Chapter XVI: Section XV: St. Paul the Real Founder of Present Christianity

We may repeat with the author of _Phallicism_:

We are all for _construction_—even for _Christian_, although of
course philosophical _construction_. We have nothing to do with
reality, in man’s limited, mechanical, scientific sense, or with
_realism_. We have undertaken to show that mysticism is the very
life and soul of religion;(218) ... that _the Bible is only
misread and misrepresented when rejected as advancing supposed
fabulous and contradictory things_; that Moses did not make
mistakes, but spoke to the “children of men” in the only way in
which _children_ in their nonage can be addressed; that the world
is, indeed, a very different place from that which it is assumed
to be; that what is derided as superstition is the only true and
the only scientific _knowledge_, and moreover that modern
knowledge and modern science are to a great extent not only
_superstition_, but superstition of a very destructive and deadly
kind.(219)

All this is perfectly true and correct. But it is also true that the _New Testament_, the _Acts_ and the _Epistles_—however much the historical figure of Jesus may be true—are all symbolical and allegorical sayings, and that “it was not Jesus but Paul who was the real founder of Christianity;”(220) but it was not the official Church Christianity, at any rate. “The disciples were called Christians first in Antioch,” the _Acts of the Apostles_ tell us,(221) and they were not so called before, nor for a long time after, but simply Nazarenes.

This view is found in more than one writer of the present and the past centuries. But, hitherto, it has always been laid aside as an unproven hypothesis, a blasphemous assumption; though, as the author of _Paul, the Founder of Christianity_(222) truly says:

Such men as Irenæus, Epiphanius and Eusebius have transmitted to
posterity a reputation for such untruth and dishonest practices
that the heart sickens at the story of the crimes of that period.

The more so, since the whole Christian scheme rests upon _their_ sayings. But we find now another corroboration, and this time on the perfect reading of biblical glyphs. In _The Source of Measures_ we find the following:

It must be borne in mind that our present Christianity is
_Pauline_, not _Jesus_. Jesus, in his life, was a Jew, conforming
to the law; even more, He says: “The scribes and pharisees sit in
Moses’ seat; whatsoever therefore they command you to do, that
observe and do.” And again: “I did not come to destroy but to
fulfil the law.” Therefore, He was under the law to the day of his
death, and could not, while in life, abrogate one jot or tittle of
it. He was circumcised and commanded circumcision. But Paul said
of circumcision that it availed nothing, and _he_ (Paul) abrogated
the law. _Saul_ and _Paul_—that is, Saul, under the law, and Paul,
freed from the obligations of the law—were in one man, but
parallelisms _in the flesh_, of Jesus the man under the law as
observing it, who thus died in _Chréstos_ and arose, freed from
its obligations, in the spirit world as _Christos_, or the
triumphant Christ. It was the Christ who was freed, but Christ was
in the Spirit. Saul in the flesh was the function of, and parallel
of Chréstos. Paul in the flesh was the function and parallel of
Jesus become Christ in the spirit, as an early reality to answer
to and act for the _apotheosis_; and so armed with all authority
in the flesh to abrogate human law.(223)

The real reason why Paul is shown as “abrogating the law” can be found only in India, where to this day the most ancient customs and privileges are preserved in all their purity, notwithstanding the abuse levelled at the same. There is only one class of persons who can disregard the law of Brâhmanical institutions, caste included, with impunity, and that is the _perfect_ “Svâmîs,” the Yogîs—who have reached, or are supposed to have reached, the first step towards the Jîvanmukta state—or the full Initiates. And Paul was undeniably an Initiate. We will quote a passage or two from _Isis Unveiled_, for we can say now nothing better than what was said then:

Take Paul, read the little of original that is left of him in the
writings attributed to this brave, honest, sincere man, and see
whether anyone can find a word therein to show that Paul meant by
the word Christ anything more than the abstract ideal of the
personal divinity indwelling in man. For Paul, Christ is not a
person, but an embodied idea. “If any man is in Christ he is a new
creation,” _he is reborn_, as after initiation, for the Lord is
spirit—the spirit of man. Paul was the only one of the apostles
who had understood the secret ideas underlying the teachings of
Jesus, although he had never met him.

But Paul himself was not infallible or perfect.

Bent upon inaugurating a new and broad reform, one embracing the
whole of humanity, he sincerely set his own doctrines far above
the wisdom of the ages, above the ancient Mysteries and final
revelation to the Epoptæ.

Another proof that Paul belonged to the circle of the “Initiates”
lies in the following fact. The apostle had his head shorn at
Ceuchreæ, where Lucius (_Apuleius_) was initiated, because “he had
a vow.” The Nazars—or set apart—as we see in the Jewish
Scriptures, had to cut their hair, which they wore long, and which
“no razor touched” at any other time, and sacrifice it on the
altar of initiation. And the Nazars were a class of Chaldæan
Theurgists or Initiates.

It is shown in _Isis Unveiled_ that Jesus belonged to this class.

Paul declares that: “According to the grace of God which is given
unto me, as a wise _master‐builder_, I have laid the foundation.”
(_I. Corinth._, iii. 10.)

This expression, master‐builder, used only _once_ in the whole
_Bible_, and by Paul, may be considered as a whole revelation. In
the Mysteries, the third part of the sacred rites was called
Epopteia, or revelation, reception into the secrets. In substance
it means the highest stage of clairvoyance—the divine; ... but the
real significance of the word is “overseeing,” from ὄπτομαι—“I see
myself.” In Sanskrit the root _âp_ had the same meaning
originally, though now it is understood as meaning “to
obtain.”(224)

The word _epopteia_ is compound, from ἐπὶ “upon,” and ὄπτομαι “to
look,” or an overseer, an inspector—also used for a master‐
builder. The title of master‐mason, in Freemasonry, is derived
from this, in the sense used in the Mysteries. Therefore, when
Paul entitles himself a “master‐builder,” he is using a word pre‐
eminently kabalistic, theurgic, and masonic, and one which no
other apostle uses. He thus declares himself an _adept_, having
the right to initiate others.

If we search in this direction, with those sure guides, the
Grecian Mysteries and the _Kabalah_, before us, it will be easy to
find the secret reason why Paul was so persecuted and hated by
Peter, John, and James. The author of the _Revelation_ was a
Jewish Kabalist, _pur sang_, with all the hatred inherited by him
from his forefathers toward the pagan Mysteries.(225) His jealousy
during the life of Jesus extended even to Peter; and it is but
after the death of their common master that we see the two
apostles—the former of whom wore the Mitre and the Petaloon of the
Jewish Rabbis—preach so zealously the rite of circumcision. In the
eyes of Peter, Paul, who had humiliated him, and whom he felt so
much his superior in “Greek learning” and philosophy, must have
naturally appeared as a magician, a man polluted with the
“Gnosis,” with the “wisdom” of the Greek Mysteries—hence, perhaps,
“Simon the Magician” as a comparison, not a nickname.(226)