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There a claim in some circles that Paul is a "false apostle", creating a new religion from whole cloth. I fear trying to flesh out any one particular version of such a claim, but one such example is chapter 7 here: http://www.judaismvschristianity.com/. This seems like a relatively recent historical claim.

Are there any scholarly discussions of the matter? I know Vermes wrote something from the Jewish perspetive awhile ago, making some version of the above argument. I would be especially interested in a robust criticism of this doctrine.

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This is not exactly a repeat of How do we know Paul wasn't a false Apostle? since I am asking for scholarly references. – Peter F. Sep 11 '12 at 22:07
There are some pretty scholarly debates out there about whether or not we've interpreted Paul correctly in (I don't buy it at all but see the New Perspective on Paul stuff for more) but I have never seen anything remotely scholarly on the idea of him being entirely false. There are people claiming Christianity was Paul's idea and not Jesus, and stuff like that, but their claims don't hold up to study or history so they don't attract a lot of attention from serious scholars. I'm not sure how much we're going to be able to come up with here. – Caleb Sep 12 '12 at 10:35
I am among the unstable referenced. It seems to be axiomatic that the Christian community is so invested in the idea that Paul is foundational and thus not susceptible to criticism. I am not a part of the jesuswordonly crowd, but I do not understand how they can be dismissed so easily. Obviously 2 Peter presents problems with critics of Paul. Is it possible that 2 Peter was a forgery by possibly a supporter of Paul (or anyone else)? – Robert Rey Black Mar 27 at 21:30

2 Answers

To understand the question I have read chapter 7 from http://www.judaismvschristianity.com/ and here is my impression of the argument as someone who has spent thirty years studying the scriptures, church history and doctrine.

First, the article is not remotely scholarly nor is their any scholarly debate to support it. Outside of a few confused interpretations of a few biblical events, it does not cite any external history or facts to support the argument. For this reason there is no 'scholarly refutation' of the argument, since the argument is not recognized academically. Therefore, my response may be the closest thing to scholarly as I am at least willing to investigate the claim and provide a reasoned response to it, whereas most scholars would not be bothered.

Second the article uses information that naturally oppose the argument itself making it not only not scholarly but completely illogical.

As the argumentation is so flimsy and unsupported by scripture and church history I will only outline the authors primary argument and show how easily it can be dismissed as sham logic.

It is argued that his Apostleship was unrecognized by the other Apostles.

Answer: Anyone familiar with scripture would realize that he was fully recognized by all the Apostles, otherwise the letters of the other Apostles would have warned congregations of this 'false Apostle'. Instead they gave him full support. For example, Peter knowing Paul often referred to himself as 'an Apostle' in his letters (because there were false teachers who challenged his Apostleship) said this:

Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position. (NIV 2 Peter 3:15-17)

Here Peter infers Paul's letters are also the scriptures which unstable people distort. That means when Paul said he was an Apostle, Peter included the statement as scripture.

This verse also, so succinctly describes the argument of this author in his article on the website. Everything argued in so contrary to serious thought and expresses such ignorance of the scripture that it must come from an 'unstable mind'. Even a stable minded unbeliever would recognize that if Paul had hijacked Christianity history would have recorded great conflict between Peter and Paul, yet no such conflict is recorded in Christian history. Furthermore, a stable mind that does believe in Christ would find it highly improbable that the Messiah would have established a new kingdom and glorious phase of Salvation history upon a Rock (which the gates of hell could not prevail against) and then immediately allow a false Apostle, quickly overthrowing that kingdom. (Ref Math 16:18)

The rest of his arguments are similar and as easy to shred into pieces, but since the foundation of his theories are already laid waste their is no apparent purpose to proceed.

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It easy to prove that Paul is the false apostle the one the Lord spoke about in Revelation 2:2

See my site http://www.lasttrumpet.org/paul_false_apostle.htm

Also see the site jesus words only and book by the same name, great book by a very scholarly author. http://www.jesuswordsonly.com/

Blessings Pastor Douglas Nicholson Last Trumpet Org Ministries / Newport Beach, CA

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I see this as a common belief among hose that fit the profile of "red letter Christians", an you linked to jesuswordsonly.com, which seems to fit hat profile. Is the belief that Paul is false apostle a central belief to the RLC view? – David Stratton Oct 12 '12 at 4:45
@Douglas - "Jesus words only" is very much preaching a very specific interpretation of what Jesus said... something IMO literally not possible to do. So it seems to me they are on the one hand saying you as an individual should only follow Jesus (not Paul), but then they quickly try to play the role of teacher themselves. – Hammer Oct 12 '12 at 6:43

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