The author of this is Patterson Brown, the translator from Coptic of the Nag Hammadi Gospel of Philip and Gospel of Thomas and Gospel of Truth, from part 3 of www.metalog.org/files/paul_p1.html (see also parts 1-2).
I don't necessarily agree with each and every on of his points, but overall I think it's one of the best compilations of the egregious affronts to Christianity that are the Faulines. Patterson Brown has done all of the hard work in identifying the verses and explicitly showing the contraditions.
When reading this, remember to substitute Faul for Paul in any verses cited from the Faulines.
The Paul Paradox III
Paul is essentially an Old Testament figure. Caught in the ethical dilemma of calling all men transgresors by the Torah, only to reject the Torah precisely for thus condemning them (Gal. 3:10), he was unacquainted with Christ's historical teachings and practice; nor was he willing to learn of them from the original Apostles (Gal. 2:6). Thus his soteriology focused entirely on the Passion, of which he was aware, interpreting Christ's mission as exclusively an OT Sacrifice. Whereas the innovating Messianic message - Christ's teachings as incarnate in his lifestyle, elaborated thruout the canonical Gospels prior to the Passion narratives - completely passed Paul by.
This is not to deny that he composed some eloquently poetic passages (such as (Col. 1:15-20); but these must, in light of the aforelisted doctrinal conflicts, be considered no more than ornamentation in Paul's writings. Those documents, in their entirety, proclaim a discipleship which is fundamentally incompatible with the message of Christ himself as recorded in the historical Gospels.
Remarkably enough, prior to Clement of Alexandria and Irenaeus of Lyon at the close of the second century, there is no single author who quotes from both the Gospels and from Paul's Epistles. There was thus an exceedingly long period of schism between the traditions of the Twelve and of Paul, prior to the earliest attempts at integration.
And yet the irony, of course, is that the canonical Gospels themselves, of which tradition Paul was so manifestly ignorant, were ultimately only preserved by the Pauline Church - which indeed also disseminated the very OT which Paul himself had disparaged. The Petrine/Apostolic Church, on the other hand, seems not to have survived the persecutions of the first centuries.
Paul was personally in charge of the stoning of Stephen (Acts 7:58-8:1), since according to (Deut. 17:7) the "witnesses who laid their cloaks at his feet" - i.e. were under his direct authority - were obliged to cast the first stones. Might one therefore ask as to his whereabouts on the night Christ was arrested? Was he then also part of the Temple guard? (Remember that (Luke 22:63-65) takes place at their hands, not those of the Romans.) Thus perhaps the puzzling I(1Cor. 5:16), EGNWKAMEN KATA SARKA CRISTON: "We have known Christ according to the flesh." This would certainly explain his subsequent obsession with unmerited forgiveness!
My purpose here has been merely to format a set of scriptural dichotomies which exhibit the underlying logic of the ancient Messianic/Paulianity schism, as essentially a conceptual (and of course personal) rather than a factual issue. This in turn may hopefully serve to stimulate in the reader a reconsideration of the apostolic status of Saul of Tarsus. For he evidently never joined Christ's Discipleship at all - which would indisputably have meant accepting Peter's spiritual authority - much less became an Apostle.
These basic questions can no longer be papered over, nor can they be settled by institutional fiat. For their illuminating implication is that traditional Christianity - as defined by the classical NT canon including both the Gospels and Paul's Epistles - is logically self-contradictory and hence inherently unstable. Or, in a contemporary analogy, we might say that Paul's writings are like a computer virus: a surreptitious theological reprogram which, downloaded with the Gospels, changes their basic message, rendering it not gibberish but rather transmuted into another doctrine altogether - historical Church Christianity instead of the original Messianic Brotherhood.
I don't necessarily agree with each and every on of his points, but overall I think it's one of the best compilations of the egregious affronts to Christianity that are the Faulines. Patterson Brown has done all of the hard work in identifying the verses and explicitly showing the contraditions.
When reading this, remember to substitute Faul for Paul in any verses cited from the Faulines.
The Paul Paradox III
Paul is essentially an Old Testament figure. Caught in the ethical dilemma of calling all men transgresors by the Torah, only to reject the Torah precisely for thus condemning them (Gal. 3:10), he was unacquainted with Christ's historical teachings and practice; nor was he willing to learn of them from the original Apostles (Gal. 2:6). Thus his soteriology focused entirely on the Passion, of which he was aware, interpreting Christ's mission as exclusively an OT Sacrifice. Whereas the innovating Messianic message - Christ's teachings as incarnate in his lifestyle, elaborated thruout the canonical Gospels prior to the Passion narratives - completely passed Paul by.
This is not to deny that he composed some eloquently poetic passages (such as (Col. 1:15-20); but these must, in light of the aforelisted doctrinal conflicts, be considered no more than ornamentation in Paul's writings. Those documents, in their entirety, proclaim a discipleship which is fundamentally incompatible with the message of Christ himself as recorded in the historical Gospels.
Remarkably enough, prior to Clement of Alexandria and Irenaeus of Lyon at the close of the second century, there is no single author who quotes from both the Gospels and from Paul's Epistles. There was thus an exceedingly long period of schism between the traditions of the Twelve and of Paul, prior to the earliest attempts at integration.
And yet the irony, of course, is that the canonical Gospels themselves, of which tradition Paul was so manifestly ignorant, were ultimately only preserved by the Pauline Church - which indeed also disseminated the very OT which Paul himself had disparaged. The Petrine/Apostolic Church, on the other hand, seems not to have survived the persecutions of the first centuries.
Paul was personally in charge of the stoning of Stephen (Acts 7:58-8:1), since according to (Deut. 17:7) the "witnesses who laid their cloaks at his feet" - i.e. were under his direct authority - were obliged to cast the first stones. Might one therefore ask as to his whereabouts on the night Christ was arrested? Was he then also part of the Temple guard? (Remember that (Luke 22:63-65) takes place at their hands, not those of the Romans.) Thus perhaps the puzzling I(1Cor. 5:16), EGNWKAMEN KATA SARKA CRISTON: "We have known Christ according to the flesh." This would certainly explain his subsequent obsession with unmerited forgiveness!
My purpose here has been merely to format a set of scriptural dichotomies which exhibit the underlying logic of the ancient Messianic/Paulianity schism, as essentially a conceptual (and of course personal) rather than a factual issue. This in turn may hopefully serve to stimulate in the reader a reconsideration of the apostolic status of Saul of Tarsus. For he evidently never joined Christ's Discipleship at all - which would indisputably have meant accepting Peter's spiritual authority - much less became an Apostle.
These basic questions can no longer be papered over, nor can they be settled by institutional fiat. For their illuminating implication is that traditional Christianity - as defined by the classical NT canon including both the Gospels and Paul's Epistles - is logically self-contradictory and hence inherently unstable. Or, in a contemporary analogy, we might say that Paul's writings are like a computer virus: a surreptitious theological reprogram which, downloaded with the Gospels, changes their basic message, rendering it not gibberish but rather transmuted into another doctrine altogether - historical Church Christianity instead of the original Messianic Brotherhood.
Statistics: Posted by ebion — Tue Jan 23, 2024 5:41 am