After the Flesh

Contrary to the knowlege or opinion of some, there is strong textual evidence in the New Testament that the Greek church at Corinth of the Pauline persuasion most surely did have, previous to publication of the synoptic gospels, some familiarity with that tradition in some form, either minimally written in letters or by oral transmission. This evidence is to be found in Paul's own letters . . .


Gal.1 [6] I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: --

Without question there was current during Paul's time some form of the Gospel, such "another gospel" as hated by Paul . . .

Gal.1 [8] But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.

But the most telling evidence that Paul's so-called "gospel" had come into sudden competition (in Paul's bitter view) with another is to be found in his verbatim quotation of a phrase from that very gospel just then gaining currency (at II Cor. 1:17) and this is in context of a larger veiled reference to a doctrine he hated; a commandment of Christ from that Gospel about "swearing" as contained in a passage which now in our contemporary recension is preserved in the 5th chapter of Matthew and in the 5th of the Letter of James. As it appears in that Gospel . . .

[33] Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths:

[34] But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God's throne:

[35] Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King.

[36] Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black.

[37] But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil. --

Commenting upon this in II Corinthians "Paul" has this to say . . .

[17] When I therefore was thus minded, did I use lightness? or the things that I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh, that with me there should be yea yea, and nay nay?

[18] But as God is true, our word toward you was not yea and nay.

"As God is true" as any reasoning mind will recognize is an OATH. And most especially as used in context of Paul giving his "word" to say, "our word toward you was not yea and nay."

[19] For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and Timotheus, was not yea and nay, but in him was yea. -- Somewhat further along in the 5th Chapter of the same Letter, Paul says . . .

[16] Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.

Paul is green with envy over the news he gets of "another gospel" having been received at the church in Corinth, and purporting to transmit the actual teachings of Jesus, "after the flesh." In his anger and distress, again in defiance of what he has heard from that "other gospel" Paul, in blasphemy, forswears himself, again in this 5th chapter, to say . . .

[23] Moreover I call God for a record upon my soul, that to spare you I came not as yet unto Corinth. --

He calls "God for a record" upon his soul. But this commandment of Jesus was a matter of settled doctrine in the 'church' at Jerusalem, in the Nazarene, so-called "Ebionite" synagogue of Jesus' brother "after the flesh," James the Just. From the 5th Chapter in the Epistle of James . . .

12] But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation. --

It can readily be argued that Paul was talking not about any early written transmission of the Nazarene Gospel but about this letter of James when in the same letter to the Corinthians in which he mentions "another gospel" he mentions also this . . .

2Cor.3 [1] Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you?

It is most decidedly the case, as some insist, that Paul was teaching a Jesus, not "after the flesh" not after history, not after the Law, nor the oral tradition of sermons and miraculous acts of Jesus, but a Jesus of his own invention, "after the spirit" in which Jesus becomes the "Christ", an icon, a demigod, a risen Dionysus meet only to be a mere sacrificial offering of flesh and blood and wine and bread for the propitiation of sin. Pure paganism.