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Was Sergius Paulus the historical Paul?

Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2018 4:43 am
by Giuseppe

4 The two of them, sent on their way by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia and sailed from there to Cyprus. 5 When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the Jewish synagogues. John was with them as their helper.
6 They traveled through the whole island until they came to Paphos. There they met a Jewish sorcerer and false prophet named Bar-Jesus, 7 who was an attendant of the proconsul, Sergius Paulus. The proconsul, an intelligent man, sent for Barnabas and Saul because he wanted to hear the word of God. 8 But Elymas the sorcerer (for that is what his name means) opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul from the faith. 9 Then Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight at Elymas and said, 10 “You are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right! You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery. Will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord? 11 Now the hand of the Lord is against you. You are going to be blind for a time, not even able to see the light of the sun.”
Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he groped about, seeking someone to lead him by the hand. 12 When the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, for he was amazed at the teaching about the Lord.

(Acts 13:4-12)


Elymas is also called Bar Jehu, 'Son of Jesus'. Because 'Elymas' is El Megas, the Great El, another name for the archangel Jesus.

Hence Sergius Paulus was converted in another form of the Jesus myth, before he was made a proto-catholic by the proto-catholic Paul of Acts.

Which better candidate, then, for the historical Paul than this Sergius Paulus?

Re: Was Sergius Paulus the historical Paul?

Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2018 5:13 am
by Joseph D. L.
Acts of the Apostles 13:4-12 might as well be the magician giving away his act. Elymas is Saul prior to his conversion; Sergius Paulus is Paul, newly converted.

But the historical Paul was a man named Marcus who hailed from Northern Turkey, ca. 118 ad. Sergius Paulus is just a literary device.

Re: Was Sergius Paulus the historical Paul?

Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2018 6:06 am
by Giuseppe
I don't use Acts to recover the historical Paul meant as a man. I am using Acts to recover traces of a Jesus Cult that is rival to the Jesus Cult in Jerusalem (even if both in a mythicist form).

Re: Was Sergius Paulus the historical Paul?

Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2018 1:50 pm
by MrMacSon
Giuseppe wrote: Sun Sep 09, 2018 6:06 am I don't use Acts to recover the historical Paul meant as a man. I am using Acts to recover traces of a Jesus Cult that is rival to the Jesus Cult in Jerusalem (even if both in a mythicist form).
One or more of the Dutch Radicals deduced that Paul represented a gnostic messsianic cult and the gospels represented a Jewish messianic cult and the two were rivals. They (+/or others) deduced that Acts was written when the two decided to resolve their differences, possibly in the 2nd or 3rd generation of the cult - perhaps when the original members had died.

Paul may be a literary device, too.