What embellishments do you suppose I believe there are? So, no. Not right.
So the birth narratives were not embellished? There was a census, visiting magis, supernatural stars, etc.?
Some did, some didn't. Early Christians who believed Jesus was just a man often belonged to Jewish-Christian sects like the Ebionites, who saw him as a great, Spirit-anointed man but not divine. Odd that those most likely to have seen and heard Jesus, Jews, were not all convinced of his divinity.
Why did I know you were going to go there. Before I answer that, what role do you suppose that played in the first Christians worshiping Jesus as God?
The need to control people with religion
It doesn't matter that some didn't. By your logic Trump can't be bad or good since not everyone believes it, right?
Rome was collapsing and Jews created a god to abstract fr them They needed an idol
Nice conspiracy theory. Too bad it doesn't fit the timeline of when they began worshiping Jesus as God.
Which is why Paul is such a credible witness. He put himself in harms way (physically and spiritually) precisely because he determined that it could not be avoided.
AI How can AI back up something it could never have come up with itself in a million years?
1 Corinthians 11:14 says long hair is a disgrace for a man. A direct reference to Jesus.
Romans 7:9; "I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway."
Romans 17:14-25; When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law. But I see another law at work in my body, warring against the law of my mind and holding me captive to the law of sin that dwells within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?
2 Corinthians 12:10; "I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
1 Corinthians 6:9-10 "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, (another swipe at Jesus) nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God."
"A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. But women will be saved through childbearing — if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety." (1 Timothy 2:11–15)
Romans 13:1-5; "Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established.The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves."
AI can only be as intelligent as the people who input the information based on what religious idiots claim.
I'm not seeing how any of this backs up your ridiculous allegations against SAINT Paul.
Thats a shame.
Actually it's quite funny.
There's no evidence Paul hated Jesus, but rather, before his conversion, he vehemently persecuted Jesus's followers (the early Church), imprisoning and consenting to the deaths of Christians because he believed their message about Jesus was blasphemous and a threat to Judaism. He described himself as a furious persecutor, even leading hunts for Christians to force them to blaspheme, but his writings and actions after his conversion show deep reverence for Jesus, whom he viewed as Lord and Savior, transforming his intense zeal into apostleship.
Evidence for Paul's guilt complex comes from his own writings, particularly his profound self-description as the "foremost of sinners" and "blasphemer" (1 Timothy 1:15-16), reflecting deep sorrow and mercy over his violent persecution of early Christians before his conversion, a past he never fully escaped, viewing himself as the chief recipient of God's grace for his former transgressions.
Don't have a clue. Why does it matter?
Evidence for Paul being self-loathing is largely interpretive, stemming from his intense self-condemnation (calling himself the "worst of sinners"), harsh critiques of his former life as a persecutor. Definitive proof of self-loathing isn't explicit in his writings; instead, his letters reveal deep struggle, repentance, and striving for self-control, not necessarily outright self-hatred.
There is no historical or biblical evidence to support the claim that the Apostle Paul was a masochist in the clinical sense of gaining sexual pleasure from self-imposed pain. The concept of masochism as a sexual disorder is a modern psychological classification, not a term applicable to ancient biblical figures.
Because that is what we are discussing. The reason you don't have a clue is because it had no bearing one way or another on why the first Christians worshiped Jesus as God. They worshiped Jesus as God because of what they saw and heard. Not because of things that had no been written about him yet.
No, unless you think going through life without a functioning brain is funny, but if thats the case its hysterical.
And therein lies your true motivation for subverting Christianity.
