Paul and Mark: the Christian was the Buddhist

Things are not always as we think. If you learn history and culture, things turn out to be much different from what you thought. Take the case of Paul and Mark. Most of the New Testament epistles were written before the first Gospel, which was Mark. We are taught that Paul was the enlightened, converted Pharisee who understood the scriptures and created new, unerrant and inspired scriptures; and that John Mark wrote the stories about Jesus he heard Peter preach. And I can get you a deal on Grant's tomb.


Christianity goes back hundreds of years before the first century A.D. Moses was a Christian. Christianity is a framework of beliefs that hold that Christ is the power of God and wisdom of God within man. God's consciousness, having of its own volition "died" of its awareness of being God to become man, is crucified upon man's flesh, and as his imagination communicates to guide him toward higher spiritual evolution. Both Paul and Mark heard about this Jesus Christ, but thought different things about him.

Paul, the trained Pharisee, believed the literal-historical interpretation of the Bible. He believed that Jesus was a literal, historical figure he had missed, who had been hell bent on destroying the Judaism he knew and loved and was compelled to protect. Although Paul was converted and saw Jesus, was baptized in the Holy Spirit and received revelations of what God was doing, he for a long time continued to conceptualize everything according to the literal-historical framework he was trained in. Yes, he saw Jesus as a glorious, risen being, but he RATIONALIZED that this was the historical man who had been recently crucified and raised from the dead, ascended to Heaven and now empowered with the powers of God. It makes perfect sense.

Mark, on the other hand, was probably a Buddhist missionary who had traveled from India through Persia and south to Judea and Egypt. He was trained in age-old wisdom traditions, and when he learned the Hebrew scriptures he saw the truth of Christ. Poor guy. He learned Christianity from Moses through the Jewish Scriptures, and then encountered Jewish jackasses like Paul had been as a Pharisee. "Hey, guys, these are your scriptures. Don't you understand them at all?" Mark could see Moses was talking about what is inside man. The Jews, like Paul, saw a history of outside human forefathers.

Paul, in his rationalizations, believed that the glorified human Jesus was necessarily going to return soon in judgment. Paul was converted inside, but he still expected the outside. Mark wrote of the actions of Jesus INSIDE. The inner man speaks to and teaches us. There may have been a Jesus or Jacob whose exemplary life and character inspired Mark, but the Gospel Mark wrote is explanatory of the Gospel Moses wrote. "Hey, guys, this is what your scriptures are teaching you."

It was Mark, the Buddhist, who was the Christian. Paul came along later, too. His later letters show how he matured and realized that it all happens now -- here within us.