Is Paul the real founder of Christianity?

#maklelan2495

[perryekimae]

I love how nuanced this one is. Often, you end up responding to people who are just flatly mistaken, but this is a complicated topic that depends a lot on what one means to communicate with the claims made. Super interesting!

[HumbleHerman]

Wonderful video about something crucial -- the Jesus / Paul thing -- not often discussed among Protestants I know but more often among Jews I know. And it's a great pleasure to see DM treat respectable people with the meticulous consideration they deserve (on those rare occasions when they appear)

[TheRedandGoldPythia]

Many Christian sects have emphasized Paul's letters over the teachings of Jesus as presented in the Gospels, because they can use different parts to justify their political agenda. I can't tell you how many times I've heard Christian preachers quote, "Those of you who don't work, shouldn't eat." (2 Thessalonians 3:10) as the rationale for the government in the U.S. not to aid those with low-wealth or who are unhoused.

[DneilB]

I appreciate it when Dan also talks about the “lies to children” versions of Christian bloggers/TikTokers/YouTubers, where they aren’t really saying things that are untrue or misleading, but they are saying things that are grossly oversimplified versions of the truth on the ground in terms of the scholarly consensuses and also the major points of dissent from the consensus.

[greenspeed]

Thank you Dan for your well-researched, well articulated treatment of this topic. Also, thank you for not being overly confident of positions that don't have substantial data.

[ji]

Yes absolutely, Paul founded Christianity, BUT it would surprise the hell out of him to find that out because he thought the world was about to end.

[h_in_oh]

Elon Gilad's central point is still valid that many basics of Christianity that followers attribute directly to Jesus are really from Paul's fork, even if it is an oversimplification of the long development process that followed. It is a curious exercise to consider what it would have been without those changes.

[silvergenx]

I once wrote a college paper, called something like History of Paulianity for a class about the subject of early Christianity. As someone who had been a Christian prior to this, I'd always found it distressing the degree to which Paul influenced Christianity. More so than the disciples. And I know there were others, such as St Augustine, who also heavily influenced Christianity, and that their beliefs were - in turn - influenced by other non Abrahamic - faiths.

But it all started with Paul. A man whose histoey isn't what we were taught and who clearly had his own agenda.

[fingerjack]

Great to hear an intellectual dialogue that was interesting and thoughtful rather than just the easy fish in a barrel for a change. Probably won't get as many views, not as fun to watch for some but I enjoyed it.

[mitchtherevolution]

All of the genuine epistles predate the Gospels by decades.

[JustAskingNo]

Said with repect for those of true faith but also as a "former" practitioner : incredible the the amount of anguish and turmoil created over something that all of us are searching for but for which there will NEVER be an answer until life is over.

[mikepolioudakis]

Protestantism is one of the two main Western European based branches of modern Christianity. It is one of the three main branches of modern Christianity as a whole: Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Western Protestant. Dr M certainly knows this. His focus on the West is a common wrong stance that still remains operative in the background even among adept scholars. In Dr M's case, this tacit stance does not undermine his work, which remains amazingly correct and useful. Thanks. Mikte

[Chriliman]

Really appreciate your ability to communicate clearly and logically. Would you consider doing more historical discussion on who Paul was and what he said about Jesus and how and why the gospels were made. The historical dynamic between Jewish scholars and Roman political interests is fascinating, especially as an explanation for the motivation Saul/Paul may have had and whoever wrote the gospels to kind of subvert the Jewish idea of a militant messiah, which motivated their rebellion against Rome.

[munbruk]

Paul invented a "gentile" branch of Christianity which was a distortion of Jesus message and was focusing primarily on the crucifixion and the spiritual resurrection of Jesus. He got few right and other things wrong. His branch flourished because of the Empire and politics.

[nunyabusiness]

I love your channel and it's so great to see how much consistency in scholarship there is across religious and non-religious historians on this subject.

I'm non religious and anti theist and it's partly because of how often i see apologists lie about these things and the religious uncritically believe them (And a million other things) that I believe religion is corrosive to critical thinking in general but it really gives me hope and makes me examine my biases when I hear from deeply religious people like you who can set aside their biases and are willing to probably put up with a lot of criticism from the religious to do the good work of historical research.

Great channel and you've earned a subscription.

[maxdanielj]

The song "fly from heaven" by Toad the Wet Sprocket is about the idea that Paul redefined Jesus

[zxys]

I luv this. my name is Paul (raised catholic) and I've always been interested in the stories/text and history (time-lines) of Paul. It's clear he had a lot of influence and shaping of what was/is. Knowing he never meet the person he was promoting and he's the main influence is wild. (holding that thought in your head) Imagine you're him and you helped persecute the those people you are later promoting/selling this idea too others... blows my mind! Reminds me of ~catholic (guilt) car salesman (conman) and/or imagine someone he knew got whacked or he protected someone he knew and went north to escape (hey Luke, let's get the heck out of this place, now!) Today's stories using real-time audio/video digital data falls short in our modern courts within a month/year and yet these >2k yr - 3rd party stories, 2-10 centuries later, with >10k interpretions are still being processed/reviewed. Can we all agree, getting past the dogma, that going over/over/over/over/over, .. this material, we'd classify this repeating as a form of social insanity?

[niel-wg]

"If you can't beat them, take them over" Paul maybe

[mskone]

I've always questioned the influence of Paul on Christianity.

[EarnestApostate]

I would love to hear the arguments on each side of the Luke/Acts shared authorship debate. I was surprised that you were a skeptic on it, and would be interested to know why (and also why it seems to be the consensus).

Thanks for what you do Dan!