Were the writings and gospel of Paul, one of the founders of Christianity, based on nothing more than hallucinations? Did he have a schizotypical personality and believed he was in direct contact with a celestial Jesus?
A Little Background
Paul is the earliest Christian source we have. His 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Romans, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians and possibly Philemon are usually dated to around the 50s BC and are commonly agreed to be authentic (although even these seven letters have been meddled with). 2 Thessalonians, Ephesians and Colossians are forgeries perhaps from the latter half of the first century but may contain redactions of some lost Pauline letters. 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus are definite forgeries from a later date.
Was Paul's Jesus An Actual Man?
The following quote is from a modern-day psychologist and concerns one of Paul’s letters to fellow congregants in Rome whom he has never met and couldn’t have previously shared any stories with.
Imagine for a moment that one of your friends writes you a twenty-page letter passionately wanting to share her excitement about a new teacher. This letter has only one topic, your friend’s new teacher. [But] at the end of her letter you still do not know one thing about her teacher. Yet, Paul presents the central figure of his theology this way….It [seems] impossible to imagine how Paul could avoid telling one story or parable of – or fail to note one physical trait or personal quality of – Jesus. [1]
What does this mean? Well, in the seven authentic letters of Paul, he mentions Jesus, by name or title, over three hundred times. On half of these occasions, Paul tells us some fact concerning this Jesus but not one of these facts actually connects Jesus with living an earthly life. Even mentions of the crucifixion and resurrection, which are mentioned over forty-five times, are devoid of any details. It is startling to realise that Paul never mentions:-
- Jesus’ baptism
- Jesus’ ministry
- Any miracles
- Jesus’ trial
- Any details on what Jesus did, what he was like, where Jesus was from or where he had been.
- There are no mentions of Galilee or Nazareth
- Pilate, Joseph and Mary never get a mention.
When Paul could have used a reference to Jesus’ life to better further an argument, he doesn’t. Neither do his opponents make any appeal to the life of an earthly Jesus to make a point.
Anything Paul claims to know about Jesus he says he gained from private revelations and hidden messages within scripture. He doesn’t reference, at all, anyone who were eye-witnesses to the life of Jesus or even anyone who knew someone who knew him. It is as if a real-life Jesus never existed. In fact, there is no indication at all that Paul is writing about a historical Jesus in any of his writings. All he seems to have knowledge of is a celestial being.
This is totally consistent with the earliest form of Christianity being a Judeo-Hellenistic mystery religion. Like other mystery cults, Christianity had secret doctrines that only initiates were privy to and were rooted in esoteric astral or metaphysical theology. The general public were only being told Christian beliefs through myths and allegory. To obtain the true meaning Christian leaders (ie Paul) regularly hallucinated and believed their dreams were divine communications. They also achieved trace states, practised glossolalia (the speaking of tongues – not proper languages but rather gibberish - see 1 Corinthians 14) and were susceptible to psychosomatic illness.
From what we can take from his writings, Paul today would be classed as a schizotypal type personality. Whereas in our modern day world this would be deemed an incapacity, in antiquity schizotypals would be regarded as prophets and holy men and would naturally gravitate to religious cults.
Scholars have argued that the origin of Christianity can be attributed to hallucinations of the risen Jesus. Richard Carrier explores all this in depth in his book ‘On the Historicity of Jesus – Why We Might Have Reason for Doubt’ and provides a very compelling argument that early Christians gained their facts and teachings of Jesus from revelation and scripture rather than from any witnesses or second-hand accounts.
Paul demonstrates this in Romans 16.25-26
Now to him who is able to establish you in accordance with my gospel, the message I proclaim about Jesus Christ, in keeping with the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all the Gentiles might come to the obedience that comes from faith [2]
And also in Galatians 1.11-12
I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.[3]
Summary
There are many scholars who now believe that Paul (along with the other apostles who founded the Christian cult – Peter, James and John) was only ever writing about a Jesus he saw and heard in revelation and hallucination. He used no sources which were based on the life of a real living person.
Could it be that the Christian religion is based on the idea that Jesus only ever existed as a celestial being and was never a living human being? The evidence says yes.
In the next post of this series, I will look at how religious cults of antiquity were based on this idea and how easy it would be for the Christian cult to have arisen.
Sources
[1] ‘On the Historicity of Jesus – Why We Might Have Reason for Doubt’ by Richard Carrier – Chapter 11 – ‘The Evidence of the Epistles’ – Section 2. ‘The Peculiar Indifference of Paul and his Christians’ – Quoting from Billy Wheaton and Joy Fuller, ‘Hooks and Ladders: A Journey on a Bridge to Nowhere with American Evangelical Christians’ (Bloomington, IN: iUniverse, 2009), p.31
[2] Romans - www.biblegateway.com
[3] Galatians - www.biblegateway.com
Images
Header Image from www.biographyonline.net
My Previous Posts
Hypotheses of Jesus historicity and Jesus myth
Why many biblical scholars cannot be objective
Jesus Christ - History or Myth?
The Gospels are not historical -
Mark, Matthew, Luke, & John
The Gospels are not eye-witness accounts
A challenge to all religious believers
Nice post. The crusifiction story is mentioned in multiple older pagan religions as well, were the "hero" is crusified. There are a lot of references to astrology in the bible stories as well.
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Its one cent more than it was so Is appreciate it! :D