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[SIZE=+4]BET EMET MINISTRIES[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+2]Hebrew For "The House Of Truth"[/SIZE]
Craig M. Lyons Ms.D., D.D., M.Div.
[SIZE=+1][SIZE=+1][email protected][/SIZE][/SIZE]A QUICK PRIMER ON THE AUTHENTIC EPISTLES OF PAUL
There are seven New Testament letters that most modern scholars believe were definitely authored by Paul. Those seven letters are:
- 1 Thessalonians
- Galatians
- Philippians
- Philemon
- 1 Corinthians
- 2 Corinthians
- Romans | 1-15 | 16
(The 16th chapter of "Romans" was actually written to the church in Ephesus, but it is part of Romans in the canonical New Testament letters.)
Of the fourteen epistles ascribed to Paul, seven -- Ephesians, Colossians, Second Thessalonians, First and Second Timothy, Titus, and Hebrews -- are conceded by nearly all critics to be spurious while three others -- Philippians, First Thessalonians, and Philemon -- are often debated and by some generally classed as doubtful.
Many theologians believe that there is some material embedded in some of Paul's epistles that is actually much more recent material from other Christian sources - e.g. hymns, creedal formulas, confessions of faith. They seem to date from as late as the middle of the second century CE, some 85 years after Paul's death.
A.Q. Morton completed an analysis of these Epistles (S.M. Gilmour, "The Letters of Paul," essay in C.M. Laymon: "The Interpreter's One-Volume Commentary on the Bible," Abingdon Press, Nashville, TN (1991). He assumed that Galatians was written by Paul, and did a computer study of the style of the remaining letters using that epistle as a reference. His computer found that only Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, and Philemon matched the precise writing style of the author of Galatians. He assumed that the remaining 8 were written in the name of Paul by persons unknown.
The general verdict concerning the first seven is thus expressed by the Rev. Dr. Hooykaas: [SIZE=+1]"Fourteen epistles are said to be Paul's; but we must at once strike off one, namely, that to the Hebrews, which does not bear his name at all.... The two letters to Timothy and the letter to Titus were certainly composed long after the death of Paul.... It is more than possible that the letters to the Ephesians and Colossians are also unauthentic, and the same suspicion rests, perhaps, on the first, but certainly on the second of the Epistles to the Thessalonians"[/SIZE] (Bible for Learners, Vol. III, p. 23).
The author of Second Thessalonians, whose epistle is a self-evident forgery, declares First Thessalonians to be a forgery. Baur and the Tubingen school reject both Epistles. Baur also rejects Philippians: [SIZE=+1]"The Epistles to the Colossians and to the Philippians ... are spurious, and were written by the Catholic school near the end of the second century, to heal the strife between the Jew and the Gentile factions"[/SIZE] (Paulus). Dr. Kuenen and the other Dutch critics admit that Philippians and Philemon, as well as First Thessalonians, are doubtful.
That the Pastoral Epistles are forgeries is now conceded by all critics. According to the German critics they belong to the second century. Hebrews does not purport to be a Pauline document. Luther says: [SIZE=+1]"The Epistle to the Hebrews is not by St. Paul, or, indeed, by any apostle"[/SIZE] (Standing Preface to Luther's N.T.).
Four Epistles -- Romans, First and Second Corinthians, and Galatians -- while rejected by a few critics, are generally admitted to be the genuine writings of Paul. These books were written, it is claimed, about a quarter of a century after the death of Christ. They are, in the minds of many Biblical scholars, the only books of the New Testament whose authenticity can be maintained.
1 and 2 Timothy and Titus were definitely pseudonymous (written by a unknown person, passing the writings off as Paul's.) They were written 35 to 85 years after Paul's death. Although such a writer would be considered a forger today, the practice was quite common in the 1st century CE, and was considered acceptable behavior.
We are often guilty of judging 1st century CE traditions by today's ethical standards. As stated in the New Jerusalem Bible:[SIZE=+1] "The best explanation may be that the Pastoral Epistles are letters written by a follower of Paul, conscious of inheriting his mantle and seeking to give advice and instruction for the administration of local churches. This adoption of a revered name in such circumstances was a literary convention of the times."[/SIZE]
SO WHAT SHOULD WE UNDERSTAND FROM THIS PERSPECTIVE UPON THE TRUE PAULINE EPISTLES?
Well there are many things.
- First of all we should question if we should approach the New Testament with the idea that all that it is contained within it is indeed infallible and inerrant and the word of God in all places.
- Next we should realize the important responsibility we have to become students of the New Testament in order to gain credible knowledge of the earliest expression of Christianity and its devolution whereby we can safely read and interpret the New Testament and sift the "truth" from the "error" and replacement religion which will come later through the antisemitism and pens of the later anti-Gnostic proto-Catholics.
In so doing we will come to see along the way as we separate out the earlier authentic Pauline epistles from the later forgeries of Pauline epistles that there are two different "Jesus" being taught in the New Testament within the supposed Paul's writings. One is the representation of Yahweh's Salvation in the form of the "allegorical Christ" within mankind to which we are to awaken unto once our "eyes are opened" through gnosis and receiving the mystical teachings from Paul and others. The other is the presentation of a historical human Jesus of the later forged Pauline writings. Over one hundred years span the difference in time between the earlier presentation of Paul's "hidden Christ within" and the presentation of the "gnostic Christ" of the authentic Epistles of Paul written in the 50-60s C.E.
Admitting the authenticity of these books, however, is not admitting the historical existence of Christ and the divine origin of Christianity as it exists today. Let us never forget that Paul was not a witness of the alleged events upon which Christianity rests. He did not become a convert to Christianity until many years after the death of Christ. He did not see Christ (save in a vision); he did not listen to his teachings; he did not learn from his disciples and in fact refused to go to them for 14 years or more.
[SIZE=+1]Gal 1:11-12 11 But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. 12 For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. (KJV). [/SIZE]
Paul accepted only to a very small extent the religion of Christ's Jewish disciples. As shown on an earlier article and on our Pauline website this is not strange once you come to realize that Paul was a Gentile who converted to Judaism and at the same time let us understand that the Messiah of Israel comes for the Jews and not the Gentiles. Thus Paul would not have been interested in the human seed of David that was hoped for by Israel as their physical deliverance from Gentile domination. Instead Paul professed to derive his knowledge from supernatural sources -- from trances and visions. Regarding the value of such testimony the author of Supernatural Religion (p. 970) says: [SIZE=+1]"No one can deny, and medical and psychological annals prove, that many men have been subject to visions and hallucinations which have never been seriously attributed to supernatural causes. There is not one single valid reason removing the ecstatic visions and trances of the Apostle Paul from this class." [/SIZE]
The corporeal and historical existence of the "fleshly" Christ of the writings of the later New Testament proto-Catholic "Evangelists" receives no confirmation in the earlier authentic writings of Paul. His Christ was not the incarnate Word of John, nor the demi-god of Matthew and Luke. Of the immaculate conception of Jesus and the supposed virgin birth Paul knew nothing and mentions nothing. No infancy stories or trip to Egypt are mentioned. There are not birth narratives alluded to by Paul at all. Not one mention from the earlier authentic Pauline Epistles is any reference to the human genealogy of Jesus. To Him Christ was the son of God in a spiritual rather than in a physical sense. This makes perfect sense once we realize that Paul was a Gnostic Christian.
With the Evangelists the proofs of Christ's divinity are his miracles. Their books teem with accounts of these. But Paul evidently knows nothing of these miracles because he mentions none of them. With him the evidences of Christ's divine mission are his resurrection and the spiritual gifts conferred on those who accept him and who awaken to "the Christ" within.
The Evangelists teach a material resurrection but contrary to what you might assume Paul did not. Paul's resurrection was not a physical but rather a spiritual resurrection within the soul of mankind. Speaking to people who obviously were not dead Paul says:
[SIZE=+1]
Eph 5:14 14 Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. (KJV) [/SIZE]
When the woman visited his tomb "they entered in and found not the body of Jesus" (Luke 24:3). The divine messengers said to the in verse 6, "He is not here, but is risen". "He sat at meat" with his disciples; "he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them" (verse 30). "Then he said to Thomas, "Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side" (John 20:27). This is entirely at variance with the teachings of Paul. "But not is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept.
For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead" (I Cor. 15:20, 21). "But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come? Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die; and that which thou sowest thou sowest not that body that shall be" (35-37).
[SIZE=+1]"It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body" (44).[/SIZE] [SIZE=+1]"Now this I say brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God" (50).[/SIZE]Answer for yourself: Now does that sound like a physical resurrection to you in the pattern of a supposed physical resurrection of a prior Christ Jesus?
The Christ that Paul saw in a vision was a spiritual being -- an apparition; and this appearance he considers of exactly the same character as the post mortem appearances of Christ to his disciples. [SIZE=+1]"He was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve; after that he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; ... after that, he was seen of James; then all of the Apostles. And last of all, he was seen of me also"[/SIZE] (I Cor. 15:5-8).
Let us keep in mind that Paul's biblical letters (Epistles) serve as the oldest surviving Christian texts, written probably around 60 C.E. As shown above most scholars have little reason to doubt that Paul wrote some of them himself. However, there occurs not a single instance in all of Paul's writings that he ever meets or sees an earthly Jesus, nor does he give any reference to Jesus' life on earth. Paul never mentions in his early authentic Epistles:
- The virgin birth
- Any infancy narratives
- Any birth stories of Jesus
- Any genealogical reference to Jesus being from David
Therefore, all accounts about a historical Jesus could only have come from other believers that followed Paul.
Of course one article proves nothing and that is not my intent. My intent however is to alert good people and believers in the Christ and the Jesus of the New Testament to the fact that we have serious problems and deficiencies in the New Testament that go unnoticed by almost all but few with some existing knowledge of these problems concerning the historical Jesus and who likewise possess a critical eye when reading these texts in the New Testament. It is truly foolhearty to approach the New Testament believing all things without personal study into the true origin and canonization of the New Testament.
No one has the slightest physical evidence to support a historical Jesus; no artifacts, dwelling, works of carpentry, or self-written manuscripts. All claims about a historical Jesus derive from writings of other people and let me say these writings appear "late"; often later second century.
There occurs no contemporary Roman record that shows Pontius Pilate executing a man named Jesus. Devastating to historians, there occurs [SIZE=+1]not a single contemporary writing[/SIZE] that mentions Jesus. All documents about Jesus got written well after the life of the alleged Jesus from either: unknown authors, people who had never met an earthly Jesus, or from fraudulent, mythical or allegorical writings.
The most "authoritative" accounts of a historical Jesus come from the four canonical Gospels of the Bible. Note that these Gospels did not come into the Bible as original and authoritative from the authors themselves, but rather from the influence of early church fathers, especially the most influential of them all: Irenaeus of Lyon who lived in the middle of the second century. Many heretical gospels got written by that time, but Irenaeus considered only some of them for mystical reasons. He claimed only four in number; according to Romer, [SIZE=+1]"like the four zones of the world, the four winds, the four divisions of man's estate, and the four forms of the first living creatures-- the lion of Mark, the calf of Luke, the man of Matthew, the eagle of John (see Against the Heresies). The four gospels then became Church cannon for the orthodox faith. Most of the other claimed gospel writings were burned, destroyed, or lost."[/SIZE] [Romer]. Not only do we not know who wrote them, consider that none of the Gospels got written during the alleged life of Jesus, nor do the unknown authors make the claim to have met an earthly Jesus. Add to this that none of the original gospel manuscripts exist; we only have copies of copies.
We should take from this article again the need for serious study on our parts to come to the truth concerning just whom this "Jesus Christ" truly is that we read about in the New Testament. A few things are for certain in my opinion and this is the fact that when we separate our Paul's earlier authentic writings to the best of our abilities and read just what he says and writes concerning this earlier "Christ Jesus" and at the same time we do not read into his authentic earlier Epistles what we have been taught to believe about Jesus and what we have been brainwashed to previously think and believe by church tradition then:
At this later time (180 C.E.) we find the first quotes of early Church Fathers from these supposedly existing early 4 Gospels which indicate that there were written late and not early as a refutation of the earliest Gospels of the Gnostic Christians which never taught a human Christ Jesus nor a historical Jesus Christ.
- It is impossible to find a historical Jesus Christ in the authentic Pauline Epistles
- Only when we get to the later forgeries of the Pauline Epistles written long after his death, as late as the later second century, do we find a historical Christ Jesus written in Paul's name
The authentic Paul and his authentic Epistles taught the non-human Divine mediator which lies sleeping within each child of God; the "Christ
within" which lives within each child of God which is his link between the Spirit and material world. Paul taught this "Christ within" to which Paul was called to make known to the Gentile world which did not possess this knowledge or understanding of God and the "sleeping" God within the souls of mankind which are trapped in this material universe.
[SIZE=+1]Col 1:27 27 To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: (KJV) [/SIZE][SIZE=+1]Gal 4:19 19 My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you, (KJV) [/SIZE]
In closing notice please where this "Christ" resides. Paul says "in you" not "out there". This is the message of the 7 authentic Epistles of Paul. Only later with the forgery of the proto-Catholics with the 4 current Gospels and the other anti-Gnostic Epistles in Paul's name and others do we find the creation of a "fleshly Christ" and a "historical Jesus".
If you so desire, Bet Emet Ministries offers a comprehensive CD of all of our Websites. Included with it is a "study plan" to assure the proper Spiritual evolution of your Soul and its proper development through the following in-depth studies. There is an order in which these 15 websites with numerous articles, should be "studied." This will help to maximize your spiritual growth. Just click on this link for the details as to how you can obtain the CD that consists of the ministry's websites, or should I say, books that were written over the last fifteen to twenty years. Many of these sites are actually books, consisting of hundreds of pages of knowledge that the Roman Church intended you never come to know.
As stated above, we provide a "study plan" for the student and give detailed instructions as how to study these websites "in proper order" to facilitate one's study. Please inquire for the CD for such thorough study will take you some time if you ever hope of cracking the "Jesus Puzzle" and coming to the answer of the question: "Who do men say I am?" Hidden in this study is the manner by which you, a Christian, can come to the point in your life where the true power and demonstration of God in your life can be found and experienced, where you can "say" to the mountains in your life "be gone" and they really flee. Just ask my wife who raised the Christ to life in her life, in a few short months, in time to reverse a disease process going on in her body and is alive today when medical science said otherwise. A mistaken literal and historical understanding of the sacred Scriptures "killeth," but a "mystical" and "metaphysical" understanding of the true indwelling Christ in you, as the real St. Paul teaches, raises you from the dead in this Earthly life and gives you the demonstration of the Power of God in your life. No tricks here, but just truth, truth kept from us by a less than truthful group of men that changed the original understanding of the Ancient Wisdom to keep humanity ignorant and in fear, thus selfishly controlling them when they no longer had enough swords to do so.
Don't let this ignorance of the truth continue in your life. It is time to experience the resurrection of Christ from the dead in you NOW!
- [SIZE=+1][SIZE=+1]Bet Emet Ministries[/SIZE][/SIZE]
- [SIZE=+1][SIZE=+1]Rev. Craig Lyons Ms.D., D.D., M.Div.[/SIZE][/SIZE]
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http://firstnewtestament.com/the_epistles_paul.htm
