lpetrich

I had mentioned this in another thread; I had intended to create a new thread about this subject. So here goes:

It's interesting how "the Paul guy" often becomes the one who gets blamed for things that people dislike in Xianity.

It is certainly true that there is some justification in that; Xianity may be called, with some justification, "Paulianity". But I am wondering why the finger often gets pointed to him instead of (say) the Gospel writers or the author of the Book of Revelation.

Ab_Normal

I've got more of a mad-on against Paul than the other gospel writers because of the whole "women in subjection to men" bullcrap. (He's still my #1 candidate for "Which historical figure would you fight?")

Also, I think he has more influence in Xianity as a whole than John (the writer of Revelation) - I think you're more likely to find churches which follow Paul's rules than churches which believe the Rapture is going to happen.

Of course, this is all gut feeling, I could be entirely wrong.

Celsus

To be fair, most of the disgusting misogyny attributed to Paul is spurious--Ephesians and the Pastoral Epistles (1 & 2 Timothy and Titus). He is well-loved by the JMers, since once we rule out all the forgeries, it turns out Paul is a proto-Gnostic.

Joel

Toto

There's a long tradition of blaming Paul. When Biblical critics and scholars first started the search for the "real" historical Jesus, they assumed that there was an original Jesus whose message had been corrupted by the later church, and the book of Acts told them that Paul was instrumental in the formation of the early church.