Was St Paul a fictional character? A mythicist perspective.

[LogicalFallacy]

Below are two videos of a two part interview with Ken Humphrey's regarding his view that St Paul is a fictional character. 

 

Feel free to discuss. My perspective is that Paul, or at least whoever wrote the Pauline letters existed, but as Ken points out, many of the events described cannot have happened due to inconstancies. Maybe our friend @JamesL would like to take a look as well and comment on some of the discrepancies mentioned?

 

 

 

[Joshpantera]

This is interesting. I've gone over it before. And the thing is, there isn't any historical record for Paul or the other disciples any more than for jesus. Marcion discovers these Pauline letters in Antioch during the 2nd century and that brings them into the historical record. So we have no way of knowing who the real writers may have been. 

 

The whole thing has to be taken on faith, basically. Even on the historical level. Faith that this history has any merit at all. 

 

 

[TheRedneckProfessor]

11 hours ago, LogicalFallacy said:

Maybe our friend @JamesL would like to take a look as well and comment on some of the discrepancies mentioned?

But St. Paul was a tent maker; and James lives in a tent.  Tents can't exist without being created; therefore St. Paul must exist, and James' tent proves it.  Checkmate, motherfucker.  

 

If only you would sell all your possessions and send the money to an offshore bank account located in the Cayman Islands in the name of Johnny Redneck, god would help you believe. 

[pantheory]

On 4/4/2021 at 4:16 AM, LogicalFallacy said:

Below are two videos of a two part interview with Ken Humphrey's regarding his view that St Paul is a fictional character. 

 

Feel free to discuss. My perspective is that Paul, or at least whoever wrote the Pauline letters existed, but as Ken points out, many of the events described cannot have happened due to inconstancies. Maybe our friend @JamesL would like to take a look as well and comment on some of the discrepancies mentioned?

 

 

 

 

In my view from what I have read over time, is that Paul might have been the only "apostle" that was not completely mythical. And of course the character Jesus, of the bible, was probably mythical, even though the story might have had its basis in a real person, maybe like the difference between Dracula, and Vlad the Impaler.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlad_the_Impaler

 

Although I think Paul was a real person, his biblical persona might expectedly involve a great deal of fiction.

 

My Speculation: Paul may have been the first ably activated person to hear the oral, fictional tradition of Jesus, after the death of someone like Jesus, having at least a little similarity to the New Testament stories, before these books were actually written. He may have liked what he heard, and his asserted dreamed imaginations of Jesus might have been real dreams. So he decided to preach his version of the gospel, based upon his remembrance of the oral story, and his intellectual and sales capabilities to form an alternative sect of Judaism.