Apostle of Doom

The charges

Six counts against Paul, each argued from his own letters and from the record of the community that knew ʿĪsā.

  1. Count·I

    Two portraits of ʿĪsā ibn Maryam

    Muslims and Christians both claim to love ʿĪsā ibn Maryam. They love two different figures, and the difference traces back to one man.

  2. Count·II

    The Jerusalem Council and the parting with Barnabas

    The Jerusalem community kept the law of Mūsā. Paul set it aside, then performed it in the Temple when it suited him.

    Part 1 of 2

  3. Count·II

    By their fruits

    ʿĪsā ibn Maryam gave the test for a false prophet. Paul cursed the disciples, admitted to lying for the gospel, and was rejected by the churches of Asia.

    Part 2 of 2

  4. Count·III

    Adapting the message to the pagans

    Salvation by faith alone and the law of Mūsā recast as a curse. How Paul rebuilt the message of ʿĪsā ibn Maryam for a Gentile audience.

    Part 1 of 3

  5. Count·III

    The letters of a man

    Wine for the stomach, a cloak left at Troas, a ledger of beatings, and a thorn in the flesh: what the letters reveal about their author.

    Part 2 of 3

  6. Count·III

    Seven doctrines

    Two gods, a crucified redeemer, faith without deeds, the law as a curse, circumcision and the food laws abolished, the chosen people redefined.

    Part 3 of 3

  7. Count·IV

    Five hundred witnesses and an angel of light

    Paul claimed his gospel came by direct revelation. Its central ideas were already circulating among the rabbis before him.

    Part 1 of 2

  8. Count·IV

    Borrowings from the rabbis

    Jannes and Jambres, the angels and the women, Ishmael and Isaac, the death of the righteous, the third heaven: Paul's sources in the Talmud, with the texts.

    Part 2 of 2

  9. Count·V

    How Paul came to own the New Testament

    Thirteen of the twenty-seven books bear Paul's name, and the canon was settled by churches that followed him. The letters themselves do not agree.

    Part 1 of 3

  10. Count·V

    The gospels and the new covenant

    Source Q, a Hebrew Matthew, the authorship of John, the gospels set aside in 382, and Philo's Logos in Paul's vocabulary.

    Part 2 of 3

  11. Count·V

    Twisting the scriptures

    Typology, and six passages of the Tanakh altered in the letters: Jeremiah 31, Genesis 12, Psalm 68, Isaiah 64 and Deuteronomy 30, Hebrew and Greek side by side.

    Part 3 of 3

  12. Count·VI

    The church that followed Paul

    The followers of ʿĪsā ibn Maryam called themselves believers. Paul's churches acquired a new name and a new faith, and Western thinkers from Jefferson onward noticed.

    Part 1 of 3

  13. Count·VI

    The failed prophet

    Jefferson cut Paul out of his Bible. Paul foretold the Lord's return in his lifetime, died by the sword, and the scriptures never record it.

    Part 2 of 3

  14. Count·VI

    The religion of Paul today

    Bishop Spong on Paul's words, the Qurʾān on those who write scripture, and the theology of blood behind the red heifer and Christian Zionism.

    Part 3 of 3