Last time I said:

• One popular idea on the internet is Jesus started out as a vague dying/rising savior myth who was later placed in historical fictions/gospels (Euhemerized). How do New Testament specialists teaching New Testament at accredited Secular universities respond to this? The key point is that the dying/rising salvation theme of the Jesus tale is a later development, and so is not at our earliest level of the Jesus salvation message. Against Christ-mythicism, Prof Bart Ehrman notes for Paul righteousness came through the cross/resurrection, that if it came through the law Chris died for nothing (Gal 2:21). Mark wrote a Paul-inspired propaganda document/gospel (euaggelion, as per the Augustus use of the term) selling Jesus’ cross and resurrection as the way to salvation like Paul argued, and yet contrarily Mark said salvation also came through repentance and the Kingdom (Mark 1:14-15), and following the law and giving everything to the poor (Mark 10:17-22). Mark unwittingly or deliberately (which would be my guess) incorporated material about the historical Jesus that contradicted his Pauline bias. Also consider Matthew on the Sheep and Goats. Popular Christ Mythicists include Earl Doherty; Robert M Price, Thomas Brodie; Richard Carrier.

Now, the conclusion:

Paul notes there were many different factions teaching variations on Jesus, “12 What I mean is that each of you says, “I belong to Paul,” or “I belong to Apollos,” or “I belong to Cephas,” or “I belong to Christ.” 13 Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? (1 Cor 1:12-13). Paul’s authority seemed to be receiving pushback because he never met Jesus but only knew him through visions: “9 Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord? 2 If I am not an apostle to others, at least I am to you, for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord (1 Cor 9:1-2). Paul was not an apostle because he had a vision of Jesus, as is sometimes claimed, since he also says the 500 saw the risen Christ (1 Cor 15:6) without being apostles. Rather he was an apostle because of the brides (churches) he established for Christ.

As I said, there were many factions teaching Christ, most of which taught the saving death and resurrection of Jesus such as Peter/Cephas, James and John (per the Corinthian Creed/poetry Paul quoted), and also Paul who taught the cross/resurrection but innovated that gentiles didn’t need to become Jews to follow Christ. Without this innovation by Paul Christianity never would have taken over the world.

Now, there also seem to be some factions of Christ followers who Paul hated for their message of Jesus and their arrogance, who he says taught another gospel and another Jesus from Paul and Peter, which appears to be the message I noted above from last time of salvation through God’s kingdom/repentance/law/care for the poor that the historical Jesus taught while he was alive, not the later message of Peter, James, John and Paul of being saved by Jesus himself through his death/resurrection. Paul sarcastically called these the Super Apostles / False Apostles:

• “11 I wish you would put up with me in a little foolishness. Yes, do put up with me! ² I feel a divine jealousy for you, for I promised you in marriage to one husband, to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. ³ But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by its cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. ⁴ For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough. ⁵ I think that I am not in the least inferior to these super-apostles.^..  13 For such boasters are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. 14 And no wonder! Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. (2 Cor 11: 1-5; 13-15).”

For Paul there was the utmost urgency because the end was not only coming soon but underway (1 Cor 15:23), so he resolved to know nothing about the historical Jesus among his churches but Christ and him crucified (1 Cor 2:2). But he also noted, a point that commentators often miss, that “17 If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins (1 Cor 15:17).” So, Paul basically nullifies everything he says about the cross with this sentence, and so Mark, heavily influenced by Paul, would later restore weight to the cross with Jesus’s death converting the soldier at the cross despite the irony that the resurrection hadn’t happened yet and in fact Mark deliberately has no resurrection appearances.

Phil Long notes:

• “Paul describes a meeting in Jerusalem with the Pillars of the Church in Galatians 2:4-5. The language Paul uses is military and political. These false brothers are “undercover agents and conspirators” (Witherington, Galatians, 136). It seems most likely that the false brothers are similar to the “men from James” mentioned in Galatians, or the priests and Pharisees mentioned in Acts 15:1. They are Jewish believers who understand the church as a reform movement within Judaism. Whoever these people were, they found a way to sit in on the meeting between Paul and the Apostles with the intention of causing trouble for Paul. That they intend to “bring us into slavery” indicates that they will insist that Gentiles be circumcised if they are to be full members of the messianic community. (Phil Long)

It appears the meeting was to be a private meeting between Paul, Barnabas and Titus and the three leaders of the Jerusalem church, Peter, James the Lord’s brother, and John. But there is another party at the meeting described by Paul as “false brothers.” Could these be the super apostles or highly orthodox apostles who followed Jesus’s teaching from when he was alive but didn’t ascribe to the salvific cross and resurrection? If Paul respected Cephas and James and John, but hated the super apostles, they must have been more than just Judaizers as Peter, James, and John were.

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