Comparative Theology · Pauline Epistles & Early Church
Hellenistic motifs in Paul — argued honestly
Handle with care. The copycat-messiah claim is false. Ehrman himself refutes it. Only make the narrow point about religious vocabulary and audience.
In short
- 1.**Tarsus was a centre of Stoic philosophy and mystery religion** — Paul's cultural formation was Greek as well as Jewish.
- 2.**Paul's vocabulary is initiatory:** mystery, baptism into a death, communion in body and blood.
- 3.**Nothing like this exists in the Jerusalem preaching** recorded in the early chapters of Acts.
- 4.**Handle with care:** the popular claim that Mithras or Horus was crucified and rose on the third day is not supported by the sources. Do not use it.
The claim being examined
Paul, a Hellenized Roman citizen from Tarsus, framed Jesus in categories familiar to the Greco-Roman world: a divine figure who descends, dies and rises, and is received in a sacred meal.
The Islamic position
Islam teaches that Jesus''s message was corrupted over time. The shape of that corruption is visible in how quickly a Jewish prophet was reframed in Greek religious language.
Analysis
Two claims must be kept apart. The strong popular version — that Christianity simply copied Mithras, Horus or Dionysus, with virgin births and third-day resurrections — is rejected by mainstream scholarship, including by Ehrman, who has written against it directly. Using it will cost you the argument to any informed Christian. The defensible version is about conceptual environment: Paul writes in Greek to Greek-speaking Gentiles, uses μυστήριον repeatedly, describes baptism as being buried into a death (Romans 6:3-4), and institutes a ritual meal of body and blood. These are the categories his audience already possessed. Tabor argues that Paul''s cosmic Christ is not derivable from Second Temple Jewish messianism, and Ali Ataie makes the same point from Paul''s biography in Tarsus. That is the argument to make: not plagiarism, but translation of a Jewish prophet into a Hellenistic religious idiom.
Side by side
| Jerusalem preaching | Acts 2-3 | A man accredited by God; repent and be forgiven. No mystery language, no ritual meal of body and blood. |
|---|---|---|
| Pauline preaching | Romans 6; 1 Corinthians 11 | Baptism into a death, communion in body and blood, a hidden mystery now revealed. |
| Do not claim | Mithras, Horus | That they were crucified and rose on the third day. The sources do not say this and using it will discredit you. |
From the Qur'an
Qur'an 9:30-31
ٱتَّخَذُوٓا۟ أَحْبَارَهُمْ وَرُهْبَٰنَهُمْ أَرْبَابًۭا مِّن دُونِ ٱللَّهِ
They have taken their rabbis and monks as lords besides God, as well as the Messiah son of Mary.
Qur'an 5:77
لَا تَغْلُوا۟ فِى دِينِكُمْ غَيْرَ ٱلْحَقِّ
Do not exceed the limits in your religion beyond the truth.
From the Bible
Romans 6:3-4
ἐβαπτίσθημεν εἰς τὸν θάνατον αὐτοῦ
All of us who were baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into his death.
Read it in their Bible1 Corinthians 11:24-25
τοῦτό μού ἐστιν τὸ σῶμα
This is my body, which is for you… this cup is the new covenant in my blood.
Read it in their BibleColossians 1:26
τὸ μυστήριον τὸ ἀποκεκρυμμένον
The mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed.
Read it in their BibleActs 21:39
Ταρσεὺς τῆς Κιλικίας … οὐκ ἀσήμου πόλεως πολίτης
I am a Jew from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no ordinary city.
Read it in their BibleSources
Bart D. Ehrman, Did Jesus Exist? (HarperOne, 2012) — on why the copycat thesis fails · James D. Tabor, Paul and Jesus (2012), ch. 3 · Ali Ataie, lectures on Paul and Hellenism (Zaytuna College) · Tabor, Paul and Jesus, ch. 3; Ehrman, Did Jesus Exist?, ch. 7
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