In Paul's epistles, those who claim the Saviour was not Jesus of Nazareth claim support from the lack of details about the life of Jesus in his writings. The book we are reviewing makes some good points on this issue. First, we have to remember that Paul was writing to address specific issues in specific congregations, not to give them a biography of Jesus. Actually, the people probably had a pretty good knowledge about the life of Jesus, since he had lived only twenty years earlier. Paul told them multiple times in his writing to follow the example of Jesus and seems to assume they had knowledge about Jesus.
Secondly, if one reads Paul's writings closely, he would actually see a lot of details about Jesus. Paul mentions that Jesus was born and raised as a Jew, had a brother named James, was betrayed, executed, buried and resurrected three days later, instituted the Lord's supper, and was characterized by meekness, gentleness, and sacrificial love. Paul states that his goal was to be like Jesus and that was borne out by his life. It seems pretty clear that Paul was talking about someone who lived in his lifetime.
So, we are still left with the question of how to explain how so many came to believe that one of their contemporaries was worthy of worship as God. Either he was God, or it was a very quickly developing legend. As we have seen there are major problems with the legend option. Some find it difficult to believe the accounts of Jesus in the Gospels are historically accurate, but it seems much more difficult to believe that they are legends.
Next time, we will start chapter four and look at another reason people insist the story of Jesus is a legend.
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