Multiplying by Mission: Session 6 at Mission Lake

October 13, 2025October 13, 2025 / Jason Conrad / Leave a comment

40% Growth Then, 5% Growth Now — What We Must Learn Anew

When Nero died by suicide in AD 68, the Roman Empire plunged into chaos.
In a single year four emperors—Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and finally Vespasian—rose and fell.
While Rome fought for power, Judea was already on fire.
The revolt that began under Gessius Florus would end with Jerusalem leveled, the Temple burned, and a turning point for both Jews and Christians.

1. Florus and the Spark of Revolt (AD 66)

Florus, the Roman governor of Judea, stole seventeen talents of silver from the Temple treasury—about 1,200 pounds of consecrated silver, worth roughly ten million U.S. dollars today.
This was not ordinary corruption; it was sacrilege.

“When Florus took seventeen talents out of the sacred treasure, and the multitude ran together in the Temple crying out against him, some of the youths went about the city carrying baskets and asking alms for poor Florus.”
— Josephus, Jewish War 2.14.5 §306–308 (c. AD 75–79)

His answer was bloodshed.

“Florus sent soldiers into Jerusalem and ordered a massacre. They slew about three thousand six hundred persons, women and children as well as men; and among them were citizens of Roman knighthood. Some were scourged and then crucified.”
— Josephus, Jewish War 2.14.9 (c. AD 75–79)

The outrage united the city. Rebels stormed the Antonia Fortress, the great Roman garrison on the northwest corner of the Temple Mount. To capture it was to challenge Rome itself.

“They compelled the garrison to surrender and then slaughtered them. Thus war was now openly begun.”
— Josephus, Jewish War 2.17.9 (c. AD 75–79)

Rome’s patience ended. Nero sent Vespasian, the empire’s most seasoned general, and his son Titus to crush the rebellion.

2. Vespasian in Galilee — Fire and Terror (AD 67)

Galilee became Rome’s first target. At Jotapata, a hill fortress commanded by Josephus himself, the walls fell after forty-seven days.

“Forty thousand were slain, and the city was utterly demolished; those who had hidden in caves were dragged out and slain.”
— Josephus, Jewish War 3.7.36 (c. AD 75–79)

Then came Gamla, a ridge-top city east of the Sea of Galilee. Its name means camel in Aramaic, and its fall was as steep as its slopes.

“Men and women alike threw themselves and their children down the precipices; and the whole city was covered with corpses.”
— Josephus, Jewish War 4.1.9 (c. AD 75–79)

Josephus summed it simply: “Galilee was filled with fire and blood.”
— Josephus, Jewish War 4.1.9 (c. AD 75–79)

The Roman campaign left the region in ruins, silencing nearly every center of resistance.

It was here that Josephus himself was captured. As commander of Jewish forces in Galilee, he had held out at Jotapata until the city fell. In his own account, he claims that while in captivity he prophesied that Vespasian would soon be emperor:

“You, O Vespasian, shall be Caesar and emperor, you and your son. Bind me now still closer, and keep me for yourself; for you, O Caesar, are lord, not only of me, but of the land and sea, and of all mankind.”
— Josephus, Jewish War 3.8.9 §401–403 (c. AD 75–79)

When that prophecy appeared to come true the following year, Vespasian spared his life, granted him Roman citizenship, and attached him to his household. From then on Josephus lived in Rome under imperial patronage, taking the family name Flavius from his patrons.

This is how Yosef ben Matityahu, a Jewish priest and rebel general, became Flavius Josephus, historian of the Jewish War. His writings—sometimes defensive, sometimes deferential toward Rome—remain the only detailed eyewitness record of Jerusalem’s destruction.

3. The Siege of Jerusalem (AD 70)

When Nero’s death recalled Vespasian to Rome, Titus took full command.
Inside Jerusalem, zealot factions fought one another while Roman legions built a five-mile siege wall to starve the city into surrender.
This wall—called a circumvallation—completely encircled Jerusalem. Built in only three days by tens of thousands of soldiers, it cut off every road and stopped all supplies. Famine would finish what the legions began.

“The famine grew severe and destroyed whole houses and families. The alleys were filled with dead bodies of the aged; children and youths swarmed about the market-places like shadows, and fell wherever famine overtook them. No one buried them; pity was strangers to men; for famine had confounded all natural feeling.”
— Josephus, Jewish War 5.12.3–4 (c. AD 75–79)

Then Josephus records one of antiquity’s darkest scenes:

“There was a certain woman named Mary, daughter of Eleazar, of the village Bathezor. Driven by famine and rage, she slew her infant son, roasted him, and ate one half, concealing the rest. When the soldiers smelled the roasted meat and rushed in, she said, ‘This is my own son; the deed is mine; eat, for I have eaten. Do not pretend to be more tender-hearted than a woman or more compassionate than a mother.’”
— Josephus, Jewish War 6.201–213 (c. AD 75–79)

Titus later claimed he had ordered the Temple spared:

“I myself called a council of war and urged that the Temple be saved; but the flame was beyond control, and the sanctuary was burned against my will.”
— Josephus, Jewish War 6.4.7 §254 (c. AD 75–79)

Josephus blames undisciplined troops; Tacitus sees deliberate policy:

“It was resolved to destroy the Temple that the religion of the Jews might be more completely abolished.”
— Tacitus, Histories 5.12 (c. AD 100–110)

*The Destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem* – Francesco Hayez, 1867, oil on canvas

Different motives, same outcome: the Temple fell.
For Christians, it confirmed the prophecy of Christ: “Not one stone shall be left upon another.” (Mark 13:2)

4. Crosses Without Number

“As for those who had fled from the city and were caught, they were first scourged and then tortured and finally crucified before the walls. In their fury and hatred the soldiers nailed up the prisoners in different postures, by way of jest, and the multitude was so great that room was wanting for the crosses, and crosses for the bodies.”
— Josephus, Jewish War 5.11.1 (c. AD 75–79)

Josephus later expands this account:

“Those who were taken outside the city he first scourged, and then tormented with all manner of tortures before crucifying them opposite the wall. Titus indeed felt pity for them, but their number was so great that there was no room for the crosses nor crosses for the bodies. About five hundred were crucified each day, and the soldiers, in their rage and hatred, amused themselves by crucifying some one way and some another, until, owing to the multitude, there was no space left for the crosses nor crosses for the bodies.”
— Josephus, Jewish War 6.1.1 (c. AD 75–79)

The same empire that boasted of order and civilization turned execution into entertainment.
The hills around Jerusalem stood thick with crosses—not yet symbols of redemption, but monuments of Rome’s rule through fear.

5. Aftermath — Slavery, Spectacle, and Tax

Through Rome’s streets the captives marched, carrying the Menorah and sacred vessels. Coins were struck proclaiming IUDAEA CAPTA—“Judea Captured.” Various versions of these coins were struck and used for 25 years under Vespasian and his two sons Titus and Domitian.

IMP CAES VESPASIAN AUG PM TR P COS III = Commander Caesar Vespasian Augustus, Chief Priest, Holder of Tribunician Power, Consul for the Third Time; IUDEA CAPTA S C = Judea Captured by decree of the Senate

“He decreed that all Jews throughout the world should pay each year two drachmas to the Capitol in Rome, as they had previously paid to the Temple in Jerusalem.”
— Dio Cassius, Roman History 66.7 (c. AD 200–220)

The fiscus Judaicus turned a holy offering into tribute for pagan gods.
Jewish Christians, still classed as Jews, were forced to pay the same tax of defeat.

Meanwhile, many early believers saw a deeper reason for Jerusalem’s ruin: the death of James the Just, the brother of Jesus and leader of the church in Jerusalem.

“Festus was now dead, and Albinus was but upon the road; so Ananus, who had become high priest, assembled the Sanhedrin of judges, and brought before them the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some others; and when he had formed an accusation against them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be stoned.”
— Josephus, Antiquities 20.9.1 §200–203 (c. AD 93)

Hegesippus, a second-century Jewish Christian, adds detail:

“They placed James on the pinnacle of the Temple and cried, ‘Tell us, O righteous one, what is the door of Jesus?’ And he answered with a loud voice, ‘Why do you ask me concerning the Son of Man? He sitteth at the right hand of the Great Power, and shall come on the clouds of heaven.’ Then they began to stone him, and a fuller took the club with which he beat clothes and struck the righteous one on the head, and so he suffered martyrdom.”
— Hegesippus in Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 2.23.10–12 (c. AD 170, quoted c. AD 310–325)

Hegesippus concludes that the siege of Jerusalem followed soon after James’s death, calling it divine judgment:

“Immediately after this Vespasian began to besiege them; and they remembered the saying of Isaiah the prophet, ‘Let us take away the righteous man, because he is troublesome to us; therefore they shall eat the fruit of their doings.’ Such was their lot, and they suffered these things for the sake of James the Just.”
— Hegesippus in Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 2.23.18 (c. AD 170, quoted c. AD 310–325)

Eusebius agrees, closing his account:

“These things happened to the Jews to avenge James the Just, who was the brother of Jesus that is called Christ. For, as Josephus says, these things befell them in accordance with God’s vengeance for the death of James the Just, which they had committed, although he was a most righteous man.”
— Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 2.23.19–20 (c. AD 310–325)

From this moment on, many Christians saw the destruction of Jerusalem not only as Rome’s triumph, but as God’s judgment for rejecting Christ and murdering His righteous servant.

6. The Arch of Titus — The Empire’s Theology in Stone (AD 81)

When Titus died, the Senate declared him divine. The arch still standing on the Via Sacra reads:

“The Senate and People of Rome [dedicated this] to the deified Titus Vespasian Augustus, son of the deified Vespasian.”

Inside its vault, carvings show Roman soldiers bearing the Temple treasures.

“They brought the Menorah and the table of the bread of the Presence, and the last of the spoils was the Law of the Jews; after these, a great number of captives followed.”
— Josephus, Jewish War 7.5.5 (c. AD 75–79)

At the top of the arch inside is the depiction of Titus’ ascension to heaven as a god on the wings of an eagle.

For Rome, the arch proclaimed the victory of its gods.
For Christians, it stood as a silent confirmation of prophecy: the Temple of stone was gone, but the Temple of Christ remained.

7. The Flight to Pella — Revelation and Refuge

Amid the ruins of Jerusalem’s revolt, one community escaped—the believers who remembered Christ’s warning to flee.

“The people of the church in Jerusalem had been commanded by a revelation, vouchsafed to approved men there before the war, to leave the city and to dwell in a certain town of Perea called Pella. And when those who believed in Christ had come thither from Jerusalem, then, as if the holy men had altogether deserted the royal city of the Jews and the whole land of Judea, the judgment of God at last overtook them for their abominations.”
— Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 3.5.3 (c. AD 310–325)

Eusebius attributes their escape to a divine revelation, while Epiphanius explains it as obedience to Christ’s prophecy:

“When all the disciples were settled in Pella because of Christ’s prophecy about the siege, they remained there until the destruction of Jerusalem.”
— Epiphanius, Panarion 29.7.7–8 (c. AD 375)

Different explanations—same event. The believers crossed the Jordan to Pella, a Decapolis city about sixty miles northeast of Jerusalem, where they waited out the war.
Their flight fulfilled Jesus’ own words (Luke 21:20–21).
What looked like retreat was obedience.

8. The Nazarenes — Law-Observant, Christ-Confessing

The first branch to emerge from that exile was the Nazarenes—Jewish believers who kept the Mosaic Law yet confessed Jesus as the divine Son of God.
They were the losing party in the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15).

At that council, certain men from Judea began teaching that Gentile converts must keep the Law of Moses to be saved:

“Some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, ‘Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.’”
— Acts 15:1

Later Luke identifies who pressed the issue:

“But some of the sect of the Pharisees who believed rose up, saying, ‘It is necessary to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of Moses.’”
— Acts 15:5

Peter and James ruled that Gentiles need not bear that yoke:

“We should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God, but should write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from what has been strangled, and from blood.”
— Acts 15:19–20

Those Jewish believers who could not release Torah observance continued as a community of Torah-keeping Christians—the Nazarenes.

Two decades later they were still strong. When Paul returned to Jerusalem near the end of his ministry, James the Just, the same leader later martyred near the Temple, recognized their influence:

“You see, brother, how many myriads of Jews there are who have believed, and they are all zealous for the Law… Therefore do what we tell you: we have four men who have taken a vow; take them and purify yourself along with them, and pay their expenses, so that all may know that there is nothing in what they have been told about you, but that you yourself also live in observance of the Law.”
— Acts 21:20, 23–24

James’s advice shows that the Nazarenes were not fringe but central within the Jerusalem church.

Centuries later, Jerome described them:

“The adherents to this sect are known commonly as Nazarenes; they believe in Christ the Son of God, born of the Virgin Mary; and they say that He who suffered under Pontius Pilate and rose again is the same as the one in whom we believe.”
— Jerome, Letter 75 to Augustine (AD 398–403)

“The Nazarenes accept Messiah in such a way that they do not cease to observe the old Law.”
— Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah 8:14 (AD 398–403)

Even Epiphanius, who condemned most sects, writes:

The Nazarenes are Jews who keep the customs of the Law but also believe in Christ. They say that Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit. They believe that God created all things, that Jesus is His Son, and that the resurrection of the dead has already begun in Him… As for their understanding of Christ, I am not certain—whether they have been misled by false teachers who call Him merely human, or whether, as I think, they confess that He was born of Mary by the Holy Spirit.
— Epiphanius, Panarion 29.7.5–6 (c. AD 375)

Epiphanius lists their beliefs as orthodox and then admits, “I cannot say whether they have been deceived or whether they confess the truth.”
Had they denied Christ’s divinity, he would have said so.
His hesitation confirms that the Nazarenes were orthodox in belief, Jewish in culture—the first generation of Messianic Jews bridging synagogue and church.

9. The Ebionites — The First Denial of Christ’s Divinity

A second group took a different path. Epiphanius places their origin after the flight to Pella:

“The Ebionites are later than the Nazoraeans… their sect began after the flight from Jerusalem.”
— Epiphanius, Panarion 29.7.7–8 (c. AD 375)

They taught that Jesus was a mere man chosen by God, denied the virgin birth, and altered Scripture to fit their beliefs.

“Those who are called Ebionites use the Gospel according to Matthew only, and repudiate the Apostle Paul, maintaining that he was an apostate from the Law.”
— Irenaeus, Against Heresies 1.26.2 (c. AD 180)

“The Ebionites believe that He was a mere man, born of Joseph and Mary according to the common course of nature, and that He became righteous through the progress of His moral character.”
— Origen, Commentary on Matthew 16.12 (c. AD 248)

“They falsify the genealogical tables in Matthew’s Gospel, saying that He was begotten of a man and a woman, because they maintain that Jesus is really a man and was justified by His progress in virtue, and that He was called Christ because the Spirit of God descended upon Him at His baptism. They say that this same Spirit, which had come upon Him, was taken away and left Him before the Passion and went back to God; and that then, after His death and resurrection, this same Spirit returned to Him again. Thus they deny that He is God, though they do not deny that He was a man.”
— Epiphanius, Panarion 30.14.3–5 (c. AD 375)

They also spread a slander about Paul:

“They say that Paul was a Greek who came to Jerusalem and lived there for a time. He desired to marry a daughter of the priests but was refused. Out of anger and disappointment he turned against circumcision, the Sabbath, and the Law. Because of this, they claim, he wrote against these things and founded a new heresy.”
— Epiphanius, Panarion 30.16.6–9 (c. AD 375)

For the Ebionites, Jerusalem’s destruction was not punishment for rejecting Christ but for accepting the apostolic Gospel.
They blamed Paul and the church that followed him for turning Israel away from the Law.
Thus they reversed the very lesson of history that Josephus, Hegesippus, and Eusebius had drawn from the death of James the Just.
Where the Nazarenes preserved unity in diversity, the Ebionites cut themselves off from the apostolic faith.

10. Three Waves of Testimony and the Apostolic Standard

When we date the earliest Christian writings, we find three waves of testimony—sources acknowledged even by skeptical historians as genuine first-century evidence.
They give us the historical core around which all later writings revolve.

Three Waves of Early Christian Testimony

Wave of Witness	Approximate Date	Content & Description	Authority and Significance
Creeds	AD 30s	1 Corinthians 15:3–5 — “Christ died, was buried, and rose again according to the Scriptures.” Philippians 2:6–11 — The Christ-hymn proclaiming His pre-existence, incarnation, humility, and exaltation.	The earliest confessions of faith; already proclaim Jesus as divine and demand worship.
Paul’s Epistles	AD 48–61	The seven undisputed letters of Paul — Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, and Philemon.	The interpretation of Christ’s work by Paul himself, written within the lifetime of the apostles; Paul quotes and affirms the early creeds as authoritative revelation.
Synoptic Gospels	AD 50s–60s	Matthew, Mark, and Luke — written within the first generation after Jesus, preserving eyewitness memory of His life, teaching, death, and resurrection.	The formal written record of what the earliest witnesses proclaimed; confirms and expands the message already present in the creeds and letters.

This Philippians hymn is not later theology; it is the earliest Christian confession we possess.
It begins with divinity, not humanity.
It declares that the one “existing in the form of God” became man, died on a cross, and was exalted so that every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
It is a proclamation of His divinity and a demand for worship from the very start of the Christian movement.

Modern critics such as Bart Ehrman claim that belief in Jesus’ divinity was a late development, yet their own dating of the evidence proves the opposite.
The earliest sources—the creeds Paul quotes—already worship Him as divine, and Paul treats those creeds as authoritative revelation.
From the beginning, the church bowed to a divine Christ, not a human teacher slowly exalted by legend.

Measured by that apostolic standard, the Nazarenes remained faithful to the original confession, honoring Paul’s letters and the earliest creeds.
The Ebionites, however, altered the Gospels, repudiated Paul, and rejected the Philippians 2 creed, denying Christ’s divinity and placing themselves outside the apostolic faith.

11. Dating the Gospels

Critical scholars commonly date Mark around AD 70, arguing that Jesus’ prophecy of the Temple’s destruction must have been written after it happened.
But this logic assumes that prophecy is impossible—a philosophical bias, not a historical fact.
If prophecy is real, the foundation for late dating collapses.

Even on their own terms, critics face contradictions.
They argue that Matthew copied Mark and therefore must be later, yet the Ebionites were already using and editing Matthew shortly after Jerusalem’s fall.
If Matthew was being altered in the 70s, it had to exist before then—and if Matthew depended on Mark, Mark must be earlier still.
The evidence forces the Synoptic Gospels back into the 60s or even 50s—within the lifetime of eyewitnesses.

Paul’s letters tighten the timeline further.
In 1 Corinthians, written about AD 54–55, Paul quotes Gospel material three times:

1 Corinthians 7:10 echoes Mark 10:11–12 on divorce — “not I, but the Lord.”
1 Corinthians 9:14 recalls Luke 10:7 — “the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.”
1 Corinthians 11:23–25 recounts the words of institution at the Lord’s Supper, matching Luke 22:19–20 and Matthew 26:26–28.

These parallels show that the Gospel traditions were already written—or at least formally fixed—by the early 50s.
Paul quotes them as Scripture, not rumor, expecting his readers to recognize their authority.
This means the Gospels, or their written sources, predate 1 Corinthians itself—placing them within twenty years of the crucifixion.

Thus the timeline of Christian testimony runs not forward into myth but backward into eyewitness memory:

Creeds (AD 30s): the original confession of Christ’s death, resurrection, and divine status.
Paul’s Epistles (AD 48–61): the interpretation of those events by Paul himself, written within the lifetime of the apostles.
Synoptic Gospels (AD 50s–60s): the written preservation of what the eyewitnesses had proclaimed from the beginning.

When the evidence is allowed to speak for itself, it shows that the worship of Jesus as divine and the written record of His life both originate within living memory of His death and resurrection.
Even those who date the Gospel of John later, around the 90s, acknowledge that the Synoptics—and the faith they record—were already established decades earlier.
Christianity’s foundation is not legend developed over centuries—it is history written by witnesses and verified by worship.

How the 7 Letters Show an Unbroken Continuation of Persecution Since Jesus’ Crucifixion

June 21, 2025 / Jason Conrad / Leave a comment

Was persecution in the early church just a myth? Some modern scholars say yes—but Paul’s seven undisputed letters tell a different story. In this post, we explore how persecution began not with Nero or later emperors, but with Jesus himself—and continued through Paul’s ministry and the churches he wrote to. Long before it was empire-wide, suffering was already the daily reality for early Christians.

Was Early Christian Persecution Exaggerated?

Some modern scholars argue that early Christian persecution wasn’t as serious as we’ve been led to believe.

Candida Moss, in her book The Myth of Persecution (2013), claims the early church exaggerated stories of suffering. She argues that persecution wasn’t common, wasn’t organized, and was often the result of Christians acting in socially disruptive ways. The title alone—The Myth of Persecution—signals her aim to minimize its significance.

Bart Ehrman, in The Triumph of Christianity (2018), similarly states that persecution before Nero was “occasional and local,” not a deliberate campaign against Christians simply for believing in Jesus. In his view, Christians were targeted for offending social norms, not for their faith itself.

But what these arguments often miss is that Christian persecution didn’t have to be empire-wide to be devastating. Early churches were fragile—small house gatherings with no legal protection. If one believer was imprisoned or beaten, the effect rippled through the whole community.

So yes, the threat was localized. But the fear was universal.

What It Meant to Live Under the Threat

Imagine you’re a Christian in Thessalonica or Corinth around AD 50.

You’re not breaking any Roman laws—at least not explicitly—but you no longer join in idol feasts, you refuse to honor Caesar as divine, and you don’t sacrifice to the gods of your city. People notice.

Your friends grow distant. Your employer stops calling. Your family worries you’re joining a cult. And then someone files a complaint. Suddenly, your name is known, and you’re vulnerable.

You live with the constant reality that you could be the next to suffer. No law needs to change for persecution to come—just a neighbor’s suspicion or a local leader’s frustration.

This is the emotional context of Paul’s letters: not paranoia, but preparation. Believers were called to stand firm, because the risk was real.

Who Was Doing the Persecuting?

Persecution of Christians didn’t begin with Paul. It began with Jesus himself.

His crucifixion was the result of a coordinated effort between Jewish religious leaders and Roman civil authority—a pattern that continued after his death.

Paul admits openly that he was once one of the primary persecutors of Christians:

“You have heard of my former conduct in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it.”
(Galatians 1:13, NKJV)

And he acknowledges that the same communities who killed Jesus were now attacking his followers:

“You also suffered the same things from your own countrymen, just as they did from the Judeans, who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and have persecuted us…”
(1 Thessalonians 2:14–15, NKJV)

In the earliest phase of persecution—from the 30s to the 50s AD—it was primarily Jewish opposition, often in coordination with local Roman authorities, that brought suffering upon Christians. Paul himself was chased out of cities, beaten, and imprisoned by local powers. We do not see formal Roman policy until Nero in the 60s AD.

Nero’s persecution was a turning point. Christians, not Jews, were blamed for the fire of Rome. It marked the first time Roman authorities officially recognized Christians as distinct from Judaism—and treated them as a group worthy of punishment.

That precedent shaped the next 200 years of Christian life under Rome.

What Paul’s Seven Letters Say

The strongest evidence for early persecution doesn’t come from later legends or Christian historians. It comes from the earliest Christian writings we have: the seven undisputed letters of Paul, written between AD 48 and 60.

Let’s look at two verses from each letter—one about Paul’s own suffering, and one about suffering in the churches.

1 Thessalonians

Paul’s suffering:

“We were bold in our God to speak to you the gospel of God in much conflict.” (1 Thess. 2:2)

Church’s suffering:

“You… received the word in much affliction… For you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen.” (1 Thess. 1:6, 2:14)

Galatians

Paul’s suffering:

“I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.” (Gal. 6:17)

Church’s suffering:

“Have you suffered so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain?” (Gal. 3:4)

Philippians (written from prison)

Paul’s suffering:

“I am in chains for Christ.” (Phil. 1:13)

Church’s suffering:

“To you it has been granted… not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake.” (Phil. 1:29)

1 Corinthians

Paul’s suffering:

“We are fools for Christ’s sake… being persecuted, we endure.” (1 Cor. 4:10–12)

Church’s suffering:

“If one member suffers, all suffer together.” (1 Cor. 12:26)

2 Corinthians

Paul’s suffering:

“From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one… once I was stoned… in perils often…” (2 Cor. 11:24–26)

Church’s suffering:

“As you are partakers of the sufferings, so also you will partake of the consolation.” (2 Cor. 1:7)

Romans

Paul’s suffering:

“We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” (Rom. 8:36)

Church’s suffering:

“If indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.” (Rom. 8:17)

Philemon

Paul’s suffering:

“Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus…” (Philemon 1)

Church’s solidarity:

“Though I am in chains… I appeal to you…” (Philemon 9–10)

What This Means for Us

These aren’t fictions. They’re not later legends.

Paul’s letters—written before the Gospels, before Nero, before any systematic Roman policy—show that suffering was already baked into the Christian experience. From the very start, to follow Christ was to risk opposition.

And Paul never wavers. He doesn’t tell churches to soften their message or flee their towns. He tells them to endure. To rejoice. To carry in their bodies the dying of Christ, that his life might be revealed in them.

Conclusion: A Legacy of Suffering

So was early persecution a myth?

The seven letters of Paul say otherwise.

They show a pattern of unbroken hostility from Jesus’ crucifixion to Paul’s chains.
The sources are early. The testimony is consistent. The cost was real.

Christianity was not born in comfort.
It was born in conflict.
And its first witnesses—like Paul—never expected it to be easy.

They expected it to be worth it.

How Accurate Are Paul’s Letters? What the Manuscripts and Scholars Say

June 14, 2025 / Jason Conrad / Leave a comment

Manuscript Evidence for the Seven Undisputed Letters

Can we really know what Paul wrote nearly 2,000 years ago? This post explores the earliest manuscripts, key textual variants, and what even secular scholars say about the reliability of Paul’s seven undisputed letters.

Whether you approach the Bible with faith or skepticism, the transmission of Paul’s seven undisputed letters offers a rare meeting point where historians and believers find surprising agreement. These seven letters—Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, and Philemon—are universally accepted by scholars as genuine works of Paul. But can we be confident that the words we read today are the same ones Paul wrote in the 50s AD?

What Manuscripts Do We Actually Have?

Before the invention of the printing press, texts were copied by hand. That led to thousands of variations over time. But for Paul’s seven undisputed letters, we have a remarkable collection of early manuscripts and translations.

Approximate counts by language:

Greek: ~900 manuscripts
Latin: 3,000–4,000+ manuscripts
Coptic: 200–300 manuscripts
Syriac: 200–300 manuscripts
Other languages (Armenian, Gothic, Ethiopic, etc.): ~500 combined

Bart Ehrman, an agnostic scholar, says:
“We have more manuscripts of the New Testament than any other book from antiquity—many thousands. And many of these manuscripts date from quite early times.”
(Misquoting Jesus, 2005)

The Earliest Manuscript: P46

The earliest confirmed manuscript of Paul’s seven letters is Papyrus 46 (P46), dated between 175–225 AD.

It was discovered in Egypt and now resides in both Dublin and Michigan. It originally had 104 leaves, but only 86 survive.

P46 includes the following:

Romans 5:17–16:27 (chapters 1–5:16 are missing)
1 Corinthians 1:1–15:58 (chapter 16 missing)
2 Corinthians 1:1–9:6 (chapters 9:7–13:13 missing)
Galatians: fully preserved
Philippians: fully preserved
1 Thessalonians: fully preserved
Philemon: not included—likely in the missing final leaves

Brent Nongbri, a secular papyrologist, says:
“There is little doubt that additional material once followed the current end of the manuscript.”

By 200 AD, Paul’s letters were already being copied and circulated as a collection—less than 150 years after they were written.

Manuscripts Between 200 and 325 AD

To bridge the gap between Paul and the major codices of the fourth century, we have three key papyrus fragments:

P30 (c. 225–250): 1 Thessalonians 4:12–5:18
P65 (c. 200–250): 1 Thessalonians 1:3–2:13
P87 (c. 250–300): Philemon 13–15, 24–25

These fragments confirm continued copying of Paul’s letters across different regions before Christianity was legalized.

Then Come the Codices

Two of the most important Greek Bibles appear shortly after 325 AD:

Codex Vaticanus (c. 325–350): Contains all 7 undisputed letters; preserved in the Vatican Library
Codex Sinaiticus (c. 330–360): Also contains all 7; discovered at St. Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai

Despite coming from different regions, they show strong agreement with each other and with earlier papyri like P46 and P87.

Early Translations

By the early 4th century, Paul’s letters had also been translated into major Christian languages:

Old Latin (c. 250–300): Includes Romans and Galatians
Coptic (Sahidic dialect) (c. 300–325): Includes Galatians
Syriac: Citations from the letters appear by the early 4th century

This wide translation effort confirms the value and authority of Paul’s letters in diverse early communities.

What About Textual Variants?

Across all manuscripts of Paul’s seven letters, scholars estimate about 7,000–8,000 textual variants. That number may sound high—until you consider that these variants are spread across thousands of manuscripts written by hand over centuries.

More importantly, the vast majority of these variants are completely insignificant—they affect spelling, word order, or have no impact on the meaning at all.

Two Examples of Insignificant Variants:

Romans 12:11

“Serve the Lord” vs. “Serve the Spirit”
🡒 The difference is one Greek word—both emphasize faithful living and make theological sense.

Galatians 1:3

“God our Father” vs. “God the Father”
🡒 Both readings are grammatically and doctrinally acceptable. No core teaching is affected.

Bart Ehrman comments:
“Most of the textual changes in our manuscripts are completely insignificant.”
(Misquoting Jesus, 2005)

But Are There Any That Matter?

Yes, a few variants are more significant. Here are five that are often discussed:

Romans 8:1

Short: “There is therefore now no condemnation…”
Long: adds “…who walk not according to the flesh…”
🡒 The longer phrase is likely borrowed from verse 4—a case of scribal harmonization.

1 Thessalonians 2:7

“We were gentle among you” vs. “We were like children among you”
🡒 The difference hinges on a single Greek letter. Both are consistent with Paul’s tone and message.

Galatians 2:12

Some manuscripts omit “certain men from James”
🡒 Possibly removed to soften the perceived tension between Paul and the Jerusalem church.

1 Corinthians 14:34–35

These verses about women keeping silent appear in different places in some manuscripts or are marked with symbols
🡒 Their placement suggests that some early copyists were unsure of their originality.

Romans 5:1

“We have peace…” vs. “Let us have peace…”
🡒 A single vowel shifts the tone from statement to exhortation—both readings are ancient and meaningful.

Even in these cases, none of the variants creates a contradiction or changes Christian doctrine. They are precisely the kind of variations you’d expect in a vast and ancient copying tradition.

Eldon J. Epp, a respected textual critic, concludes:
“The massive number of manuscripts gives us confidence in recovering a reliable text.”
(Perspectives on New Testament Textual Criticism, 2005)

Conclusion: We Can Know What Paul Wrote

Paul’s letters were written around 50 AD. By 200 AD, we have Papyrus 46. Between 200 and 325, we have fragmentary manuscripts and early translations. By 350, we have complete codices that show strong agreement with the earlier copies.

Despite being copied by hand for centuries, the content of Paul’s seven letters remains remarkably stable.

What we read today is—by all major accounts—what Paul wrote.

When Atheists and Christians Agree: The 7 Undisputed Letters of Paul

May 26, 2025May 26, 2025 / Jason Conrad / Leave a comment

What if one of the most skeptical atheist scholars and one of the most influential agnostic historians both agree that seven letters in the New Testament were genuinely written by Paul? That’s not just a talking point—it’s a shared conclusion across the scholarly spectrum, and it’s a powerful starting point for understanding the roots of Christianity.

These are known as the seven undisputed letters of Paul—Galatians, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Romans, 1 Thessalonians, Philippians, and Philemon. For over 150 years, both Christian and secular scholars have agreed that these letters were authentically written by the Apostle Paul.

This includes scholars like:

Bart Ehrman, an agnostic and New Testament critic, who writes:
“There is no doubt that Paul wrote Galatians, Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, 1 Thessalonians, Philippians, and Philemon.”
(Forged: Writing in the Name of God, p. 112)
Richard Carrier, an atheist and vocal mythicist, who says:
“The seven letters generally agreed upon as authentic… are sufficient to reconstruct the basic outline of Paul’s theology and missionary activity.”
(On the Historicity of Jesus, p. 510)

So what’s so important about these seven letters?

They Are the Earliest Christian Writings

These letters were written before any of the four Gospels—between 48 and 61 AD, during Paul’s active ministry. They offer us the oldest surviving descriptions of Jesus, the earliest theological explanations of his death and resurrection, and references to traditions already circulating among the first Christian communities.

Galatians Contains a 17-Year Timeline

One of the most important letters—Galatians—includes Paul’s autobiographical testimony. In chapters 1 and 2, he describes events spanning at least 17 years, including his own conversion, early preaching, and eventual meeting with Peter and James, the brother of Jesus.

When you line up Paul’s dates with the widely accepted crucifixion date of 30 AD, Paul’s conversion likely happened between 31 and 33 AD—that is, within 1 to 3 years of Jesus’ death.

This makes Paul not only a first-generation Christian, but someone who was contemporaneous with Jesus’ earliest followers, directly connected to the events and people we read about in the Gospels.

Paul Already Knew and Quoted Jesus’ Teachings

Even though Paul wrote before the Gospels were compiled, his letters contain direct echoes of Jesus’ teachings, including:

The Lord’s Supper (1 Corinthians 11:23–25) “This is My body… This cup is the new covenant in My blood…”
(cf. Matthew 26:26–28; Mark 14:22–24; Luke 22:19–20)
On divorce (1 Corinthians 7:10–11) “Now to the married I command, yet not I but the Lord…”
(cf. Mark 10:11–12; Luke 16:18)
On ministry support (1 Corinthians 9:14) “Even so the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel.”
(cf. Luke 10:7)

This is solid evidence that Jesus’ teachings were already being preserved and passed along in oral form within just a few years of his death.

He Also Quotes Early Creeds and Hymns

Paul didn’t invent Christian doctrine from scratch—he inherited creeds and confessions that predate his writings. For example:

The Resurrection Creed (1 Corinthians 15:3–7): “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures… he was buried… he was raised on the third day… and appeared to Peter, then to the Twelve…”
Scholars widely agree this creed originated within 3–5 years after Jesus’ death, making it the earliest known Christian confession.
The Christ Hymn (Philippians 2:6–11):
A poetic passage describing Jesus’ divine nature, incarnation, death, and exaltation: “He humbled Himself… even to the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him…”
Scholars believe this hymn predates Paul and was likely sung or recited by early believers before the Gospels were written.

These creeds show that Christian theology didn’t evolve slowly over centuries—it was rich, reverent, and centered on the risen Christ from the very beginning.

Why This Matters

When we read the seven undisputed letters of Paul, we’re not peering through layers of centuries-old church tradition. We’re reading first-generation testimony—from someone who was personally transformed by the very movement he once tried to destroy.

And when even critics of Christianity agree that these letters are genuine, that tells us something profound: these writings are a shared historical foundation, offering common ground for skeptics, seekers, and believers alike.