Civilization #25: Paul of Tarsus, Messiah of Rome

We've previously talked about the central paradox in Christianity: what Jesus believes is different from what Christianity teaches us about Jesus.

Let's review what Jesus believes and teaches versus what Christianity teaches us about him. Jesus is one of our great spiritual leaders and geniuses, like the Buddha. There's a three-tiered approach to his religion or philosophy.

1. The Outer Layer: This is what he tells people in public. We know this very well. He believes in generosity, mercy, and focusing on being a good and kind person.
2. The Inner Layer: This is what he teaches his disciples. We also know this very well. He demands that the people who follow him give up all worldly possessions and pursuits. If you're rich and want to follow him, you must abandon all your wealth. He demands self-sacrifice from all his apostles.
3. The Secret Layer: This is the philosophy that underpins all these religious teachings. The secret is that this world we live in is false. What's really true is the divine spark within us that allows us to connect to the true reality of the monad, or the One. The world we live in is being controlled by a monster, and that's why you should not hate the rich; you should pity them. The rich are pursuing what is false, and in the pursuit of what is false, it is causing them to feel anger and self-hatred.

Jesus has this great metaphor: the person of wealth is like someone drinking salt water. The more you drink, the more thirsty you become, and you feel it's because you have not drunk enough. So you drink more and more salt water, and eventually, you will poison yourself. That's how he feels about the pursuit of wealth. It is poisonous; it will only lead to your ultimate demise. That's why it's important to focus instead on our humanity, on our connection with others. That's why it's important to be compassionate. And you should be most compassionate towards the rich because they are the ones who are most misguided and deluded.

That's Jesus. His teachings are no different from Buddhist teachings, Hindu teachings, or Taoist teachings. All these major religions are aligned in this belief.

But then you have the Jesus of the Bible, who is portrayed very differently. In the Bible, Jesus is the Son of God, and there's a conflict between God and humanity. We humans committed the original sin; we disobeyed him and ate from the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Therefore, God banished us from Paradise, and ever since, we've been living in misery. God expects us to acknowledge our failings and ask for forgiveness, but because we are ignorant, misguided, and sinful, we refuse to apologize.

Therefore, Jesus has to come to Earth and sacrifice himself in the crucifixion. He has to crucify himself to atone for our sins and to wash us of all our past sins so that we can begin anew. After he has completed the sacrifice, he is resurrected, ascends to heaven, and prepares for the day when he will return to destroy all evil and build an eternal Paradise on Earth. This is what is known as the Second Coming.

This is an extremely powerful story, but it's also very complicated and, in many ways, contradictory. If Jesus is the Son of God, then what is God's role in this? How does a Son of God—a god—actually die on Earth? And why does he have to die first before he can return again? There are a lot of contradictions in this story that you don't have in the first Jesus's teachings.

The question I want to ask today is: how did we get from here—Jesus teaching us about the kingdom of God, that it is within us and accessible to all who are willing to do good—to this idea, which demands that we believe Jesus is the Son of God who came to sacrifice himself to redeem us from our sins and will eventually return to bring Eternal Paradise to Earth? These are two very different worldviews. How do we get from here to here?

The Clever Construction of the Jesus Story

A lot of the clue lies in the Bible and the story of Jesus. What's interesting about the Jesus story is that he gets into trouble when he goes into Jerusalem. Before, he was in the provinces, building a large following, healing people, and spreading the kingdom of God message. He was very popular and very safe. But then he went to Jerusalem and ran afoul of the religious elite, the high priests. Eventually, they rallied the Jewish people against Jesus and persecuted him.

Jesus was betrayed by a man named Judas Iscariot, one of his followers. The Jews brought Jesus before Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea. At first, Pontius Pilate refused to punish him, but the Jews insisted, so Pilate had to eventually crucify Jesus to satisfy the will of the Jewish people.

This story is constructed in a way that's very clever.

Who in history was also persecuted by his own people, which caused his death?

Socrates. This story reminds us of Socrates—the persecution of a truth-teller.

Who else was betrayed by his own followers?

Julius Caesar. You see how clever this is? The two most famous individuals in world history at this point, Socrates and Julius Caesar, are brought into the story of Jesus so that it conflates all three together. Jesus is Socrates is Julius Caesar. That's very clever.

You can only do this if you have a very nuanced understanding of Greek history, Roman history, and the Hebrew Bible. And in fact, at this time, there are individuals who possess all three sets of knowledge. They are called Hellenized Jews in the Roman Empire. If you are a Hellenized Jew, meaning you grew up with a Greek education in the Roman Empire, you have access to all three major sets of knowledge: the Hebrew Bible, Greek philosophy, and Roman history.

The major individual in the Bible who is a Hellenized Jew in the Roman Empire is named Paul. He is credited with most of the writing of the New Testament. About a third of the New Testament, which is the Christian Bible, is either written by Paul or is about Paul. That's why we believe that not Jesus, but Paul, is the real founder of Christianity. Christianity is not a religion by Jesus; it's a religion about Jesus. And there's a difference.

The Life and Times of Paul

Let's talk about the life and times of Paul because it's a very interesting story. Everything I'm telling you comes from the Bible, from a book called Acts of the Apostles, which is about what happens after Jesus dies.

After Jesus dies, his brother, James the Just, becomes the leader of his movement. They're often called "the poor" because they're focused on a life that denies worldly goods. They believe this material reality we live in is evil and we have to focus on the spiritual life. That's why they demand poverty; they themselves are poor and demand that everyone who believes in them is also poor. The word for them is Ebionites. This is important because the Ebionites will eventually leave Jerusalem and go to Arabia, where they will help found the religion of Islam. I want you to keep this in mind.

So, James the Just and his followers are in Jerusalem. What this tells us is if they're in Jerusalem and they're not from Jerusalem, then they are being protected and honored by the Jewish elite. This is evidence that it was not the Jews who killed Jesus; it was the Romans who killed Jesus. Because if the Jews killed Jesus, all his followers would have to leave Jerusalem. But after his death, they're all basically in Jerusalem. This is a major contradiction in the Bible.

Who is Paul?

We actually know very little about the early life of Paul. We know that he's from a place called Tarsus, which is part of the Jewish diaspora. He himself is Jewish, and he's a Roman citizen, which is pretty rare for a Jewish person. You only get citizenship by doing one of three things:

• You're born of citizens, which is probably the case with Paul. He tells us in the Bible, "I'm born a Roman citizen," therefore his parents were citizens, which means his parents were very wealthy and part of the Roman elite.
• You serve as a soldier for 20 years.
• You provide service to the emperor, who honors you with citizenship if you have shown devotion.

It's very hard to be a Roman citizen, but Paul is one. As a Roman citizen, he grew up secular, learning Greek rhetoric. He learned Socrates, Plato, Homer—all that. For whatever reason, he converted and became a Pharisee. Remember, Pharisees are Jewish priests who will eventually become rabbis. As a Pharisee, he's very fanatical. We know that if you convert, you actually become very fanatical.

As a Pharisee, he was tasked with destroying the Jesus movement. That kind of makes no sense because we just said that if James the Just and the followers of Jesus are in Jerusalem, that means they are being protected and honored by the Pharisees. This is a major contradiction that no one has actually explained. You'll see a lot of these contradictions in the Bible.

Anyway, the story continues. He's a Pharisee, and he's fanatical about destroying the Jesus movement because it is heresy; Jesus thinks of himself as a messiah, and he's not. Eventually, Paul decides to go to Damascus to destroy the Jesus movement there, but on the road, he sees the light. It's Jesus talking to him, saying, "Paul, stop persecuting me and my people." At this point, Paul has something called the Damascus moment. The Damascus moment is a very famous metaphor in English; it means to see the light and to change your opinion, to convert to the true belief.

At this point, Paul becomes a fanatical follower of Jesus, even though he's never met Jesus and he's never met the followers of Jesus. This is extremely weird. But he becomes a fanatical follower and decides he's going to spread the message of Jesus to everyone. The way you do that is you just go to synagogues and tell Jews that Jesus is the Messiah. Eventually, he will begin to build the structure and the organization of Christianity. Right now, they're not called Christians; they're still Jews, and Jesus and his followers are considered a branch of Judaism.

But there are some major differences.

1. Faith over Works: Paul believes that Jesus is the Messiah. What's really important is he teaches that through faith in Jesus, you will achieve salvation. This is very different from what Jesus himself taught: it is through good works that you achieve salvation. But Paul teaches, no, it is belief in Jesus as a savior that will offer you salvation. The good works don't matter; it's the belief, the faith in Jesus, that matters.
2. Organization and Structure: Paul is focused on organization and structure. Jesus and his followers were very egalitarian; they didn't believe in organization, hierarchy, or structure. But Paul insists that only if you have hierarchy, organization, and structure will you have the ability to fully promote Jesus's message to the people. So he's building churches around the Roman Empire.
3. Compromise for Conversion: For Paul, what mattered first and foremost was to convert as many people as possible, because belief in Jesus meant salvation. So, we have a duty to save as many people as possible. It's important to make compromises, for example, on circumcision. There were many in the Jewish diaspora around the Roman Empire who weren't circumcised because their fathers were Greek and their mothers were Jewish. Paul felt it was very important to bring these people into the religion, so he basically said, "You know what? If you're 20 years old and you're not circumcised, don't worry about it. The law doesn't matter. What matters is your faith in Jesus."

These are the three radical changes that Paul makes to the religion being developed around Jesus. As you can imagine, this is pissing off Jewish people, especially back in Jerusalem. James the Just hears about this from all his Jewish friends, who say, "This guy Paul is going around the Roman Empire and teaching everyone that it's not important to follow Jewish law and customs. It's not important to be Jewish. What's important is to believe in Jesus."

The Conflict Between Paul and James the Just

James the Just and Paul start to have a major argument. James is writing to Paul and saying, "Paul, what's going on? Why are you telling people you don't have to follow Jewish law?" Paul writes back and says, "What matters is not the letter of the law; what matters is the spirit of the law. If Jesus has come and he's the Savior, then believing in him is what matters, and we need to get as many people to believe in Jesus as possible."

For example, Gentiles—non-Jews—want to believe in Jesus, but they're 20, 30, 40 years old. How can they circumcise themselves? "I'm just trying to open up the religion. I'm the Apostle to the Gentiles." Paul names himself the Apostle to the Gentiles, the non-Jews. "I am liberating this religion for all. I am bringing this religion to everyone—Greek, Roman, and Jew alike."

Eventually, this conflict becomes so bitter that James the Just spreads rumors about Paul, and many of Paul's churches now start to abandon him. Remember, James the Just is Jesus's brother, so there's an authority there. It's James the Just, not Paul. Paul becomes very angry and tries many tricks. For example, he tries to bribe James the Just by offering him money. He also writes letters complaining about James, saying, "Just because you're Jesus's brother doesn't mean you know what he actually says, because Jesus talked to me, man. Jesus came to me in a vision. Therefore, I'm the one who really understands Jesus."

Eventually, Paul decides, "You know what? This conflict is so bad, everyone's leaving me. I have to go to Jerusalem and sort things out with James." So he goes to Jerusalem and meets with James. At first, the meeting goes well, but then in Jerusalem, the people who don't like Paul recognize him and start to mob him. They want to kill this guy.

What's really interesting about how this is written is it's very similar to the Jesus story, where Jesus is being mobbed by Jews. At this point, Paul is about to be ripped apart by the Jewish mob, but then Roman soldiers come and save him. Paul does something that's different from Jesus: Paul tells the soldiers, "I am a Roman citizen." The soldiers are like, "Oh, wow, okay, then we must protect you. We must ensure that you get fair treatment."

Paul is brought to the Roman governor, who doesn't believe Paul has broken any laws, but there's a Jewish mob out there who wants to kill him. So now Paul says to the governor, "Let me talk to the Roman Emperor. I will make my case before the Roman Emperor." The governor is like, "Well, then I have no choice. I no longer have the authority to judge you myself. You, as a Roman citizen, have the right to talk to the Roman Emperor. Therefore, I will send soldiers with you to Rome to be judged by the Roman Emperor himself."

If you actually read the Bible, these two stories of Jesus and Paul, you will see how many parallels and similarities there are. But the difference is this: Paul is a Roman citizen, and Jesus is not. Therefore, Jesus was killed because he was not a Roman citizen. If Jesus were a Roman citizen, he could preach all he wants. He could say whatever he wants, but he wasn't, and therefore he was killed.

Paul in Rome: The End of Acts

Paul goes to Rome, and this is how the Acts of the Apostles ends. Let's read it together because the way it is written is extremely fascinating.

When we came into Rome, Paul was allowed to live by himself, with the soldier who was guarding him.

This makes no sense. Paul is a criminal. The Jews are accusing Paul of violating their laws. Paul has returned to Rome to be judged by the Roman Emperor. But this is what the Bible says: Paul was allowed to live by himself, and he was being guarded by a soldier who was protecting him. That's a contradiction. What's going on here?

It gets more interesting.

Three days later he called together the local leaders of the Jews.

What? This makes no sense. The Jews consider him a criminal, yet he has the power and authority to call all the major Jewish local leaders of Rome into his house for a meeting. Who gave him this power? From the perspective of the Jews, he is a criminal. He's asking people to break the laws of Moses. What's going on here?

When they had assembled, he said to them, “Brothers, though I had done nothing against our people or the customs of our ancestors, yet I was arrested in Jerusalem and handed over to the Romans. When they had examined me, they wanted to release me, because there was no reason for the death penalty in my case. But when the Jews objected, I was compelled to appeal to the emperor—though I had no charge to bring against my nation.”

He's denying any wrongdoing, but he clearly committed wrong. Circumcision is how Jews know they are the chosen people. There's a covenant between Abraham and Yahweh (God). The covenant is that Abraham and his descendants will circumcise themselves as a mark of allegiance to Yahweh, and in return, Yahweh will give them the promised land. Circumcision is core to what it means to be Jewish; in fact, it's the main feature of being Jewish. And here, Paul tells people, "Oh, you don't have to circumcise yourself." So he's clearly breaking the customs and laws of their ancestors, and he's saying, "Nope, I didn't do anything wrong." These are Jewish leaders who know for a fact Paul is guilty of this, but they don't speak up.

Paul continues, saying the Romans wanted to let him go, but the Jews insisted that he be killed. So it's the Romans who saved him. When the Jews wanted to kill him, he told the governor there's a higher authority—the emperor—and he wanted to speak to him. The governor had no choice but to send soldiers to take him to Rome.

Now, this is the most important sentence: "even though I had no charge to bring against my nation." What Paul is saying is this: "I could go talk to the emperor, but if I talk to the emperor, it's because I accuse my people, the Jews, of a crime against a Roman citizen." What he's doing, it's very clever, is he's making a real threat to the Jewish leaders of Rome. "If you mess with me, I'm going to go directly to the emperor and accuse you guys of attacking a Roman citizen." Do you see how radical this is? This speech is radically different from the story before in the Bible. Paul is accusing the Jews of committing a crime, whereas before, the Jews were accusing Paul of committing a crime. And what Paul is saying is, "I'm right because I have access to the emperor, and you don't."

This is how the book ends, the Acts of the Apostles:

He lived there two whole years at his own expense, and welcomed all who came to him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.

He's clearly very wealthy. No one could touch this guy. This is how the story of Paul ends. He's in Rome, he can do whatever he wants, and no one can touch him.

So, who is this guy? How can he do this? In Jerusalem, the mob is trying to kill him, the Roman soldiers come and save him, he goes to Rome, and he tells the Jewish leaders there, "Hey guys, don't mess with me," and they leave him alone, and some even convert. Who is this guy, Paul?

Explaining Paul: Contradictions and Theories

There are a lot of questions in the story of Paul that don't make any sense.

• Who is this guy? He has all this power and money, and he can do whatever he wants, and no one can touch him.
• Why does he convert? His conversion story doesn't make any sense. We're told it's because he saw Jesus. That's fine, but after Jesus talks to him, Jesus sort of disappears from the story. You would think that if Jesus was so important to Paul, Paul would quote from Jesus. But he doesn't. Jesus has a lot of messages, a lot of sayings, but Paul rarely quotes from him.
• Why are their messages so different? We already said that the message of Jesus and the message of Paul are very different. Jesus believed the kingdom of God was within us; through our generosity and mercy, we can achieve salvation. Paul taught everyone it's belief in Jesus that will allow you to achieve salvation, and only belief in Jesus. You can do as much good as you want, but if you don't believe in Jesus, you'll be damned to hell. So all those Buddhists, all those Hindus, all those Zoroastrians who are doing good in the world—too bad, they will be burned in hell. That goes against a lot of the teachings of Jesus.
• Why is he focusing on organization? The heart of religion is spiritual truth, but Paul doesn't really care about that. He cares about the organization, the church: who's in charge, how many members we're attracting, how we can appeal to them more, how we resolve internal political disputes within the church. That's what he cares about. That's very odd.
• Why do the Jews oppose him and the Romans save him?

The Christian Explanation: Divine Plan

The Christian explanation is that Paul was part of a divine plan. Jesus brought truth into the world, but it was Paul who created the structure and the organization that allowed Christianity to spread.

An analogy is the story of McDonald's. In the 1950s, McDonald's was one restaurant in California. It had amazing hamburgers. A man named Ray Kroc visited this restaurant, which was being run by the McDonald brothers. Ray Kroc said to the brothers, "You know what? You guys have an amazing restaurant. Let me scale it out. Let me convince others to start McDonald's around America and the world." This is called the franchise model. The brothers said sure. What Ray Kroc did was he drove everywhere, like Paul, and he had these meetings, like Paul, where he convinced people of the American dream. Ray Kroc said to everyone, "If you open a McDonald's, you will get rich and you will live the American dream." Paul said to everyone, "If you believe in Jesus, you will achieve salvation." Because Kroc was such an amazing salesperson, McDonald's eventually became the largest restaurant empire in the world. Same thing with Paul. Because Paul was such a convincing salesman, Christianity became the most dominant religion in the world. This is all part of God's plan.

Here's the problem: Jesus was not selling hamburgers. In fact, Jesus hated hamburgers. The central message of Jesus is that wealth is wrong, business is wrong, hierarchy is wrong. What matters is the spiritual truth in your heart. So even though this is a Christian belief—that both are part of the divine plan and Paul was basically Jesus's business manager—the problem is Jesus didn't want a business manager. Jesus believed that it was our own individual responsibility to discover our own truths through him.

Other Explanations for Paul

So what are some other explanations for Paul?

• Opportunist/Charlatan: The most basic answer for people who hate Paul is that he was just an opportunist, a charlatan. He saw a business opportunity. Everyone loved Jesus; he had gone viral and was a meme around the world, so Paul wanted to take advantage of that and monetize it. The problem with this is he worked really hard. He traveled all around the Roman Empire to spread the message. He was fanatical about it. Opportunists are not fanatical; they're kind of lazy. I don't really buy this idea. He really believed in what he was doing; he was driven by a sense of mission. Also, remember, if he's a Roman citizen and his parents are Roman citizens, then he's probably wealthy himself. He doesn't really need this money. What's also important is that Paul comes from a very well-educated, wealthy background. He speaks and writes Greek beautifully. He's classically educated. He doesn't want to deal with James the Just, who is not well-educated. So why is he dealing with these people? I don't really buy this explanation.
• Secret Conspiracy: Another explanation is a secret conspiracy. The idea here is that Paul, and maybe many who supported him, hated the Roman Empire and believed Christianity would be a weapon that would eventually destroy it, which is what happened historically. But that's 300-400 years in the future. How could Paul know that? And also, what does Paul have against the Roman Empire, really? He's a beneficiary of the Roman Empire. He's wealthy, his parents are wealthy.

A New Theory: Paul as a Roman Spy

Here is another explanation, which I believe. Take this with a grain of salt, but I believe he was a spy for the Roman Empire.

Let me explain. The Jews have always been a problem for empires, both the Greek Empire and the Roman Empire. Why? Because the Greeks and the Romans are pagans; they celebrate pagan gods. But the Jews believe that their God is the only God and every other god is false, so they refused the authority of the Empire. This has led to many wars.

• From 167 to 160 BCE, there was the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire.
• The Romans and the Jews would fight three major wars. From 66-73 CE, around the time of Paul, the first war was fought. The Romans burned the Temple down and banned all Jews from Jerusalem. The Romans thought that through this aggression, the Jews would be cowed and scared. No, it made them even more angry.
• Two more wars were fought from 115-117 CE and 132-136 CE.

The Jews are fanatical. That's what gives them power. They're a poor province of the Roman Empire, but they're fanatical. And guess what? Romans respect fanaticism. Remember 216 BC, when Hannibal invaded Italy and destroyed the Roman armies at the Battle of Cannae. He killed at least 20% of the Roman adult male population and a third of the Senate. At this point, the Romans should have surrendered and talked peace. But the Romans were fanatical. They refused to surrender and eventually were able to destroy Carthage.

So now the Romans see the Jews, a poor, small province in the Roman Empire, and they continue to rebel. This fanaticism of the Jews both scares and awes the Romans. They understand, above all, how powerful fanaticism is. Fanaticism is the ultimate weapon; it cannot be defeated. And because there's a Jewish diaspora, it can never be rooted out. You can destroy Jerusalem, which is what they did, but there are Jews all around the world, so you can never destroy this fanaticism. Because of the long history of the Jews, this fanaticism only grows through persecution and suffering.

You have to somehow destroy this fanaticism if you are to win this war against the Jews. There are three central beliefs underlying this Jewish fanaticism.

1. Purity: Why is it that if the Jews are God's chosen people, they're always being pushed around by these larger empires like the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, and the Romans? The answer is because we Jews have not been pure enough; we have not been loyal enough to Yahweh. It is only through purity that we will eventually triumph over our enemies. Otherwise, we will continue to be bullied.
2. Persecution Complex: The entire world is against us because we are God's chosen people. Therefore, we must stand united and stay pure. The Jews who were really hated were the Jews who assimilated, like Paul. They hated these people because they were traitors to the nation of Israel.
3. The Coming of the Messiah: Don't worry about today. This pain, this suffering, this persecution—it's all part of the divine plan. It's testing us; it is making us strong. Eventually, the Messiah, the anointed one, will come from heaven and lead us into a final battle against all enemies, including the Roman Empire. We will destroy them, and then we will establish the nation of God, the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth.

These are the three major beliefs that underpin Jewish fanaticism, and it makes the Jews almost invincible because it makes them fearless. They're not afraid to die. Dying is part of the divine plan. Suffering is all part of the process of achieving the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. It's their responsibility to die for the faith.

Paul's Mission: Undermining Fanaticism from Within

Now that we understand this Jewish fanaticism, we can understand why Paul is doing what he's doing.

• Purity: Purity means absolute obedience to the law of Moses. But what Paul is saying is, "No, guys, circumcision... we don't have to enforce circumcision because we want more non-Jews into our religion." Why is circumcision such a big deal? Because it's basically what separates the Jews into a different group in any community. In most cities, there's a place called the gymnasium, which is the heart and center of life. It's where men go to do sports and athletics like wrestling and running. The feature of the gymnasium is everyone goes in naked. Why is this a problem? Because if you're Jewish, people know right away you're Jewish. Therefore, it's hard for you to go into the gymnasium because you're being ridiculed by the Greeks. There's no way for the Jews to associate with the Greeks and other people. That's why circumcision is so important. Once you say to the Jewish people, "You don't need to be circumcised, you just have to have faith in Jesus," it's easier for them to assimilate into the larger culture around them.
• Persecution Complex: Jews are being persecuted. Why? Because they're not Roman citizens. Let's go back to the story of Jesus. Why did he get persecuted? Why did he die? Because he was not a Roman citizen. If he were a Roman citizen, then Pontius Pilate would have protected him from the Jews who wanted to kill him, just like how the Roman soldiers protected Paul from those Jews who wanted to kill him. So, guys, focus on being a Roman citizen, and you can believe anything you want. You will no longer be persecuted; you'll be part of the Roman Empire.
• The Coming of the Messiah: Jews believe the Messiah is going to come and lead them into final victory against all their enemies, especially the Roman Empire. But what Paul is saying is this: that Messiah has already come. He's Jesus. And Jesus taught a message of eternal salvation—to recognize the evil within you and to become a better person. So if you want to be saved, you must believe that we are born evil and Jesus has come to cleanse us of our evil. Jesus was a prophet of peace. He had nothing against the Roman Empire; he was fighting against evil in the world.

If these three things are true, then fanaticism will be destroyed. Obviously, if you're a fanatic, you don't believe any of this crap. But Paul's message was not for fanatical Jews; they were still a minority. His message was for diaspora Jews like him, who were stuck between the Roman Empire and the Jewish faith. They were part of the Jewish diaspora; maybe their fathers were Greek and their mothers were Jewish. There were a lot of these people. Paul's message was for them: you can still be Jewish if you believe in Jesus. And once you believe in Jesus, then you can assimilate into the Roman Empire, and that will free you to believe whatever you want.

This was Paul's mission. The question then is, why is Paul doing this? I don't want to say Paul is an opportunist or he's evil. I believe he was also a believer in his mission. His mission was to save his people. If you want to continue to live within the Roman Empire, you have to adapt yourself. You have to make compromises. You can't wait for the Messiah to come save you; you have to save yourself by adapting to the Roman Empire. And look, there are lots of advantages to the Roman Empire. You can become very happy and prosperous if you play by the rules, like he did.

In many ways, what's odd about Paul is he teaches us that Jesus is the Messiah, but in his heart—and you can tell by his writings—he himself believes he's really the Messiah who has come to save his people. That's why he's so fanatical about building the Church that will eventually become Christianity.

Paul's Lasting Legacy: A Revolution in Religion

Because Paul is doing this, he radically changes the meaning of faith and religion. The story of Jesus doesn't really make any sense, and his story doesn't make any sense either. He's lying about who he is. So he creates a new concept and radically changes the concept of faith. Before, faith is what you experience. Now, faith is something that you must believe.

He introduces the idea of miracles. Now, if something can't be explained, it's because it's a miracle. This is a new idea that didn't really exist before. The use of miracles is to explain the contradictions or the inconsistencies in the story of the Bible.

Another major revolution of Paul's teachings is the idea of tradition. Tradition is more important than the Bible. The stories and interpretation of the Bible are now more important than the Bible itself. Paul's church will eventually become the Catholic Church, and one thing about the Catholic Church is you are not allowed to read the Bible. The Bible is sacred; it's forbidden. Only priests are allowed to read the Bible because the fear is if you read the Bible, you might misinterpret the word of God. You don't have the spiritual power to fully interpret the Bible properly.

There are lots of major changes to the idea of religion because of Paul's work. That is my central argument about Paul.

Who wrote the Acts of the Apostles?

We don't know who wrote the Acts of the Apostles, but this is what we do know. Whoever wrote Acts also wrote the Gospel of Luke, which is one of the four main gospels of the Bible. The Acts of the Apostles is the continuation of the story of Jesus found in Luke.

The Luke gospel was written maybe between 80 and 90 CE, so this is about 50 to 60 years after the death of Jesus. Paul might still be alive at this time. What we also know is that Acts of the Apostles is very pro-Paul.

What's important to understand is the story I'm telling you is a story that comes from individuals who are trying to promote a positive picture of Paul. Why are they doing that? Because at this point in history, there are a lot of people, especially Jews, who hate Paul. They feel that Paul has corrupted their religion, especially the teachings of Jesus. I believe at this point in history, because of the way that Paul behaves, it's an open secret that he's working very closely with the Roman Empire. He's either a collaborator or he's a spy. That's why they had to write the Acts of the Apostles to sort of apologize or to clean up the image of Paul.

We've seen this throughout history. Remember, the Bible started out as an apology for King David. This text is extremely sympathetic towards Paul, and as I've shown you, through a close reading, you can see how problematic it is.