Newton's Cat

1:1 Paul, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,

1:2 which he promised before through his prophets in the holy Scriptures,

1:7 to all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.

1:8 First, I thank my God for all of you, that your faith is proclaimed throughout the whole world.

1:9 For God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit, how unceasingly I make mention of you always in my prayers,

1:10 requesting, if by any means now at last I may be prospered by the will of God to come to you.

1:12 that is, that I with you may be encouraged in you, each of us by the other's faith, both yours and mine.

1:13 Now I don't desire to have you unaware, brothers, that I often planned to come to you, and was hindered so far, that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among the rest of the Gentiles.

1:14 I am debtor both to Greeks and to foreigners, both to the wise and to the foolish.

1:15 So, as much as is in me, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.

1:11 For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, to the end that you may be established;

1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes; for the Jew first, and also for the Greek.

1:17 For in it is revealed God's righteousness from faith to faith. As it is written, "But the righteous shall live by faith."

What I've done is to remove the references to Jesus Christ (and moved verse 11 so it follows verse 15).

The text, the Greek text, now contains exactly 1000 letters - and has a sophisticated structure that could NOT have come about by chance.

Try reading the above in a normal "letter reading voice" - then read the text as we have have it today but read the Jesus interpolations in a "religious fanatic" voice.

Paul, A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST! called to be an apostle ...

Grace to you and peace from God our Father AND LORD JESUS CHRIST!

Etc.

Someone altered the text.

All references to Jesus and Christianity throughout Romans are later interpolations. This becomes crystal clear when one reads through the text of Romans with this concept in mind a few times.

Note: Recent expert opinion is that the "first" in verse 16 is a later interpolation, that it originally read "for the Jew and also for the Greek" - but removing "first" breaks up the structure of the text. The original text did place the Jews "above" the Greeks.

CJD

I'm not quite getting it. Would you mind posting the entire letter as it originally appeared?

CJD

Newton's Cat

1:1 Paul, [A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST], called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,

1:2 which he promised before through his prophets in the holy Scriptures,

Verses 3-6 were not in the original. Read them in a "religious fanatic" voice.

1:3 concerning his Son, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh,

1:4 who was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord,

1:5 through whom we received grace and apostleship, for obedience of faith among all the nations, for his name's sake;

1:6 among whom you are also called to belong to Jesus Christ;

Now back to a normal "letter reading" voice ...

1:7 to all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father [AND THE LORD JESUS CHRIST].

1:8 First, I thank my God [THROUGH JESUS CHRIST] for all of you, that your faith is proclaimed throughout the whole world.

1:9 For God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit [IN THE GOSPEL OF HIS SON], how unceasingly I make mention of you always in my prayers,

1:10 requesting, if by any means now at last I may be prospered by the will of God to come to you.

Verse 11 is out of place and should follow verse 15

1:11 For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, to the end that you may be established;

1:12 that is, that I with you may be encouraged in you, each of us by the other's faith, both yours and mine.

1:13 Now I don't desire to have you unaware, brothers, that I often planned to come to you, and was hindered so far, that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among the rest of the Gentiles.

1:14 I am debtor both to Greeks and to foreigners, both to the wise and to the foolish.

1:15 So, as much as is in me, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.

1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes; for the Jew first, and also for the Greek.

1:17 For in it is revealed God's righteousness from faith to faith. As it is written, "But the righteous shall live by faith."

Verse 18 etc is from a different source and is not a continuation of the opening letter.

FatherMithras

What is this hypothesis of yours based on?

Newton's Cat

Having been brought up in a totally non-religious family I never read the bible until I was in my late 20s. As a consequence of a relationship with a Christian woman I, one day, sat down and read through the New Testament from beginning to end. It was crystal clear to me that whilst Matthew, Luke, and John are more or less "as they were written by the authors", the Gospel of Mark had been subjected to a lot of deliberate, calculated alteration. So had Romans. It seemed to me that the same person had "doctored" both these texts.

Since that time I've been closely studying the Greek texts of Mark and Romans.

Amongst my conclusions are that:

The story of Jesus, King of the Jews was expanded into a story of Jesus Christ, Son of God.

Paul wrote the story of Jesus, King of the Jews.

Paul was Mark.

Matthew, Luke, and John were written after the "Jesus Christ" version of Mark had established itself.

The history of the spread of Christianity in the 1st century ad as detailed in Acts, etc., is "highly fictional".

Christianity, as we know it today, originated as a CULT - started by a single individual (the person who altered Paul's writings).

The original story of Jesus, King of the Jews, was meant to be read as a work of fiction - it may even have been a play. It was written in Greece, by a Greek Jew.

In the original story/play it was Simon of Cyrene on the cross - though the Jews were depicted as believing it was Jesus.

The "inventor" of Jesus Christ was "sexually disturbed".

Thus:

Jesus and Jesus Christ are not the "same person" (so to speak). Jesus Christ is a "religious nutter" whilst Jesus is a "man of supreme benevolence".

Clivedurdle

This sounds plausible. Vork?