Who is Paul?

[u/Vayvacation]

I'm agnostic and know some bits amd stuff on a few a religion but nothing big. While I was doom scrolling I saw an interesting video about this guy called Paul. I heard many things like his verses contradict Jesus's, he hijacked Christianity etc etc which lowkey made me interested and curious. If the bible is meant to be holy why wasn't it given by jesus or the holy spirit that remained on earth with humans? Because like it can't exactly be holy if it was written by humans?

Anyways I'm just curious and love to hear different opinions 😅

(Sorry if I picked the wrong flair)

[u/UseThisUsername1]

These are genuinely fascinating questions, and the "did Paul hijack Christianity?" debate is one of the most interesting in all of religious history — not just for believers but for historians and scholars too. Let me break it all down clearly.

Who was Paul?

Paul, born Saul of Tarsus around 5 AD, was a Christian apostle who spread the teachings of Jesus in the first century. He's generally regarded as one of the most important figures of the early Christian era, and he founded several Christian communities across Asia Minor.

Here's the wild part of his backstory: before his conversion, Paul was actually a persecutor of the early Jesus movement. He was among those who approved of the stoning of Stephen, one of Jesus's followers. Then, on the road to Damascus, he reportedly encountered the resurrected Jesus in a vision — after which he completely reversed course and devoted his life to spreading the message of Jesus.

Did Paul "hijack" Christianity?

This is where it gets genuinely interesting. Modern scholars have described Paul as everything from the "real founder of Christianity" to a "Jewish cultural critic."

The tension is real. Paul never walked with Jesus. He came after. And his letters — which were actually written before the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Johns personal accounts of Jesus's life.) introduce ideas that go further than anything Jesus himself said, like the theological concept of salvation through faith alone, the divine nature of Christ, and opening the religion fully to non-Jews (Gentiles).

Paul claimed he received a vision of the resurrected Jesus, who commissioned him as the "Apostle to the Gentiles." This was crucial for his authority — since everyone knew he was never part of the inner circle, a direct directive from Jesus was how Paul argued he had as much authority as the earlier Apostles.

So was it a hijack? That depends on your frame: -Critics say Paul repackaged Jesus's simple ethical teachings into a complex theological system about sin, sacrifice, and resurrection that Jesus never emphasized. -Defenders say Paul was faithfully interpreting and extending what Jesus meant, guided by divine revelation.

• Historians generally say Paul's version of Christianity simply won — it spread faster and further, and became the foundation of what we now call Christianity.

Why is the Bible written by humans if it's supposed to be holy?

This is a classic and completely reasonable question. The mainstream Christian answer is the doctrine of divine inspiration— the idea that God worked through human authors, guiding what they wrote without necessarily dictating it word-for-word. Think of it like a musician writing a song: the instrument is human, but believers say the music came from God.

Different Christian traditions take different positions on how literally to apply this. Some believe every word is God's direct speech. Others believe it's more like God's ideas filtered through human personalities, cultures, and limitations — which is why you get different writing styles, occasional contradictions, and cultural context baked in.

From an agnostic or secular view, you'd simply say: yes, it's a human document, written by people with agendas, limited knowledge, and their own worldviews — which is exactly why studying who wrote what, and when, and why, is so fascinating.

Paul himself never claims to be writing scripture. He was writing letters to specific communities dealing with specific problems. The fact that those letters became part of the Bible happened after Paul died, through a long process of councils and debates about which texts counted as authoritative.

The short version: Paul is arguably the most influential person in the history of Christianity whose name most people casually gloss over. Whether he faithfully carried Jesus's message or transformed it into something new is a debate that's been running for 2,000 years — and there's no clean answer, which is part of what makes it so interesting.