Posted: May 27, 2021 8:50 am
When I look in antiquity for the extra-biblical historical evidence to substantiate the historical existence of the Pauline figure I can only find Seneca. Just as Josephus was used as an extra biblical literary source to substantiate the historical existence of Jesus, Seneca was used as an extra biblical literary source to substantiate the historical existence of Paul.
Between the 4th and the 15th century the utterly corrupt Christians church INDUSTRY circulated the literature of Seneca - the Roman Stoic philosopher and stateman - prefaced with the Seneca/Paul letter exchange. Nobody in the ancient world outside of the church had ever heard of Paul. Nearly everyone in the ancient world had heard of Seneca.
That all the letters of Paul are forgeries is not a new proposition. It has a history as follows:
1838
• (Myth) BRUNO BAUER (1808–82) is often considered the first academic mythicist and was the enfant terrible of his time. He thought that “all the Pauline letters were inauthentic and that an historical person named Jesus very probably never existed” (H. Detering). Bauer was Karl Marx’s doctoral advisor in Berlin. Bauer’s views were so shocking that he was removed from his university position in 1842. Schweitzer devotes Chp. 11 of his Quest (1906) to Bauer’s thought.
1851
• Bruno Bauer, Kritik der paulinischen Briefe (“Critique of the Pauline Letters”). Bauer declared all of Paul’s epistles to be 2nd century forgeries.
1879
• Bruno Bauer, Christ and the Caesars: The Origin of Christianity from Romanized Greek Culture. 359 pp. (Trans. 1999, Charleston House Pub.) Paul wrote none of the ‘Pauline’ epistles. The most important individual catalyst for Christian emergence was not Jesus (whom Mark created) but Seneca, many of whose maxims and ideals appear unaltered at the heart of the New Testament. Bauer was the ideological founder of the Dutch Radical School. (Dr. Price’s review).
1886
• (Semi-Myth) ABRAHAM DIRK LOMAN. Quaestiones Paulinae (“Questions on the Paulines”) contends that not only Galatians, but all of Paul’s Epistles are (following Bruno Bauer) 2nd century forgeries. Loman finds no evidence of the Paulinae before Marcion and considers the epistles to be Gnostic treatises. For him, Jesus is a 2nd century fiction though ‘some’ Jesus may have existed, quite buried in history. The Jesus of Christianity is an ideal symbol, a non-historical construction.
1888
• (Myth) RUDOLF STECK. Der Galaterbrief nach seiner Echtheit untersucht nebst kritischen Bemerkungen zu den Paulinischen Hauptbriefen (“Inquiry into the Genuineness of the Galatians Epistle, and Critical Remarks on the Chief Paulines”). Steck was a Swiss scholar and ally of the Dutch School. He branded all the Pauline epistles as fakes and supported Pierson and Naber.
1896
• (Skep) WILLEM CHRISTIAAN VAN MANEN. His multi-volume Paulus was published 1890-1896. The first volume dates the Acts of the Apostles to 125-150 CE and argues that it was dependent on several writings including those of Josephus. The other two volumes were about Romans and 1st–2nd Corinthians. An exception in the Dutch Radical School, van Manen accepted the historicity of Jesus.
1909
• (Myth) G. A. BERGH VAN EYSINGA, Indische Einflüsse auf evangelische Erzählungen. Van Eysinga concluded that there was no evidence for the existence of the Pauline writings before Marcion (contra Harnack). Unlike his teacher van Manen, van Eysinga rejected the historicity of Jesus
1930
• (Myth) G. A. BERGH VAN EYSINGA, “Does Jesus Live, or Has He Only Lived? A Study of the Doctrine of Historicity.” (Perhaps better translated: “Does Jesus Still Live, or Did he Ever Live?”) Van Eysinga endorses the view that the epistles of Clement and Ignatius of Antioch are not genuine. There is no evidence of the Pauline epistles before Marcion, and all were produced by the Marcionite circle. Paul’s epistles are full of incongruities and he does not sound Jewish (in opposition to Harnack). No evidence is found in them for the existence of Jesus the Messiah.
2011
• DETERING, HERMANN. Falsche Zeugen: ausserchristliche Jesuszeugnisse auf dem Prüfstand (“False Witnesses: Non-Christian Witnesses to Jesus on Trial”).
The alleged witnesses to Jesus’ existence attest to neither a historical Jesus of Nazareth nor to the existence of Christianity in the first century CE. Detering places the canonical gospels well into the second century (the Little Apocalypse in Mk 13 came out of the Second, not the First Jewish War) and the Pauline epistles were originally Marcionite.
http://www.mythicistpapers.com/timeline ... mythicism/
Between the 4th and the 15th century the utterly corrupt Christians church INDUSTRY circulated the literature of Seneca - the Roman Stoic philosopher and stateman - prefaced with the Seneca/Paul letter exchange. Nobody in the ancient world outside of the church had ever heard of Paul. Nearly everyone in the ancient world had heard of Seneca.
That all the letters of Paul are forgeries is not a new proposition. It has a history as follows:
1838
• (Myth) BRUNO BAUER (1808–82) is often considered the first academic mythicist and was the enfant terrible of his time. He thought that “all the Pauline letters were inauthentic and that an historical person named Jesus very probably never existed” (H. Detering). Bauer was Karl Marx’s doctoral advisor in Berlin. Bauer’s views were so shocking that he was removed from his university position in 1842. Schweitzer devotes Chp. 11 of his Quest (1906) to Bauer’s thought.
1851
• Bruno Bauer, Kritik der paulinischen Briefe (“Critique of the Pauline Letters”). Bauer declared all of Paul’s epistles to be 2nd century forgeries.
1879
• Bruno Bauer, Christ and the Caesars: The Origin of Christianity from Romanized Greek Culture. 359 pp. (Trans. 1999, Charleston House Pub.) Paul wrote none of the ‘Pauline’ epistles. The most important individual catalyst for Christian emergence was not Jesus (whom Mark created) but Seneca, many of whose maxims and ideals appear unaltered at the heart of the New Testament. Bauer was the ideological founder of the Dutch Radical School. (Dr. Price’s review).
1886
• (Semi-Myth) ABRAHAM DIRK LOMAN. Quaestiones Paulinae (“Questions on the Paulines”) contends that not only Galatians, but all of Paul’s Epistles are (following Bruno Bauer) 2nd century forgeries. Loman finds no evidence of the Paulinae before Marcion and considers the epistles to be Gnostic treatises. For him, Jesus is a 2nd century fiction though ‘some’ Jesus may have existed, quite buried in history. The Jesus of Christianity is an ideal symbol, a non-historical construction.
1888
• (Myth) RUDOLF STECK. Der Galaterbrief nach seiner Echtheit untersucht nebst kritischen Bemerkungen zu den Paulinischen Hauptbriefen (“Inquiry into the Genuineness of the Galatians Epistle, and Critical Remarks on the Chief Paulines”). Steck was a Swiss scholar and ally of the Dutch School. He branded all the Pauline epistles as fakes and supported Pierson and Naber.
1896
• (Skep) WILLEM CHRISTIAAN VAN MANEN. His multi-volume Paulus was published 1890-1896. The first volume dates the Acts of the Apostles to 125-150 CE and argues that it was dependent on several writings including those of Josephus. The other two volumes were about Romans and 1st–2nd Corinthians. An exception in the Dutch Radical School, van Manen accepted the historicity of Jesus.
1909
• (Myth) G. A. BERGH VAN EYSINGA, Indische Einflüsse auf evangelische Erzählungen. Van Eysinga concluded that there was no evidence for the existence of the Pauline writings before Marcion (contra Harnack). Unlike his teacher van Manen, van Eysinga rejected the historicity of Jesus
1930
• (Myth) G. A. BERGH VAN EYSINGA, “Does Jesus Live, or Has He Only Lived? A Study of the Doctrine of Historicity.” (Perhaps better translated: “Does Jesus Still Live, or Did he Ever Live?”) Van Eysinga endorses the view that the epistles of Clement and Ignatius of Antioch are not genuine. There is no evidence of the Pauline epistles before Marcion, and all were produced by the Marcionite circle. Paul’s epistles are full of incongruities and he does not sound Jewish (in opposition to Harnack). No evidence is found in them for the existence of Jesus the Messiah.
2011
• DETERING, HERMANN. Falsche Zeugen: ausserchristliche Jesuszeugnisse auf dem Prüfstand (“False Witnesses: Non-Christian Witnesses to Jesus on Trial”).
The alleged witnesses to Jesus’ existence attest to neither a historical Jesus of Nazareth nor to the existence of Christianity in the first century CE. Detering places the canonical gospels well into the second century (the Little Apocalypse in Mk 13 came out of the Second, not the First Jewish War) and the Pauline epistles were originally Marcionite.
http://www.mythicistpapers.com/timeline ... mythicism/