I suspect that if we were to ask most modern Christians whether the writings and teachings of Paul (Saul), the probable author of seven of the letters attributed to him, are the same as or congruent with the teachings of Yeshua of Nazareth, the Christian Messiah (we do not have any writings from Yeshua himself to compare), the answer would be "yes." A close examination of the scriptures, the official record of both Yeshua and Paul, will yield, I believe, some doubt to this question. It is important to look at the historical context in which the reports of both men are placed.  Yeshua was a Jew living in the small town of Nazareth in Roman Judea.  He was born to the wife of a local man named Joseph who is described in the Bible as a craftsman or technician of some kind.  One English translation says he was a carpenter.  The Greek word "tektōn" is used.  It has been translated to mean carpenter, laborer, or craftsman.  We do not know whether Yeshua was...

  We all know that The Gospel of Mark is one of the four Gospels in the Bible which tell the story of Yeshua of Nazareth, the Christian Messiah. What else do we know about the book? Like all of the books of the Bible, we do not have a single source that explains each book in its context. We have to examine all of the evidence we have available in order to make sense of the Bible and even then, there are far too many questions that remain unanswered or whose answers are not congruent with what Christian churches teach. In examining the book, we will start with its authorship and our first controversy. No one knows who wrote the Gospel of Mark. Many of the faithful will insist that the gospel was written by the Apostle Mark. I suppose they will be surprised to learn that there was no one named Mark among Yeshua's Apostles. In early church times, it was assumed that the gospel was written by John Mark, a follower of Peter. In spite of this tradition, scholars believe the gospel...