The Charges

1. The measure

   The measure: the standard of this case

   Before the charges, the standard by which they are judged: the oneness of God and of truth, man's innocence, the law kept from the heart, and deeds done in a good world.

2. 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.

3. Count·II

   The Jerusalem Council

   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 4

4. Count·II

   The parting with Barnabas, and open conflict with Peter

   The council settled nothing for long. Paul broke with Barnabas over John Mark, and opposed Peter to his face at Antioch.

   Part 2 of 4

5. Count·II

   By their fruits

   ʿĪsā ibn Maryam gave the test for a false prophet. Paul set himself against the disciples, and the churches of the East rejected him.

   Part 3 of 4

6. Count·II

   “Them which say they are apostles, and are not”

   The risen Christ of Revelation praises Ephesus for exposing false apostles. Paul's own account of himself supplies the rest of the test.

   Part 4 of 4

7. 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

8. Count·III

   Seven doctrines: God, the cross and faith

   Two gods in place of one, a crucified redeemer as the price of sin, and faith in place of deeds: the first three of Paul's seven doctrines.

   Part 2 of 3

9. Count·III

   Seven doctrines: the law and the covenant

   The last four of Paul's seven doctrines: the law abolished and cursed, circumcision and the food laws set aside, and the chosen people redefined.

   Part 3 of 3

10. Count·IV

    The letters of a man

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

    Part 1 of 6

11. Count·IV

    The Greek body and the Jewish bed

    The letters of a man, continued: a Greek view of the body at odds with Jewish teaching, and the thorn in the flesh Paul never named.

    Part 2 of 6

12. Count·IV

    Five hundred witnesses and an angel of light

    Paul claimed his gospel came by direct revelation. The five hundred witnesses no one else records, and Satan disguised as an angel of light.

    Part 3 of 6

13. Count·IV

    “Lord” before the Spirit, and Christ as an angel

    How Paul set Christ above the Spirit, and presented him in the language of angels: the roots of a doctrine no prophet taught.

    Part 4 of 6

14. Count·IV

    Borrowings from the rabbis

    Jannes and Jambres, the angels and the women, Ishmael and Isaac: Paul's sources in the Talmud and the midrash, with the texts.

    Part 5 of 6

15. Count·IV

    Suffering that atones, and the third heaven

    Borrowings from the rabbis, continued: the suffering that atones for others, and the heavenly ascent Paul claimed for himself.

    Part 6 of 6

16. Count·V

    How Paul came to own the New Testament

    Thirteen of the twenty-seven books bear Paul's name. The language of ʿĪsā ibn Maryam, the gospels set aside, and the letters that came first.

    Part 1 of 7

17. Count·V

    Letters that contradict themselves

    The New Testament Paul came to own speaks with two voices. His letters contradict one another on the points that matter most.

    Part 2 of 7

18. Count·V

    The gospels and the new covenant

    A Hebrew Matthew, the authorship of the Gospel of John, and the new covenant Paul proclaimed in place of the old.

    Part 3 of 7

19. Count·V

    Justification by faith, and Philo’s Logos

    The gospels and the new covenant, continued: justification by faith alone, and the Logos of Philo of Alexandria made into a person.

    Part 4 of 7

20. Count·V

    Twisting the scriptures

    Twisting the scriptures begins with two words turned upside down: the liars Ephesus tested, and the lawlessness ʿĪsā ibn Maryam condemned.

    Part 5 of 7

21. Count·V

    Typology: the Tanakh read as a code for the cross

    Twisting the scriptures, continued: how Paul read the Tanakh as a code, and found the cross in texts that never mention it.

    Part 6 of 7

22. Count·V

    The Tanakh rewritten

    Twisting the scriptures, concluded: Paul's quotations set beside the Tanakh he claimed to quote, and the changes that made them fit.

    Part 7 of 7

23. Count·VI

    The church that followed Paul

    The followers of ʿĪsā ibn Maryam called themselves believers. The despair of Peter, and Marcion, the first to build a church on Paul alone.

    Part 1 of 6

24. Count·VI

    What the Romans saw, and the heirs of Paul

    The church that followed Paul, continued: what Roman observers saw in it, and the line of heirs from Augustine to Karl Barth.

    Part 2 of 6

25. Count·VI

    The failed prophet

    Jefferson cut Paul out of his Bible. Paul foretold the Lord's return in his own lifetime, and the Torah's test of a false prophet applies.

    Part 3 of 6

26. Count·VI

    A death the scriptures never record

    Scripture falls silent on Paul's end. The tradition, the tomb in Rome, and the young man Eutychus, who fell asleep as Paul preached.

    Part 4 of 6

27. 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 5 of 6

28. Count·VI

    The religion of Paul in Malaysia and Southeast Asia

    The case in the twenty-first century: Christian Zionism in Southeast Asia, Penang as its laboratory, and the Malay-language literature of reply.

    Part 6 of 6