evidence of an earthly human Jesus in the Pauline epistles

[arnoldo]

PS - invoking the ghost of Doherty, he'd likely just scoff and ask whether Attis or Mithras or Osiris or whatever were thought by Middle Platonists participating in the mysteries to have done their deeds on earth, when the lord Jesus himself is an ideal form existing in Plato's great beyond as an emanation from God the Father (Plato's "the Good"). Describing the ideal form in terms familiar to us who watch shadows on a wall does not mean the ideal form is actually just another shadow, any more than the archons were actually marched in a triumphal procession before the cross (Col 2:15).

Doherty's argument for a “non-earthly” Jesus in the Pauline writings has a high degree of internal coherence. Doherty's suggestion that Marcion may've interpreted one of the “archons” being marched in front of the cross to include the Demiurge also has a ring of plausibility about it. Thanks for conjuring Doherty's “ghost” even though I had to google it to make sure he is still alive on this earthly plane of existence.

[Peter Kirby]

He's alive and doing well, in fact. The "ghost" bit refers to the fact that he's now retired from this field.