Is it known who is the founder of Christianity? Since the nineteenth century, modern studies of the New Testament have insisted on contrasting the figures of Jesus and Paul. According to some authors, Jesus of Nazareth did not have a divine presumption, but came from the teachings of Paul, thus breaking with the Jewish roots. Therefore, it is necessary to point out the difference between Christianity before Paul, Judaization, and Christianity after, which came to us and was in accordance with paganism, of which Paul is said to be the founder.
So if you want to know a little more about who was the founder of Christianity, here we tell you.
Founder of Christianity
At the beginning of the XNUMXth century, W. Wrede, in his book Pablo (1904), pointed out that Paul was a new phenomenon in the Greek world that transformed Jesus into a transcendent, divine, preexistent existence, and how the concept became a dominant one. That is why he is called the founder of christianity. Wrede's method must first be disproved because it does not take into account the primary source, the description of the Acts of Lucan and the Pauline Epistles themselves. Second, the concept of the divine or deified man of the Greek world (Greek mythology) was incompatible with Paul's Pharisaic rabbis.
In fact, you can't ignore his upbringing. Gamaliel the Elder, the most prominent rabbi of Jerusalem at the time. Therefore, he was educated to obey the law (Torah) and was circumcised on the eighth day after his birth. Although he was born in Tarsus, Silesia, he grew up in Jerusalem and has roots in Palestinian Judaism. In addition to knowing Greek, he also spoke Semitic (Aramaic). During his missionary journey, he first preached to the Jewish diaspora, depending on the community in question. So it's true that Paul's separation from Palestinian Judaism and the Judeo-Christian community was nothing more than an invention of modern hermeneutics.
R. Bultmann and M. Hengel
R. Bultmann pointed out that Paul was from Greek Judaism because he knew Greek philosophy and culture and was not a personal disciple of Jesus. Also, due to the apparent lack of historical basis, he insists that the transition from Palestinian Christianity to Greek Christianity was due to the introduction of a mystical element. He even pointed to Syria as the place where this transformation took place.
However, M. Hengel draws attention to the fact that little is known about the Hellenization of Syria and religious worship in the province. After all, Antioch is no different from the Holy City. Recently, British and German scholars have said that in Syria, where there is no symbiotic religion (there is no fusion) in the pagan world. If Jesus were a simple prophet, the Jews would never have accepted his deification, for associating God with an image or a person is abominable.
Who was the founder of Christianity?
Currently, the UCM professor Antonio Piñero affirms that “it is unthinkable that Jesus considered himself the Son of God in the fullest sense”And he adds that There are only seven New Testament passages that clearly state that Jesus is God. In the Gospel of John, the Epistles of Paul and the Epistles to the Hebrews, the deification of someone who is the fruit of contact with the Greek world is pointed out.
What can be said about this controversial and sensational statement? Well, it is very important to know that the deification of Jesus requires two conditions:
After the death of Jesus of Nazareth, it took many years before he could recognize that he was God. In the book of Acts it is related how Peter's first speech at Pentecost (40 days after the resurrection) refers to the divinity and pre-existence of Christ, so it is impossible to introduce Greek influence.
Second, we must keep in mind the mental category. The disciples were Jewish and monotheistic, so it was not reasonable for them that man was God. An often mentioned constant in the Jewish world. For example, in the Middle Ages, King Jaime discussed Christianity with a rabbi (at a court in Barcelona) who denied religion as it was said because it was not reasonable to speak of an artificial God.
Cesar Franco in this sense, I quote: “The unusual event of the resurrection was a creative impulse that opened the minds of the apostles and missionaries, who were born and raised Jews, learned about their sacred books and searched in them for everything that the prophets had proclaimed about Jesus”.
In the brief period between the death of Jesus and the conversion of Paul, the Christological foundations that govern the New Testament. During that time, Paul took violent actions (insults, curses, physical attacks, slander, and destruction) against Christians. All of this shows that Paul behaved like a true Jew with zeal for the law before he converted on the road to Damascus.
Therefore, the inventor of Christology and the founder of Christianity is Christ himself.. Jesus, apparently defeated by the Pharisees, finds himself in the place reserved for the Torah and even the Temple at that time. It was in Jerusalem that the Christian community began to realize the divine announcement of Jesus in his earthly life, and the extraordinary event of the resurrection. This is how the apostles embraced Christology and were in charge of delivering the message, perhaps Paul in a more beautiful and mysterious way. As Fray Luis de León says, Pablo turned the gospel from a simple song into a polyphonic song.
It can be concluded that Paul was not the founder of Christianity. He passed on what he had accepted, the faith of the apostles, and so Antioch and Jerusalem professed the same faith. Finally, to quote an interesting quote from the Catechism of Pope Benedict XVI of August 27, 2008: "Paul, a soul truly fascinated by the light of the Gospel, fell in love with Christ, convinced that he was necessary for the world of Christ."
I hope this information has been useful to you, and has cleared up your doubts about who was the founder of Christianity.
