Corpus-Paul

["David C. Hindley" <dhindley AT compuserve.com>]

Mike Burkhimer asks,

>>I have recently read Earl Doherty's book about Jesus being a myth, he
makes much of Paul claiming to get his information on the Last Supper from
the Lord.

I do not accept Doherty's thesis.  I wonder if anyone has read that book and
is familiar with a good rebuttal.<<

Touchy subject? Eh?

I had originally let this message pass by, although I am interested in the
subject, because I have not read Doherty's book _The Jesus Puzzle. Did
Christianity Begin with a Mythical Christ? : Challenging the Existence of an
Historical Jesus_ (Canadian Humanist Publications; ISBN: 0968601405; 1st
edition; 1999, special order at Amazon, about $17.00).

My own take on this is that it would be hard to explain how Christianity
could have been synthesized from all those similar pagan myths and beliefs,
in the 1st century CE historical context, without there having been a real
person around which these traditions condensed. The strongest "evidence" (if
it can be called that) for a mythical Jesus is the apparent lack of
knowledge about him by Jewish rabbinic and popular traditions (like the
Toledoth Jeschu stories). I ignore for the moment the statements in the
received text of Josephus' works. What they do know they seem to have come
by from Christian assertions. All other details look like they relate to a
Jewish heretic teacher dating to about 100-80 BCE, or come from the 2nd
century CE or later. In other words, traditions relating to others were
re-applied to Jesus (or his mother, or Mary Magdaline, etc). All the details
are hopelessly confused.

This all doesn't mean Jesus didn't exist, but that Jewish tradition did not
recall him or chose to ignore the historical details in preference of
moralizing stories. The historical existence of a 1st century Jesus also
does not mean that he was like the figure portrayed in the Gospels or in
Paul's letters.

I think Eric Zeusse felt that those who write books such as _The Jesus
Mysteries: Was the 'Original Jesus' a Pagan God?_ by Timothy Freke & Peter
Gandy, _Deconstructing Jesus_ by Robert M. Price and
_Challenging the Verdict: A Cross-Examination of Lee Strobel's "The Case for
Christ"_ by Earl Doherty, were not providing explanations that convincingly
explained *how* the final synthesis of all these pagan ideas came together.
He seemed to think a more political explanation better suited the evidence,
although I think he (inaccurately) overstated the historical situation,
perhaps in frustration. I'm not sure what Zeba Crook was trying to suggest,
except that it came across as a wee-bit reactionary, and perhaps also
expressed in frustration.

Respectfully,

Dave Hindley
Cleveland, Ohio, USA