along in years and he feels he ought to marry, he should do as he wants. He is not sinning. They should get married. ³⁷But the man who has settled the matter in his own mind, who is under no compulsion but has control over his own will, and who has made up his mind not to marry the virgin this man also does the right thing. ³⁸So then, he who marries the virgin does right, but he who does not marry her does even better. ³⁹A woman is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to marry anyone she wishes, but he must belong to the Lord. ⁴⁰In my judgment, she is happier if she stays as she is and I think that I too have the Spirit of God.

1 Corinthians 8:1 Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. ²The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. ³But the man who loves God is known by God. ⁴So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world and that there is no God but one. ⁵For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many "gods" and many "lords"), ⁶yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live. ⁷But not everyone knows this. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat such food they think of it as having been sacrificed to an idol, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled. ⁸But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do. ⁹Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak. ¹⁰For if anyone with a weak conscience sees you who have this knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, won’t he be emboldened to eat what has been sacrificed to idols? ¹¹So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. ¹²When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. ¹³Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall.

1 Corinthians 10:25 Eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience, ²⁶for, "The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it." ²⁷If some unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go, eat whatever is put before you without raising questions of conscience. ²⁸But if anyone says to you, "This has been offered in sacrifice," then do not eat it, both for the sake of the man who told you and for conscience’ sake-- ²⁹the other man’s conscience, I mean, not yours. For why should my freedom be judged by another’s conscience?

1 Corinthians 11:1 Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ. ²I praise you for remembering me in everything and for holding to the teachings, just as I passed them on to you. ³Now I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. ⁴Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonours his head. ⁵And every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonours her head it is just as though her head were shaved. ⁶If a woman does not cover her head, she should have her hair cut off; and if it is a disgrace for a woman to have her hair cut or shaved off, she should cover her head. ⁷A man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of man. ⁸For man did not come from woman, but woman from man; ⁹neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. ¹⁰For this reason, and because of the angels, the woman ought to have a sign of authority on her head. ¹¹In the Lord, however, woman is not independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. ¹²For as woman came from man, so also man is born of woman. But everything comes from God. ¹³Judge for yourselves: Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? ¹⁴Does not the very nature of things teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him, ¹⁵but that if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For long hair is given to her as a covering. ¹⁶If anyone wants to be contentious about this, we have no other practice nor do the churches of God.

Galatians 5:2 Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. ³Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law.

Galatians 5:12 As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!

1 Timothy 2:9 I also want women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, ¹⁰but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God. ¹¹A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. ¹²I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent. ¹³For Adam was formed first, then Eve. ¹⁴And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. ¹⁵But women will be saved through childbearing if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety.

1 Timothy 5:8 If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. ⁹No widow may be put on the list of widows unless she is over sixty, has been faithful to her husband, ¹⁰and is well known for her good deeds, such as bringing up children, showing hospitality, washing the feet of the saints, helping those in trouble and devoting herself to all kinds of good deeds. ¹¹As for younger widows, do not put them on such a list. For when their sensual desires overcome their dedication to Christ, they want to marry. ¹²Thus they bring judgment on themselves, because they have broken their first pledge. ¹³Besides, they get into the habit of being idle and going about from house to house. And not only do they become idlers, but also gossips and busybodies, saying things they ought not to. ¹⁴So I counsel younger widows to marry, to have children, to manage their homes and to give the enemy no opportunity for slander.

Titus 2:3 Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. ⁴Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, ⁵to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God. ⁶Similarly, encourage the young men to be self-controlled. ⁷In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness ⁸and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us. ⁹Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them,