An unsigned article at BeliefNet summarizes the issue rather nicely.
“The New Testament contains a total of 27 books written by early Christian leaders for other Christian communities and individuals. Of these 27 books, 13 claim to be written by the apostle Paul (although scholars think that some of these 13 are pseudonymous, written by followers of Paul in his name). One other book–the epistle to the Hebrews–was accepted as part of Scripture because early church fathers thought it was written by Paul. One other book–the Acts of the Apostles–was largely written about Paul. That means that 15 of the 27 books, in one way or another, are directly tied to Paul. And that’s not counting the books, such as the epistle of James, that appear to be reacting to Paul’s teachings, or others such as 1 Peter or the Gospel of Mark, which appear to be influenced by his ideas. All told, it is safe to say that without Paul, there would be nothing like the New Testament as we know it today.”
It goes on to say without Paul Christianity probably would just be a minor Jewish sect and then rather implausibly asserts we’d probably mostly be worship Greek and Roman deities. Me, I do agree with the thought there’s more than a passing chance that without Paul Christianity wouldn’t be a world religion.
Jesus was an apocalyptic prophet. And while the world he lived in did pass away, the new world he proclaimed certainly didn’t look like it was God’s kingdom. So, yes, probably he would have been forgotten.
I rather suspect other religions might arise. Probably not Islam as it is so flavored by Christianity, and the prophet, even if he arose, certainly an uncertainty should the historical time line get tweaked, would have a somewhat different message. But, maybe something like it – a more evangelistic Jewish influenced faith could have been it.
But, also, something else would likely come along. We humans do that sort of thing. And as the human world moved toward ever greater awareness of the outside, who knows what would birth out of curiosity and revulsion and fear and hope?
And. I think I bit about that possibly minor sect with its prophet Jesus, and the mysteries that might unfold from that. Perhaps a different follower than Paul, one more respectful of the received teachings of Jesus and less concerned with weaving a religion about the person of Jesus.
There were those collections of sayings of Jesus floating around along with collections of miracles attributed to him. Wouldn’t it be a hoot if something like the Gospel of Thomas became the centering document? Then what?
Jesus saw some babies nursing. He said to his disciples, “These nursing babies are like those who enter the (Father’s) domain.”
They said to him, “Then shall we enter the (Father’s) domain as babies?”
Jesus said to them, “When you make the two into one, and when you make the inner like the outer and the outer like the inner, and the upper like the lower, and when you make male and female into a single one, so that the male will not be male nor the female be female, when you make eyes in place of an eye, a hand in place of a hand, a foot in place of a foot, an image in place of an image, then you will enter [the (Father’s) domain].”
The Gospel According to Thomas, Logia 22
Me, I don’t know. I could see a religion like that spreading. Maybe. Possibly.
Mind bubbles on a Sunday morning…
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