The Cult of Paul

Jesus and Paul: a Look at their Lives ^{Back to Top ↑}

^{"The name 'disciple of Jesus' has little applicability to Paul, with the obvious contradictions in the three accounts given by him in regard to his Road to Damascus conversion being more than enough to arouse a palpable distrust in the man The moral majesty of Jesus -- his purity and piety, his ministry among the people, his manner as a prophet, the concrete ethical-religious content of his earthly life - signifies very little whatsoever for Paul's Christology. As such we are confronted with Jesus or Paul: the fundamental choice that all are required to make; the choice that embodies the primary spiritual battleground of our present day." - William Wrede}

As previously shown, there is quite obviously a stark contrast in the Bible between the words attributed to Jesus Christ and the theology Paul presents in his epistles. And yet a schism as critical as this one warrants a much more thorough examination of the Scriptures with regards to these two men and their beliefs, and that is precisely what now follows - namely, an in-depth examination of their very different lives, their very different personalities, and their very different teaching styles - all of which contributed to or directly engendered what turned out to be their very different^{(and indeed, patently contradictory)} theologies. And yet before we look into the latter, let us cast a closer glance at how the two men are portrayed...

First off, let me state quite clearly that I no way claim to know "the Truth" about Paul or Jesus. I don't know whether or not the words in my Bible^{(as someone interested in scholarship, I prefer the NRSV over all other translations)} are fully accurate, I don't know if the spiritual concepts expressed therein are valid, and I don't even know whether or not Paul or Jesus actually said what they are reported to have said - much less whether either man actually existed at all. And yet none of those issues are relevant to the task at hand - namely, showing how the Bible itself^{(or at least one of its more widely accepted versions)} proves quite convincingly that Paul was not a supporter of Jesus and his teachings, but was rather a stark opponent thereof. And the best place to start during such an examination is a look into how the texts of the Bible portray the lives of the two men - very different lives that in and of themselves do not prove my primary postulation, and yet very different lives that do indeed explain how such radically divergent theologies could come to be. As such, please consider the following biblical contrasts that show the same.