MATTHEW AND PAUL

MATTHEW AND PAUL – JEWISH?

Hugh Fogelman

How many times have you heard Christians say that the Gospel writers were Jewish? The authors were anonymous; no one knows who wrote what. Christians claim, well it does not matter if they do not know who wrote Matthew or Mark etc.; what matters is the truth of the Gospels. Well whoop, de doo! With this claim Christian apologists just exposed the fraud of their own Bible. Everyone knows that the stories of the zombies clawing their way of out the graves is fiction; Herod’s slaughter is fiction and Luke did not begin to get his history in agreement with recorded contemporary history. But that does not stop Christians from claiming attributes of their anonymous so-called gospel authors.

Before we continue, it is important for you to know that none of the disciples have ever existed in the real world of history. They only existed in the Christian Bible [New Testament (NT)] and subsequent Christian writings. They never were mentioned at all by any of 21 contemporary historians/writers who lived during the time, or within a century after the time, that Jesus was supposed to have lived.

The author of Mark never said who he was. From the tone of his writing as well as the author of Matthew, neither knew hardly anything about Judaism. Was Luke Jewish? Not according the NIV Study Bible, pg 1529, “Luke was probably a Gentile by birth, and well educated in Greek culture.”

In the days of Judah the Maccabee and the Hasmoneans the waters of cultural ambivalence (uncertainty or indecisiveness as to which course to follow) had risen so high that they threatened to engulf Jewish society. Although the Greeks posed a real danger to the sovereign identity of the Jewish nation, the Hellenist Jews and their desire for a Greek version of Judaism endangered the integrity of Jewish tradition. Ultimately, the Hasmoneans (Maccabee war) routed the Greeks, and the Jewish sages discredited the Hellenists. Jerusalem and Israel was saved from pagan control. Had the Hellenist Jews felt more secure in the traditions of their ancestors, they would never have contemplated compromising their heritage by pursuing a mixture with Greek culture. Many Jews stayed in Greece and assimilated into the pagan Greek culture.

Supposedly Matthew was raised in this Hellenist Jewish atmosphere, perhaps being a Jew or not, but based upon the writings attributed to him knew very little about Judaism.

Craig Lyons ¹ (M.Div) said “The writer of the gospel of Matthew more than likely was Hellenistic all right, but most likely not a Jew. [There are] too many mistakes in geography and the Hebrew scripture to believe a Jew could get so many things like that wrong. With the late date [of the creation of the Gospel of Matthew], more than likely [the author] was a Hellenistic Greek….” Since Mr. Lyons spent 15 years in a Christian seminary and as pastor of a church, he should know of what he speaks.

Even Saul/Paul was raised in a pagan culture. Scholars are now realizing that the mystery religion that Paul was exposed to in his hometown Tarsus, in the province of Celicia, was NOT Roman Mithraism, but Persian Mithraism. Paul knew all about this religion and used parts of it for his own use. Even though some scholars say that Mithraism did not flourish in Rome until the beginning of the second century C.E., the first contact between Mithraism and Christianity was most likely to have happened during the lifetime of Paul in the Hellenistic city of Tarsus―an old seaport with a long history of Mithra worship. It is highly likely that Paul, in an attempt to woo the Gentile pagan believers, deliberately incorporated elements of Mithraism into his brand of Gentile Christianity.

Like all of us, Paul and the writer of Matthew―who together created more than half of the New Testament―had to be influenced by how and where they were raised. Under this considerable influence these authors wrote of events undoubtedly colored by their experiences while growing up in a pagan society. This is why the writings in the New Testament seemed so far-fetched from Judaism not even knowing things expected of a Jewish child.

No one knows much about Mark except he was supposedly friends of Peter (who wrote very little about walking with Jesus in his two books). Scholars claim Mark received much of his information on Jesus from another party, “Q”, another unknown. From this, it is presumed that Mark received most of his information from 2^nd and 3^rd parties. Not too reliable. This is probably why the Hellenistic Matthew had to add to Mark’s gospel putting his own “spin” to it.

The Christian Bible is just fiction about another pagan dead man-god―no more, no less?

O what a tangled web we weave, When first we practice to deceive! ²

Footnotes:

1. Pastor Craig Lyons, M.Div: 902 Cardigan, Garland, Texas 75040

2. Sir Walter Scott, Marmion, A Tale of Flodden Field (1855), xvii

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