gnosis92

Are there any documented first century mystery-cultist who (would have) read Paul as Doherty does?

Do we have any good written accounts of the mystery religions, perhaps from Tacitus or Suentonius, that support Doherty's contention of a fleshy sublunar realm, and would have read Paul and his human sounding passages, the way Doherty asks us to read Paul?

Amaleq13

As far as I know, the answer to your questions is "No" though some might be willing to offer a speculative response to your parenthetical.

gnosis92

If the answer is "no" then what evidence is there for Doherty's position that the way he explains away the human sounding passages in terms of a higher/lower middle Platonist paradigm is how Paul's readers would have understood Paul (and Paul understood himself)

Amaleq13

Again AFAIK, there is no direct or explicit evidence supporting his reading.

gnosis92

Isn't evidence important to establish the validity of his reading?

Steven Carr

On page 106 of Suprised by Hope, NT Wright writes ''Ideally one would want to factor in the glorious picture of the city that is to come, at present in Heaven but destined for earth, which we find in Hebrews 11 and 12.'

So mainstream Biblical scholars realise that the NT teaches that there are cities made out of bricks in Heaven.

How much more 'fleshy' and material do you want than a city that can move from heaven to earth?

Toto

We have no documents from the mystery cults - they were mystery cults, and their secrets died with them. We only know a little about them from classical writers of the time.

Doherty makes his case in his book, the Jesus Puzzle. If you have a serious question, you can read the book, or his website, and email him with questions.

gnosis92

The serious question I have is whether there is any evidential basis to think that Paul and his immediate audience would have read his letters in the manner of a mystery religion rather than in terms of a historical gospel Jesus. Part of evaluating this is assessing whether Doherty gives an evidential account of what mystery religions actually teach, or whether his account is some kind of armchair concoction of what he would like to believe Paul says (but no one in the first century would have actually understood).

gnosis92

I think a better possible example would be in Revelations where the author John speaks of the lamb being slaughtered and blood shed in heaven, except that John clearly speaks of his vision in heaven. The author of Hebrews does clearly locate this city in heaven.

Even so, is this what Paul had in mind and did anyone who read Paul actually understood Paul's human sounding passages in this manner?

spin

Isn't the first question: "Are there any documented first century mystery-cultist[s] who read Paul"?


spin