Steven Carr

In 2 Corinthians 11:4 , Paul writes as follows 'For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, 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 easily enough.'

Clearly people were preaching a different Jesus to the one Paul preached.

Does that mean that there was more than one Jesus?

How different were the different concepts of Jesus that the early Christians had?

Were they all the same basic 'Jesus of Nazareth' Jesus?

mountainman

Who was more well known during the first 3 centuries CE?
Jesus or any-one-of (Pythagoras, Plato, Apollonius of Tyana).

Mainstream theory has it that he was not well known.
Fictional NT theories have it that he did not appear until
the fourth century, and then only in the literature.

How did the christian message overcome the pythagorean
message? By 4thCE Eusebian literary calumny, and then via the
physical flames of destruction christianity burnt out all
opposition to itself.



Pete Brown

Mat Wilder

There have been many historical Jesuses, but (possibly, according to some) only one "Jesus of Nazareth." Paul was speaking metaphorically - a Jesus who meant something different or supposedly taught something different than he taught. Clearly people were preaching "other Jesuses" or he wouldn't have felt the need to deny them. There were all kinds of Christian sects at that time, often diverging widely in their beliefs. One excellent book on the topic is Elaine Pagel's The Gnostic Gospels and, I'm told, Bart Ehrman's Lost Christianities.

aa5874

....'or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received..', what's that all about? There appears to be other rival Gods with their 'holy ghosts' to empower their followers. This verse shows that belief in ghosts was extremely prevalent at that time.