(10 votes, average: 4.50 out of 5)
Loading...As you know, I hope, I will be sponsoring an upcoming conference for non-scholars, on the Apostle Paul soon, Sept. 21-22 (see https://www.bartehrman.com/new-insights-into-the-new-testament-conference-2024 ). We will have ten high-level Pauline scholars each give a 50-minute lecture with Q&A, dealing with various issues connected with Pauline studies. This is gonna be a good’un.
In preparation for it, I’ve asked James Tabor, one of the ten presenters at the conference, to give us a couple of preliminary posts here on the blog, dealing with some of the fundamental issues that scholars deal with, all centered on “how can we know” about what Paul really said and did? Turns out, it’s not simple.
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What can we reliably know about Paul and how can we know it? As is the case with Jesus this is not an easy question. Historians have been involved in what has been called the “Quest for the Historical Jesus” for the past one hundred and seventy-five years, evaluating and sifting through our sources, trying to determine what we can reliably say about him.[1] As it happens the Quest for the historical Paul began almost simultaneously, inaugurated by the German scholar Ferdinand Christian Baur.[2] Baur put his finger squarely on the problem: There are four different “Pauls” in the New Testament, not one, and each is quite distinct from the other. New Testament scholars today are generally agreed on this point.[3]
Thirteen of the New Testament’s twenty-seven documents are letters with Paul’s name as the author, and a fourteenth, the book of Acts, is mainly devoted to the story of Paul’s life and career—making up over half the total. The problem is, these fourteen texts fall into four distinct chronological tiers, giving us our four “Pauls”:
1) Authentic or Early Paul: 1 Thessalonians, Galatians, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Romans, Philippians, and Philemon (50s-60s A.D.)
2) Disputed Paul or Deutero-Pauline: 2 Thessalonians, Ephesians, Colossians (80-100 A.D.)
3) Pseudo–Paul or the Pastorals: 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus (80-100 A.D.)
4) Tendentious or Legendary Paul: Acts of the Apostles (90-130 A.D.)
Though scholars differ as to what historical use one might properly make of tiers 2, 3, or 4, there is almost universal agreement that a proper historical study of Paul should begin with the seven genuine letters, restricting one’s analysis to what is most certainly coming from Paul’s own hand. This approach might sound restrictive, but it is really the only proper way to begin. The Deutero-Pauline letters, and the Pastorals reflect a vocabulary, a development of ideas, and a social setting that belong to a later time. We are not getting Paul as he was, but Paul’s name used to lend authority to the ideas of later authors who intend for readers to believe they come from Paul. In modern parlance we call such writings forgeries, but a more polite academic term is pseudonymous, meaning “falsely named.”
Those more inclined to view this activity in a positive light point to a group of followers of Paul, some decades after his death, who wanted to honor him by continuing his legacy and using his name to defend views with which they assumed he would have surely agreed. A less charitable judgment is that these letters represent an attempt to deceive gullible readers by authors intent on passing on their own views as having the authority of Paul. Either way, this enterprise of writing letters in Paul’s name has been enormously influential, since Paul became such a towering figure of authority in the church.
The Pastorals (1 and 2 Timothy and Titus) are not included in our earliest extant collection of Paul’s letters, the so-called Chester Beatty papyrus, that dates to the third century A.D.[4] Paul’s apocalyptic urgency, so dominant in the earlier letters, is almost wholly absent in these later writings. Among the Deutero-Pauline tier, 2 Thessalonians was specifically written to calm those who were claiming that the day of judgment was imminent—the very thing Paul constantly proclaimed (2 Thessalonians 2:1-3).
In tiers 2 and 3 the domestic roles of husbands, wives, children, widows, masters, and slaves are specified with a level of detail uncharacteristic of Paul’s ad hoc instructions in his earlier letters (Ephesians 5:21-6:9; Colossians 3:18-4:1; 1 Timothy 5:1-16). Specific rules are set down for the qualifications and appointment of bishops and deacons in each congregation (1 Timothy 3:1-13; Titus 1:5-9). There is a strong emphasis on following tradition, respecting the governmental authorities, handling wealth, and maintaining a respectable social order (2 Thessalonians 2:15; 3:6-15; 1 Timothy 2: 1-4; 5:17-19; 6:6-10; Titus 3:1). The Pastorals, in particular, are essentially manuals for church officers, intended to enforce order and uniformity.
Some have argued that the passing of time and the changing of circumstances might account for the differences, but detailed studies of the commonly used vocabulary in Paul’s undisputed letters, in contrast to the Deutero-Pauline and Pastoral letters, has settled the question for most scholars. I will make little use of these later documents in trying to reconstruct the “historical Paul.”
The book of Acts, tier 4, presents a special problem in that it offers fascinating biographical background on Paul not found in his genuine letters as well as complete itineraries of his travels. The problem, as I mentioned in the Introduction, is with its harmonizing theological agenda that stresses the cozy relationship Paul had with the Jerusalem leaders of the church and its over-idealized heroic portrait of Paul. Many historians are agreed that it merits the label “Use Sparingly with Extreme Caution.” As a general working method I have adopted the following three principles:
- Never accept anything in Acts over Paul’s own account in his seven genuine letters.
- Cautiously consider Acts if it agrees with Paul and one can detect no obvious biases.
- Consider the independent data Acts provides of interest but not of interpretive historical use.
This latter principle would include biographical information, the three accounts of Paul’s conversion that the author provides, the various speeches of Paul, his itinerary, and other such details.[5]
Before applying these principles, here is a skeletal outline of Paul’s basic biographical data drawn only from his genuine letters that gives us a solid place to begin. Here is what we most surely know:
- Paul calls himself a Hebrew or Israelite, stating that he was born a Jew and circumcised on the eighth day of the Jewish tribe of Benjamin (Philippians 3:5-6; 2 Corinthians 11:22).
- He was once a member of the sect of the Pharisees. He advanced in Judaism beyond many of his contemporaries, being extremely zealous for the traditions of his Jewish faith (Philippians 3:5; Galatians 1:14).
- He zealously persecuted the Jesus movement (Galatians 1:13; Philippians 3:6; 1 Corinthians 15:9).
- Sometime around A.D. 37 Paul had a visionary experience he describes as “seeing” Jesus and received from him his Gospel message as well as his call to be an apostle to the non-Jewish world (1 Corinthians 9:2; Galatians 1:11-2:2).
- He made only three trips to Jerusalem in the period covered by his genuine letters; one three years after his apostolic call when he met Peter and James but none of the other apostles (around A.D. 40); the second fourteen years after his call (A.D. 50) when he appeared formally before the entire Jerusalem leadership to account for his mission and Gospel message to the Gentiles (Galatians 2:1-10), and a third where he was apparently arrested and sent under guard to Rome around A.D. 56 (Romans 15:25-29).
- Paul claimed to experience many revelations from Jesus, including direct voice communications, as well as an extraordinary “ascent” into the highest level of heaven, entering Paradise, where he saw and heard “things unutterable” (2 Corinthians 12:1-4).
- He had some type of physical disability that he was convinced had been sent by Satan to afflict him, but allowed by Christ, so he would not be overly proud of his extraordinary revelations (2 Corinthians 12:7-10).
- He claimed to have worked miraculous signs, wonders, and mighty works that verified his status as an apostle (2 Corinthians 12:12).
- He was unmarried, at least during his career as an apostle (1 Corinthians 7:8, 15; 9:5; Philippians 3:8).[6]
- He experienced numerous occasions of physical persecution and deprivation including beatings, being stoned and left for dead, and shipwrecked (1 Corinthians 3:11-12; 2 Corinthians 11:23-27).
- He worked as a manual laborer to support himself on his travels (1 Corinthians 4:12; 1 Thessalonians 2:9; 1 Corinthians 9:6, 12, 15).
- He was imprisoned, probably in Rome, in the early 60s A.D. and refers to the possibility that he would be executed (Philippians 1:1-26).
This is certainly not all we would want but it is all we have, and considering that we have not a single line written by Jesus or any of his Twelve apostles, having seven of Paul’s genuine letters is a poverty of riches.[7]
[Continued in Part 2]
For more information on James: check out these two sites:
www.youtube.com/jamestaborvideos
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[1] The Quest was given both its history and its name by Albert Schweiter, whose groundbreaking book, published in 1906 with the nondescript German title, Von Reimarus zu Wrede (from Reimarus to Wrede), was given the more provocative title in English, The Quest of the Historical Jesus, translated by William Montgomery (London: Adam & Charles Black, 1910).
[2] The beginning of the modern Jesus Quest is usually dated to around 1835 with the publication of David Strauss’s Life of Jesus. The full German title of Strauss’s work, Das Leben Jesu kritisch bearbeitet (Tübingen: 1835-1836) was published in English as The Life of Jesus, Critically Examined (3 vols., London, 1846), translated by George Eliot, the penname of British novelist Mary Ann Evans. Baur’s major work, Paulus, der Apostel Jesu Christi, sein Leben und Wirken, seine Briefe und seine Lehre (Paul the Apostle of Jesus Christ: His Life and Works, His Letters and His Teaching) was published in1845. Strauss was a student of Baur at the University of Tübingen.
[3] Most recently, Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan, The First Paul: Reclaiming the Radical Visionary Behind the Church’s Conservative Icon (New York: HarperOne, 2009). A more conservative, but nonetheless critical treatment relying more on the letters of Paul than the book of Acts is that of Jerome Murphy-O’Conner, Paul: A Critical Life (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996).
[4] “Chester Beatty Papyri” in Anchor Bible Dictionary, Vol. 1 (New York: Doubleday, 1992), pp. 901-903.
[5] Not only was the composition of such speeches common in Greek literary histories, it was expected. Thucydides, in his History of the Peloponnesian war, says that he composed speeches according to “what was called for in each situation” ( 1. 22. 2). Josephus, a contemporary of the author of Acts, is a prime example; see Henry Cadbury, The Making of Luke-Acts (New York: Macmillan Company, 1927), and Arthur J. Droge and James D. Tabor, A Noble Death: Suicide and Martyrdom Among Christians and Jews in Antiquity (New York: HarperCollins, 1992), pp. 53-112.
[6] It is possible that Paul was once married since he says he advanced within Judaism beyond his peers. Jewish men his age would normally marry; not to marry would be considered abnormal. In his letters he speaks of the “loss of all things” and also refers to a situation where an “unbelieving wife” might leave one who has joined his movement, so it is possible he is alluding to his own personal situation since he says the brother or sister, so abandoned, should not feel obligated to heed Jesus’ teaching that there can be no divorce for any cause (Philippians 3:7; 1 Corinthians 7:12-16).
[7] The letter of James and Jude might be exceptions though many scholars question if these two brothers of Jesus were part of the Twelve and others questions the authenticity of the letters themselves. Few scholars consider the letters of 1 and 2 Peter as written by Peter. 1 Peter, in particular, is surprisingly “Pauline” in tone and content and fits nothing we know of Peter based on more reliable sources—including Paul’s genuine letters. The letters of John are not from John the fisherman, one of the Twelve, but from a later John, sometimes referred to as “John the Elder,” who lived in Asia Minor (see Eusebius, Church History 3.39.4-7).
Thanks, Dr. Tabor. Interesting and informative.
Wooooow, your Paul breakdown from the genuine letters is good, Professor Tabor!
I’ve always had a bit of narrow eyes about Paul because he’s og the enemy of The Way—this is why Aretas pursues him, imo. “Jewish by birth” is a pretty loose phrase by the First Century. Josephus gives it to the Edomite Herod, and Benjamites are not Tribe-of-Judah Jewish, they were nomads and kinda Araby because Arab just means “on foot”. Paul’s a nomadic tent-maker.
Good call on Paul’s marriage!! I’d agree that it is only those “married by God”, likely meaning Herod Antipas and Phaesalis, a marital alliance blessed by Obodas the God: https://www.jstor.org/stable/27926010
The big deal during John the Baptist’s mission was the war over Phaesalis being dropped for Herodias per AJ chp 5.
But this week I like Paul. Galatians 3:17 clarifies that the 430 years of “Israelites in Egypt” starts from Abraham in Ur receiving his promise—this week I figured out that the 1750 BCE sacking of Ur – the 1320 abandonment of Avaris (where this Canaan land grant would be issued from) = 430 years.
Yah + Ha (YHWH) could be Hyksos gods, Two Lands style, imho: milk (pastoralism) + date honey (desert).
James, have you read my “Paul, Timothy, Jerusalem and the confusion in Galatia” Biblica (2018)? When you have read it, please let me know whether you still think that Acts had a “harmonizing theological agenda that stresses the cozy relationship Paul had with the Jerusalem leaders of the church”.
Your findings about Paul are in agreement with what we learn in Acts, except that you say that Paul made only three visits to Jerusalem. Paul never says that he made only three visits.
Possibly four visits?
1 Galatians 1:18-24 and in Acts 9:26-30. introduced through Barnabas to the apostles.
2 Acts 11:28-30, in which Paul and Barnabas carried relief funds to Jerusalem from Antioch
3 Galatians 2:1-10 and in Acts 15. Between missionary journeys, Paul met with apostles to discuss his doctrine which they commended.
4 Romans 15:25-28, 1Corinthians 16:1-4 and Acts 21:15-18. Paul and others bring contributions to Jerusalem for the saints.
I mean I think Dr. Ehrman has discussed the tone of the author of Luke-Acts, and at least in referring to key events it’s some some kind of “passionless passion”?
It also reminds me a little of the mild-mannered Church of Laodicaea. So, that seems like minimizing conflict but not intending to be dishonest about Paul.
I would love if Dr. Tabor weighed in on whether the Jerusalem church may only be able to pass law on Jews, or even more strictly—patrilineal Jews from Tribe of Judah.
Specially with the Y‘ theophorics like Yoseph, Yeshua, Yaqub, Yohanan. Archaeologists only find folks with these names being put to rest in Jerusalem.
Y‘ may hearken to Ya the theophoric element for Ea the Eblaite water purification god which first appears when they get Akkadianized. Interestingly, that’s not Yah biconsonantal root YH, the Amorite Hyksos-associated lunar god of pastoralists.
I feel that the classification of this post is very clear, so I also want to contribute some content about classification.
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There is a severe lack of research materials on “The Historical Jesus” and early Christianity, only Paul’s letters and Dead Sea Scrolls. These two can be classified into one category: positive information.
In addition, there is another type of research materials: opposing information.
The historical Jesus made an accusation against the future Antichrist two thousand years ago, and this is a one-sided statement from Jesus. When the Antichrist (the true Messiah) initiates a counter accusation against Jesus two thousand years later, this is another side of the story.
So the reverse accusation by the Antichrist against Jesus can be classified as a separate major category (opposing information) in the research materials of ‘The Historical Jesus’, or it can at least have the same level as Paul’s letters or Dead Sea Scrolls.
Two new books have emerged in the category of opposing information: ” Doomsday for Jesus: True Messiah Judges Scammer Jesus ” and ” Seven Deadly Sins of Scammer Jesus: and How He Harmed Chinese People “, which harshly criticize the historical Jesus.
Scholars should be aware that a new type of research materials has emerged regarding “the historical Jesus”.
The Dead Sea Scrolls from the second century and the letters of Paul from the first century are important research materials about the ‘historical Jesus’. Similarly, the anti accusations against Jesus by the Antichrist (or the true Messiah) two thousand years later are at least the same level as these two research materials. That is to say: the counter-accusation by the Antichrist is qualified to be on par with Paul’s letters and the Dead Sea Scrolls.
It is the first response to the accusation made by Jesus two thousand years ago.
In ‘ Doomsday for Jesus: True Messiah Judges Scammer Jesus ‘, the Antichrist (the true Messiah) provides strong evidences to prove the true motives of the historical Jesus: Jesus was just a cult leader who performed false miracles to impersonate the Messiah and engaged in false charity to deceive money.
At the same time, he believed that the true Messiah would come soon (this was a common view among people at that time), so he repeatedly emphasized to the believers to resist the Antichrist (he slandered the upcoming Messiah as the Antichrist), and threatened to cut off the rebellious believers when he returns in the clouds. The true motives of Jesus are also related to the true motives of Paul.
In ” Seven Deadly Sins of Scammer Jesus: and How He Harmed Chinese People “, the Antichrist (the true Messiah) points out that Jesus’ cult teachings have caused multiple serious disasters throughout history.
Scholars need to take a look at these two books as they provide new research materials for the ‘historical Jesus’: Antichrist’s Counterclaims.
I am the author of both books, the newest and most confident Messianic claimant, and the most powerful antichrist of two thousand years.
Isn’t it strange and shameful that all antichrists have been silent since Jesus issued a letter of challenge to the antichrist two thousand years ago?
Now at last a brave antichrist jumped up and challenged Jesus fiercely. Shouldn’t anyone applaud for the courage of this antichrist?
Complete materials on the study of historical Jesus and historical Paul:
1. Positive information:
1) Personal testimony of Jesus and Paul (None)
2) The testimony of the witnesses at that time (None)
3) Paul’s letters
4) Dead Sea Scrolls
5) New Testament Scriptures
6) Others
7) The works of scholars (scholars‘ comments)
8）The affirmation of Jesus by certain Messiah claimants (lacking self-esteem and therefore worthless)
2. opposing information：
1) The testimony of the future Messiah (Now)
Two new books: ” Doomsday for Jesus: True Messiah Judges Scammer Jesus ” and ” Seven Deadly Sins of Scammer Jesus: and How He Harmed Chinese People ”
2) The testimony of the Future Antichrist (Now)
Antichrist’s Counter Claim against Jesus on Ehrman’s Blog Posts
3) Critical works of other scholars (scholars‘ comments)
The historical Jesus issued a challenge to the future Antichrist, so the future Antichrist is a direct participant in the historical Jesus event.
The historical Jesus said he would come again in the future. So, will the future Messiah acknowledge himself as the second coming Jesus? So the future Messiah is also a direct participant in the historical Jesus event.
So, although the Messiah’s (or anti-Christ’s) response to Jesus was two thousand years late, they are still testimonies that belong to the direct parties to Jesus’ event.
Regarding the evidences of the Antichrist’s Accusations against Jesus, I pointed out three pieces of evidences in my book and in the post about Isaiah 53 that Jesus was a scammer:
1. The detailed description of the New Testament revealed the fact that Jesus impersonated the Messiah, performed false miracles, and engaged in false charity to deceive money;
2. The history of 2000 years after Jesus has proven that Jesus was just a cult leader who preached the end of the world and threatened people;
3. The true Messiah is about to establish a world government and achieve permanent peace. The arrival of the true Messiah proves that the Old Testament has not changed or passed, God has not established the New Testament, and Jesus was not sent by God. That is to say, Jesus was just a scammer, and the New Testament was just a cult preaching book.
That is, three pieces of evidences: past, present, and future.
Regarding the motives of Jesus and Paul, I also refute the claim that Jesus and Paul were apocalypticists:
I think Apocalypticist should be divided into seven types:
1. Apocalyptic sect leader. He will say, “I am the savior of the end times, and you can only be saved by believing in me and donating to me. And I will distribute all the money you donate to the poor, just like Professor Ehrman did.”
2. Apocalyptic sect assistant. He will say, Yes, He is the savior of the end times. You should worship him and follow him and donate to him. And he indeed distributes all the money you donate to the poor, just like Professor Ehrman did.
These two types only exist in theory, but they do not exist in the real world.
3. Cult leader who promote the end of the world, such as Jesus? He said, “I am the savior of the end times, and you can only be saved by believing in me and donating to me.”. But he never distributed the money donated by believers to the poor, only Judas secretly distributed a little of the money donated by believers to the poor, and was slandered by them as a thief.
4. Those cult accomplices who assist cult leader, such as John the Baptist and Paul? They said, Yes, Jesus is the savior of the end times. You should worship him and follow him and donate to him.
5. The believers deceived by the cult.
6.People who believe that there will be an end times in the future but have not been deceived by cult.
7.Scholars who believe that there will be an end times in the future.
So, even if Jesus and Paul are called apocalypticists, it cannot hide the fact that Jesus and Paul were cult leader and cult assistant.
Thanks for your comment and input Zhongging…I find these categories such a phenomenon as apocalypticism fascinating. There are lots of ways to slice things up. I find sociological and psychological factors quite helpful but in terms of Paul and all those replying on interpreting “Bible Prophecy” the texts themselves often turn out to be of primary importance.
You’re welcome, Dr. Tabor.
I have also brought new information to the academic community regarding biblical prophecies: the correct interpretation of Messiah prophecies and the proof of false prophecies in the Old Testament and Revelation in the New Testament.
The Messiah prophecy in the Old Testament is about a person, while the Revelation prophecy in the New Testament is about a God, and they can only be in conflict with each other.
My book ‘Teach You to Recognize True Messiah’ explains these contents.
And my book also shows readers the ideas of historical and intellectual development, and readers will find that the truth of the prophecy is so simple and reasonable.
” the texts themselves often turn out to be of primary importance.”
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I agree with this.
My accusations against Jesus and explanations of prophecies are based on texts.
For example, from the New Testament text’s account of the Judas incident, we know that Jesus’ team did not distribute the money donated by people to the poor.
We know from the repeated emphasis on resisting the Antichrist in the New Testament texts that Jesus and Paul did not believe the end of the world. On the contrary, they believed that the true Messiah would come soon, so they repeatedly emphasized that believers must firmly reject the true Messiah.
So these are all examples of my fairly direct explanations of the text.
So Jesus and Paul did not believe in their claim of the end of the world, but only believed that the true Messiah would come soon. That is to say, they are pure cult scammers.
I am a one-day-old member and this is my first post. Zhongqing Zhu (hereafter Zhu) claims he refutes the claim Paul and Jesus were apocalyptists even though I find the following eschatological prophecies of Jesus in Matthew 10:23, 16:28, 24:34; Mark 9:1, 13:30, 14:62 and Luke 21:32? Peter, John and James (the Lord’s brother) made it clear in writings attributed to them that the eschaton (Parousia) was near, at hand, coming soon and imminent. Paul wrote in numerous places that he believed the same; moreover, Paul informed his Thessalonian flock he believed that he (and some of them) would be alive to meet the Lord in the air. Such a belief in the end (eschaton and Telos) was obviously based on Jesus’ own end-time prophesies. Perhaps Zhu has a different definition of the word, “apocalyptists”. What I find strange is that Zhu says these apocalyptic sect leaders and assistants only exist in theory and not in reality which leads me to query: how does he know that to be the case? So far as I discern, Jesus was a prophet who had prophesied presumptively and his fate was sealed based on Deuteronomy 18:18-22. He died a martyr.
Sorry, I was busy adding information for this post, so I replied late.
Regarding the Apocalypticist, the first two types have not appeared in the two thousand years of history, so we know that these two types are only theoretical.
Regarding apocalypse prophecies, you need to know the background and reasons for their appearance.
Fraud is better to take advantage of people’s pre-existing understanding, so that people can easily accept it.
In Jesus’ day, it was common among Jews at the time to believe that the true Messiah would come soon (within a few decades at most).
Seeing this realization, the scammers decided that the time before the arrival of the true Messiah was a good time for fraud, and they began to deceive.
Then Jesus said, “I am the prophesied Messiah, and I am here to prepare you first (including believing in Jesus and donating to Jesus), and then I will come again in a few decades to receive you to the kingdom of heaven.”
The crowd believed that this was consistent with their original understanding that the true Messiah would come in a few decades, so they accepted that Jesus was the Messiah.
But after the success of the deception, Jesus began to be dissatisfied again.
The scammers gritted their teeth at the thought that their happy lives would end after the coming of the true Messiah, and left in the scriptures the so-called eschatological prophecy that the Antichrist would stand in the holy place, that the Christians would be killed and flee, and that Jesus would come again to destroy the Antichrist.
Compared to the Jewish prophecy of the time, which was that the Messiah would come in a few decades, Jesus’ eschatological prophecy was clearly too complicated: first, the antichrist would come and be accepted as the Messiah and stand in the holy place; Then Jesus would return in the clouds to destroy the Antichrist. Moreover, Jesus’ eschatological prophecy is clearly in direct opposition to the prophecy of the Jews at that time.
Therefore, it is reasonable to presume that the anti-Christ spoken of by Jesus is the Messiah that the Jews spoke, that is, the Messiah recognized by the Jews, otherwise the Anti-Christ could not have stood in the holy place.
Subsequent history proves that neither the prophecy of the Jews nor the eschatological prophecies of Jesus, or other scammers, have been fulfilled.
Because the Jews made a mistake in their prophecy about the future and misunderstood the time of the Messiah’s arrival, the false prophecies made by Jesus and other scammers, which were contrary to the prophecy of the Jews, naturally followed suit.
The Jews at the time thought that the Messiah would come within a few decades, which was a misunderstanding. Jesus and other scammers said that Jesus would return in a few decades to destroy the Antichrist, which was not a misunderstanding, but a tit for tat lie.
So Jesus and other scammers are not prophets, but plagiarists and opponents.
So, to understand the essence of the prophecies of Jesus and other scammers, you need to compare them with the prophecy of the Jews at that time.
By comparison, you will know in which aspects the scammers agreed with the views of the Jews at that time (such as the true Messiah would come soon（but both the Jews and the scammers were wrong on this point, and the true Messiah will not come until two thousand years later）), and in which aspects they differed from the views of the Jews at that time (such as after the true Messiah stands in the holy place, Jesus would return in the clouds to eliminate the true Messiah)（On this point, the scammers knew that they were boasting, lying, and deceiving, otherwise they would not have gnashed their teeth at the coming of the Messiah, which showed that they knew that the coming of the Messiah would cause them fatal and irreparable damage）.
So, through comparison, you ultimately find that the scammers’ true view is not different from that of the Jews at the time: they all believed that the true Messiah would come soon, and did not believe their own boast of Jesus’ return in the clouds, so they were not Apocalypticists.
The truth of the eschatological prophecies of Jesus and other scammers is so simple:
the scammers believed that the true Messiah would come soon, and they believed that cult followers would be severely punished at that moment. But they gritted their teeth at this future they firmly believed, so they couldn’t help but send out the threat and curse that Jesus would return in the clouds and eliminate the Messiah who would punish them and the apostates who would betray them. At the same time, they comforted and promised the future suffering cult followers that Jesus would return to reward them.
So the essence of eschatological prophecy is nothing more than imagined harm and imagined revenge, threats, and curses, as well as imagined comfort and rewards.
Because they firmly believed, so they gritted their teeth, so they made threats, curses, and promises.
This is why eschatological prophecies came about.
So they were not Apocalypticists, they were people who firmly believed that the true Messiah would come soon. They were people who were terribly afraid of the true Messiah‘s coming.
If the team led by Jesus as the first-generation leader was a fraudulent team, then what was the team led by Paul as the second-generation leader?
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The texts of the Bible have given us enough evidences regarding deceit or bad faith of Jesus and team and early Christians:
1) When Jesus and his team performed false miracles, they knew they were deceiving people. John 2: 1-12 provided a detailed description of the process of a miracle trick, which was clearly planned and Mary was clearly involved.
2). When Jesus and his team engaged in false charity to scam money, they knew they were deceiving people.
3). When Judah secretly took money from the team’s purse and distributed it to the poor, he was considered a thief by the gang members, indicating that the team members knew they were just a scam gang and should not distribute the money to the poor.
4). When Jesus spoke false prophecies, he knew he was deceiving people. He knew he couldn’t perform miracles at all, so he also knew he didn’t have the ability to return in the clouds.
5). When Jesus repeatedly emphasized the believers should firmly resist the Antichrist, he knew he was deceiving people: he knew he was a false Messiah, and the true Messiah would soon come, so he demanded that believers firmly reject the true Messiah.
6). When Jesus threatened to cut off the believers who does not resist the true Messiah when he comes back, he knew he was deceiving people. If he had the ability to return in the clouds and eliminate the true Messiah, then he did not need to demand that believers resist the true Messiah.
7). John 14:6, “Jesus said, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.’—-Jesus proclaimed his divine identity, saying that only by believing in him (donating to him) can one be saved.
Isn’t this just boasting and deception?
He knew he was not the true Messiah and was worried about the arrival of the true Messiah, so he demanded that believers firmly resist the true Messiah. That is to say, he knew he was just a scammer, but he dared to boast wildly.
8). “And he saith unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Simon dropped the net and followed him.
Simon knew he was going to follow Jesus to deceive people, and he knew that deceiving people can earn much more money than being a fisherman.
9). Jesus blamed on the cross: “Woman, behold your son!” (“Your son is going to die because of your bad ideas!”).
Mary knew they were deceiving people, and the plan for deception was proposed by Mary. This may be the reason why Catholics worshiped Mary more than Jesus, which also means that early Catholics knew this truth.
10). When early Christians added false prophecies to the books of Isaiah and Daniel, they knew they were deceiving people.
When John wrote the Revelation, he knew he was deceiving people. Jesus had no power to resurrect or to reveal to John. John was not a prophet, but just a scammer, so he had no ability to write prophecy books, only the ability to speak nonsense lies.
The lies in the Revelation were simply a repetition of Jesus’ false prophecy: the Antichrist would appear, and then Jesus would return in the clouds to destroy him.
It is ridiculous that the vast majority of Christians and academics are studying the book of Revelation as a true prophecy.
As long as you realize that they were scammers, you will know that greedy scammers had no prophetic ability at all. The Book of Revelation is a complete lie of nonsense.
How can a greedy scammer, whose mind is all about money, receive revelation from God like a pure-hearted prophet?
So it is precisely because scholars have overlooked the basic fact that Jesus and his team were a group of cult scammers who cheated money, there is a significant deviation in the study of the New Testament.
——————————-
As the second-generation leader, Paul inherited Jesus’ cause and continued Jesus’ concern that the true Messiah would soon come, so he also attached great importance to Jesus’ demand to resist the Antichrist.
For example, in 2 Thessalonians 2, Paul referred to the coming Messiah as “that man of sin”, “the son of perdition”.
The scammers knew that they were just a group of cult scammers, so they were also very clear about the future of their cult:
the true Messiah (Antichrist, “that man of sin”, “the son of perdition”, “the abomination of desolation”) would appear, then rebellion would occur (Christians would widely apostate), and then the true Messiah would be recognized (the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place).
But even though the true Messiah would has stood in the holy land, the scammers still refused to give up resistance. They claimed that Jesus would come in the clouds, destroy the Antichrist who has stood in the holy place, and cut off the apostates.
In other words, they were determined to resist forever.
Matthew 24, 2 Thessalonians 2, and Revelation emphasized three times that they would forever resist the true Messiah.
Matthew 24:9
Matthew 24:10
Matthew 24:11
—————————–
(Jesus believed that when the true Messiah comes, Jesus’ believers will be caught, killed, hated, and will betray each other.)
Matthew 24:15
Matthew 24:16
Matthew 24:17
Matthew 24:18
Matthew 24:19
Matthew 24:20
————————–
(Jesus advised believers that when the true Messiah arrives, Jesus’ believers should flee as soon as possible and go into difficult exile.)
This passage exposed the true view of the scammers on the future (that is, their true predictions about the future, and also their true worries about the future of their cult):
Jesus and the scammers did not have the ability to predict, so they only had the common view of the Jewish people at that time: the true Messiah would soon come (within a few decades?). So they believed that when the true Messiah arrives, Jesus’ believers, as cult followers, will definitely receive the harsh treatment that Jesus saw during his lifetime: being caught, killed, hated, and therefore need to flee and go into difficult exile. Or they may betray and expose each other.
In short, this passage is an imagination of what will happen to Jesus’ believers when the true Messiah arrives.
Same comment as above….nothing to do with my post…
The content I posted is all related.
I am proving Paul’s motive. And explain why Paul is not a Apocalypticist.
If Paul is a Apocalypticist, then his letters require a specific understanding; If Paul is not a Apocalypticist, but a pure cult scammer, then his letters are full of lies, and needs another understanding.
So all the evidence I posted about Jesus’ deception is related to Paul’s letters.
But what about the actual results?
The true Messiah actually arrived two thousand years later. The cult followers who engaged in fraud in the early days have already died, and Christians today are all innocent victims of cult. So Christians will neither be caught, nor killed, nor hated, nor need to escape or exile, nor do they need to betray or expose each other.
So Jesus’ erroneous prophecy proves that he had no prophetic ability at all (he could not correctly predict the future), and also exposes his true view of the future: the true Messiah would come soon (within a few decades?), and Jesus’ believers as cult followers would receive the same severe punishment as Jesus saw at that time, so much so that they may expose each other. (within a few decades?)
So Jesus, these scammers, are not Apocalypticists, they are just cult scammers with great worries about the near future.
They are a group of scammers who only dared to imagine that they can deceive for a few decades at most, and they simply dared not imagine that they can deceive for two thousand years. Otherwise, they wouldn’t need to worry like in Matthew 24.
I am not sure about Bart’s policy of approving things, so I tend to approve all comments unless they are personally abusive, but so far as I can tell this has nothing to do with my two part post, the methods it reflects, or any of its core content.
In Matthew 24, Jesus first thought of the imminent coming of the true Messiah and the inevitable end of his cult, and he couldn’t help but fall into weakness and advised believers to flee as soon as possible when at that moment.
But after a while he regained his strength and began to boast, demanding that the believers firmly reject the true Messiah and wait for him to return in the clouds.
Do you see Jesus’ mood change in Matthew 24?
In our three accounts of the so-called “Synoptic Apocalypse” the editing from Mk 13, through Mt 24, and Lk 21 is sequential and the differences have nothing to do with Jesus or his mood or take on things…he did not write them–and we don’t have his “recorded” words even in Mk 13. I gave a lecture on this at the NINT conference last year, check it out.
Scammers such as Jesus, Paul, Matthew, and John all regarded the true Messiah as a hypothetical enemy, believing that the true Messiah would be the culprit who would soon come and interrupt their beautiful lives. Therefore, they left many “gnashings of teeth” about the true Messiah in the scriptures.
These “gnashings of teeth” let us know: they had no prophetic ability at all and knew nothing about the real future. They never dreamed that the true Messiah would come two thousand years later.
So when we read these “gnashings of teeth” again two thousand years later, we need to realize that the scammers were casting a curse on Tangjikede’s Windmill.
At the same time, we also need to realize that Matthew 24, 2 Thessalonians 2, and Revelation, as short-term speculations by scammers about the next few decades, have long been proven to be wrong by subsequent history. These speculations were already confirmed to be out of date and invalid in the middle of the second century AD.
In other words, these are just the wrong guesses of incompetent scammers, which have already been proven wrong and will never continue to happen.
I am not sure I follow this, sorry, so who is the true Messiah who came 2000 years later? In my experience apocalyptic speculations so far have a 100% failure rate, so I don’t think the term “scammers” is very helpful. Millions today continue to read Daniel, Revelation, etc. and are quite sincerely SURE their interpretations are correct. See Bart’s book on the Apocalypse. BTW, I get emails from about two or three “True Messiahs” per month…and I have met even more in Israel over the years.
Regarding these conclusions about the prophecies I made above, if you are interested, I will continue to explain them after the 5 pieces of evidence in the lower part of this post, so that it is logically coherent and easy for readers to read and understand.
Also, why did so many “true Messiahs” email you or choose to contact you, does this mean that you are recognized as a renowned expert in determining the true Messiah? I’m a Chinese and don’t know enough about the world’s Bible academic community, sorry.
Since so many “true Messiahs” have chosen to email you, it seems that I, as the true Messiah, should email you too.
Would you be willing to tell me your email address? I will send you the word versions of the three books I mentioned in this post for your reference.
The true Messiah is naturally unique,
1. The true Messiah recognized his identity and mission in 2002. Just at the same time, water stains appeared on the Wailing Wall in Israel, which became a news worldwide.
2. Only the true Messiah can receive the message left to him by the prophet.
The true Messiah is the only one who points out the true meaning of Daniel 2: God gave the Messiah a special task: to expose and smash the scammer Jesus. The true Messiah’s testimony and information to scholars on this blog and in this post is a part of this work.
3.But even if the true Messiah proved with irrefutable evidence that Jesus and Paul and others were a gang of cult scammers, even if Jesus was broken, it cannot prove that the person who broke Jesus is the true Messiah.
The Messiah is the supreme leader of the world. To prove him, very sufficient and irrefutable evidence is needed.
The true Messiah has independent evidence to prove his identity. Refer to ‘ Teach You To Recognize True Messiah’ and ‘ Doomsday for Jesus: True Messiah Judges Scammer Jesus’.
The true Messiah’s judgment of the scammer Jesus is a major event prophesied by Daniel 2.
The stone cut by non-human hands (the Messiah sent by God) will shatter the mud feet (the false identity and the cult motive of Jesus), and then the giant (the false faith in Jesus) will fall to pieces, and the true Messiah will be recognized as the savior by the whole world.
Why won’t the mud feet shattered by the Messiah refer to the last great power in human history, namely the United States?
Because the Messiah does not have the ability to shatter America, even after being recognized as the Messiah by the world, let alone before being recognized as the Messiah by the world.
The true Messiah has the ability to expose the scammer Jesus, but he does not have the ability to shatter America.
Naturally, God would not have arranged for the Messiah to do work that he is not capable of completing.
So now the people on the blog are participating in a major historical event that has been prophesied.
Do you want to play a greater role in this historic event?
Why is it my comments are awaiting moderation and Zhu’s are not? By the way, Zhu did not address my comments to him. I contend the whole Messiah idea (and personage) is a myth and a product of the religious imagination of the Jews. If Paul actually believed Jesus was the Messiah and that he (Paul) would be alive to meet him in the air, I wonder what Paul would have to say if he were beamed up like Samuel was brought up from Shoel by the witch of Endor to have a chat with Saul? Paul would likely be of the same mind as we free-thinking, truth seekers are: Jesus failed to come within the time period he prophesied he would and his eschatological prophecies became unfulfillable certainly by the end of that first century. What say ye, Dr. Tabor?
James has been overseas for two weeks and is just now getting to all the comments he received.
Some comments that came in required no reply and so I simply posted them. I’m not sure if the ones you are referring to were
in that grouop. Sorry ’bout all that! disabledupes{84b211c78787e17e3d41daf4f5e5be25}disabledupes
A reasonable guess about Paul’s transformation:
Since Paul was a contemporary of Jesus and knew the truth about Jesus, his transformation was unreasonable no matter what. And if Paul did not have a sufficient qualification in early Christianity, how could team members obey his leadership?
So a reasonable guess is that Paul had not changed at all, he had always been a member of Jesus’ team. He was likely a low-level member, so he was unknown and not qualified to attend the final dinner. It was not until Jesus and the twelve disciples (intermediate members) were killed that Paul naturally rose to the top leader of the team.
Paul’s transformation is simply a literary technique of suppressing first and then promoting, used to enhance the persuasiveness of Jesus’ resurrection and to meet the needs of evangelism. But if Paul didn’t have team experience as a foundation, the team members wouldn’t accept his joining and his leadership, even if he talked about his transformation.
Jesus’ cult business is likely to be doing better than people imagine, to the point where they don’t care about an extremely expensive bottle of perfume or how Judas often secretly distributed money from the team’s wallet to the poor.
When the executioners drew lots for Jesus’ clothes, could it mean that Jesus’ clothes were actually extremely high-end and expensive? (He didn’t care about wasting an bottle of extremely expensive perfume, so could his clothes be cheap?）
In short, they were very wealthy.
So Jesus’ team is likely not a two-tier structure, consisting of Jesus and the twelve disciples; Jesus’ team is likely to have a three-tier structure, with the twelve disciples being mid-level managers who also led small teams and lower level personnels.
We can see this from the changes in the real mafia. When the bosses and middle managers of the mafia are eliminated, the original low-level personnel will become the new top leaders.
Of course, it is also possible that Paul joined the missionary team after Jesus’ death, which is another possibility beyond the speculation above.
But it’s definitely not true that he joined the missionary team after his transformation. His transformation is just a lie.
Inasmuch as Dr. Tabor is not taking the time to respond to Zhu’s posts let me do so. One can rightly claim that Jesus turned out to be honestly and sincerely mistaken in harboring his Messianic beliefs. However, I agree with Zhu that miracles (such as the one I find which dealt with the raising of Lazarus from the dead) must have been either staged or else the author of this gospel merely wrote a fictional story. It is almost comical to me that Lazarus had to exit his tomb jumping on two feet like a jack rabbit or kangaroo inasmuch as we are informed he was still bound head and feet with his grave clothes. Moreover, not one of the Jews who were present at the tomb as eye-and-ear witnesses went into the tomb after the stone sealing it had been removed and verified Lazarus’ body was indeed cold as a cucumber or dead as a door nail. We are even led to believe that not all the witnesses present believed this was a true miracle. So, if this “miracle” was a fabrication then why not all the others? “Falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus”?
He’s not “taking the time” because he has been overseas for two weeks and is just now returning to life as we know it. In any event, some of the comments I simply approved myself when they didn’t appear to request an answer.
Thanks Bart, I am back home and had little to no internet while gone, plus taking care of 40 people visiting Mediterranean archaeological sites…pretty much dawn to dusk stuff, but truly amazing.
Looking forward to hearing you again at the second NINT conference, James 🙂
I’m sorry, I saw your reply to me several days earlier.
But because I am busy adding information to this post, I don’t have time to reply to you. But I have already prepared five replies for you, and I was originally planning to reply to you from tomorrow.
But due to your questions about the professors, Dr. Tabor had to reply to my post, and I also had to reply to his reply. So the two replies I was supposed to give you tomorrow can only be postponed until the day after tomorrow.
Also, what I want to say is that scholars are very busy, so they often take several days to reply, which is normal, so you don’t have to rush to ask for someone else’s reply.
Complete Evidence That Jesus, Matthew, Paul, and John Were a Gang of Cult Scammers:
1. Performing false miracles. The academic community recognizes this.
2. Engaging in false charity to defraud money. This made them so wealthy that they didn’t care about wasting a bottle of extremely expensive perfume.
3. Saying false prophecy.
1) As long as you compare it with the erroneous prophecy of the Jews at that time (that the true Messiah was coming soon), you will know that the end time prophecy of Jesus, Paul, John, and others, were just a tit-for-tat false prophecy that opposed the erroneous prophecy of the Jews at that time.
2) As a prophecy for the next few decades (“some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God come with power“), the end time prophecy of Jesus, Paul, John, and others, had already been proven to be completely false prophecy by the following two thousand years of history.
4. When they said false prophecy, they did not believe it, which meant they knew they were lying when they said false prophecy. This can be seen from their gritting teeth and fierce threats against future apostates.
—-Of course, there may be objections to this point. But the judgment on this point is actually not important. Even without this, other evidence has been sufficient to prove that Jesus and other scammers were a group of cult scammers.
5. The cult teachings of Jesus and Paul caused serious disasters in subsequent history. Refer to “Seven Deadly Sins of Scammer Jesus: and How He Harmed Chinese People”.
Aren’t these exactly the common characteristics of cults in history?
So Jesus, Paul, John, and others, are pure cult scammers, their prophecy of the end times and Paul’s letters are full of lies.
At this moment, I have completed the argument for the cult nature of Jesus and Paul, and I have completed an unprecedented supplement to the study of historical Jesus and historical Paul.
The entire argument is based on the five aspects mentioned above, and most of the content I posted involves statements of evidence related to one of the above aspects.
Dr. Tabor’s this post is a great post for sorting through sources . I think after adding so many potentially unpopular new information, this post may become the most complete sorting post in the history of this field.
Some related content :
Jesus and Paul were a gang of cult scammers. After this conclusion has been irrefutably proved, the relevant conclusions can be easily drawn:
1) Isaiah 53 is a false prophecy fabricated and added by early Christians, because Jesus as a scammer is not qualified to be prophesied in detail.
2) The book of Revelation that repeats the false apocalyptic prophecy of Jesus is complete nonsense, has expired, and has no research value.
3) The prophecy in the latter part of the book of Daniel is also a fabricated and added false prophecy.
Therefore, no matter how many people sincerely believe their research results in Daniel, Isaiah53, or Revelation, they are doomed to be wrong.
Unless they can refute the five pieces of evidence mentioned above.
Jesus’ boasting two thousand years ago was pure nonsense
Jesus told us a future: one day in the future, when heaven and earth have been destroyed and the sea has disappeared, Jesus will return in clouds. But science tells us that the destruction of heaven and earth will only occur billions of years later.
So we know that this future is not real, but just an ignorant boasting and nonsense of an ancient scammer.
Some scholars say that Jesus’ words are only the metaphor and not the literal meaning, and its true meaning is unknown.
Ok.
But Jesus also said that before his return, the Antichrist would appear first, and stand in the Holy place, and then Jesus would return in the clouds and destroy him.
But now that we have entered the era of globalization, the Antichrist who is qualified to stand in the holy place must have undergone global scrutiny and recognition. So how could he possibly be the false one, the Antichrist? This “Antichrist”, who is qualified to stand in the holy place after being reviewed and recognized worldwide, is already the leader of the whole world. So, Jesus, who would return to destroy him, is actually Satan, the enemy of the whole world?
Just as Americans do not believe that there will be decisive and organized fraud in the current election in the United States, we do not believe that the Messiah recognized by the global people and scholars after certification could be a wrong certification and anti Christ.
So Jesus’ another statement about the future is still nonsense.
So Jesus’ eschatological prophecy is nothing more than the self-exposure of a cult scammer:
He knew very well that he was a scammer (the other scammers were also well aware that they were a gang of scammers), but he dared to deny and frame the coming true Messiah and to incite believers to reject the true Messiah.
Zhu: If I understand you correctly, Jesus was a false Messiah but the True Messiah would come two millennia later? I like my theory better: Jesus believed he was the one-and-only Messiah when the truth is the whole Messiah idea is a myth or product of the Jews’ religious imagination. I submit the odds a real, true, one-and-only Messiah will come on the clouds of heaven are the same that a real, true, one-and-only Santa will come riding on his sleigh pulled by a team of Reindeer much like Elijah launched up to heaven in a fiery chariot pulled by a team of fiery horses. So, what say ye, Dr, Tabor? Which Messiah, if any do you find credible? If we could even find one stand-alone, complete, definitive, specific Messiah prophecy in the Hebrew Bible which contained the essential elements which made it look half-way like one coming from an Omnipotent, Supreme Being called God who is to say such a prophecy had to be fulfilled? Messiah claimants dress up in their Messiah garments much like Santa contenders dress up in their Santa garments but such garments do not a real Messiah or real Santa make.
Zhu: How am I supposed to know to whom you are addressing your posts? If you are trying to respond to my post to you, then I politely request your make that clear as I have done to you especially since your posts are not indented below mine. Let me ask you you this. What is your definition of apocalyptic? My claim is that if Jesus made these eschatological prophecies found in Mark 13:30 and 14:62 (and in parallel verses such as Matthew 24:34) then he was making it abundantly clear the eschaton (Parousia) was near, at hand, coming soon and imminent. As such, I call that apocalyptic. I am also having difficulty understanding to whom you are referring when you identify people as scammers; moreover where is your evidence supporting your idea that this “true Messiah” was to come two millennia later? I was trying to get Dr. Tabor’s opinion whether the resurrection of Lazarus was what you might call a scam inasmuch as not all of the eye and ear witnesses reportedly present swallowed it as being a real and true happening; so please provide your thoughts on that as well. Shalom.
I have already explained what Jesus really thought in the followed five replies to your previous reply.
For evidence that the true Messiah has come two thousand years later, you can read my book “Teach You To Recognize True Messiah”. It’s on Amazon.