RE: Even more on what Walt Jr. believes

Ralph Nielsen (nielsen@uidaho.edu)
Sat, 19 Apr 1997 12:23:32 -0700

WALT JR 4/18
>Ralph,
>Your post certainly demonstrates your ignorance of the history of
>christianity. Though some scholars may say that Paul "invented"
>christianity, there are a great many that would reject that assertion.
>Paul certainly extrapolated on what was already in existence, but he
>certainly did not "invent" it.
>
>One of the reasons we know this is because Paul quotes from a source that
>was in existence within just a few years of the death of Christ. I Cor.
>15:3-5(8) as well as Philippians 2:6-11(among others) have been
>acknowledged by scholars of all schools of thought to be an early
>creed/hymn that was in existence within just a few years after the death
>of Christ. [More likely many years before. rn, see below] So, this would
>demonstrate that prior to Paul's conversion, there was already the belief
>in Christ dying, being buried, and rising again. Therefore, Paul could
>not have been the "inventor" of christianity. Consider the words of
>Gunther Bornkamm, former professor of New Testament exegesis at Heidelberg
>Univ. and pupil of Rudolf Bultmann:
<snipped, see other posting>

RALPH 4/19
Once again, please let me point out and emphasize that the term "Christ" is
not the same as the name "Jesus." Xian propaganda has so inured us to the
term "Jesus Christ" that we tend to think of it as a person's name,
sometimes even with a middle initial (how very American) "H."

Christ (Greek) and Mashiach (Hebrew) mean simply Anointed. Messiah is the
English for Messias, which is the Greek form of Mashiach. Christ is the
English for the Greek Christos. Are you getting confused? OK, but none of
the above necessarily refer to an ancient Palestinian Jew by the name of
Jesus. Ordinary folks back then didn't have surnames, so they were simply
called Joe of Jerusalem, or Jesus of Nazareth. (Also, according to the
Bible, Jesus didn't have a earthly dad, anyway.)

In my other posting I left in Walt, Jr's quotation from Bornkamm that tells
us that the term "Christ" in Paul's borrowed creed/hymn was older than
Paul's writings (obviously). Paul, by his own account, had his vision of a
resurrected Christ around the year 40, within a decade of the death of the
historical Jesus. But Paul knows zip about the Historical Jesus. So the
creed/hymn that Paul quotes must have been around for a long time before
the career and end of Jesus of Nazareth.

We have already discussed the importance of the difference between God and
Yahweh, the God of the Bible. We must be equally careful to distinguish the
difference between Jesus and the term Christ.