Posted: Jul 22, 2013 6:07 am
Michael66 wrote:angelo wrote:The facts are still that christianity started with whoever Paul was.
That would be quite a minority view. Must scholars, including the skeptic Bart Ehrman, have no doubt that the itinerant teacher known as Jesus lived and died in Palenstine, and whom around a dedicated group of disciples formed. St. Paul was certainly hugely influential in the spread of Christianity Northwards and Westwards, but the Coptic Church tracks a different descent, from the Alexandrian Jews.
If that was the case we would not have christianity in it's present form as we do today. If it was based on a historical Jesus I doubt it would have survived without Paul. It most likely would have died out because of so few adherents of the christ cult. It was Paul who introduced to the disillusioned Jews and gentiles the suffering dying and resurrected god Jesus the christ. This cult like many before it would have simply petered out without the intervention of Paul of Tarsus.