skepticdude

Didn't Jesus preach salvation to Gentiles from the beginning of his ministry?

If Jesus was saving Gentiles from the beginning of his ministry, surely he was explaining their relation to the Law?

If so, surely his apostles knew the answer to that question before he died too?

How then could the issue of Gentiles and the necessity for circumcision be so uncertain and debated that it required a meeting of Christianity's finest minds, years after Jesus died, to resolve it?

Lastly, if the Book of Acts is correct in reporting this circumcision stuff as truly disputed, don't we have the right to expect that it also would have been a very important question that Jesus' Gentile converts would have consulted him on during his life?

How exactly did that question remain unanswered all those years?

My assessment is that circumcision for Gentiles was never an issue of contention, it was clearly required in Exodus 12, Jesus never said different, and the story in Acts 15 was nothing but Pauline propaganda, Paul's attempt to make himself look more aligned with the original gospel than he really was.

And with his audience of prospective Gentile-converts living so far away from Jerusalem, who would dare abandon their families and daily obligations to take the time-consuming, costly and dangerous trip to Jerusalem merely to verify the allegations of Paul?

Your thoughts?

dog-on

As the event never occured, what you are referring to is a 2nd century dispute between rival christian groups, neither of which had much to do with Jerusalem, in any real sense.

driver8

"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."

Where do we file our claims for fraud?

sharrock

How Jesus Became Christian: The Early Christians And The Transformation Of A Jewish Teacher Into The Son Of God

"... Acts invented the Jeruselem Conference to legitamize Pauls' distinctive teachings and practices."


[mod note = see this Amazon link (or via: amazon.co.uk) for US readers ]

skepticdude

cool, I didn't even know about this book.

However, although mention of his name seems to guarantee an unprofitable discussion with apologists, I believe it was F.C. Bauer who first formulated the problem of Paul. In Barrie's video, he admits that this book is popular, not scholarly.

Joan of Bark

Matt 10:5-6 (NIV)

Matt 15:24

spin

I thought those words were originally spoken by a brothel madam, expert in manual labor.


spin