# Did Paul hijack Christianity? **URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-paul-hijack-christianity/530342 **Category:** Great Debates **Created:** [February 25, 2010, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-paul-hijack-christianity/530342 "2010-02-25T01:48:27Z") **Posts on this page:** 1 **Showing post:** 258
### Author: ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure) #### Post date: [March 19, 2010, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-paul-hijack-christianity/530342/258 "2010-03-19T01:50:00Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > The summary arrest and execution of a Galilean peasant causing a ruckus at the temple would have made very little impression on them. It was literally just part of an ordinary day’s work. If you’d asked Pilate about the incident a month after it happened, he’d probably be hard put to remember who you were talking about. It just wouldn’t have been important to him. And this is why I find the resurrection _plausible_ if not necessarily probable. Rural celebrity visits the big city during Passover and gets in over his head. He has friends, but none local to Jerusalem. He’s scheduled for execution. You’re a follower: what do you do? _You pay a bribe_. You are the popular rabbi: what do you do? _You get the hell out of Dodge_ (ie meet me in Galilee). Now I understand that Roman soldiers who accepted bribes under such circumstances risked death themselves. But if the execution indeed occurred during a busy holiday, they may have been short-staffed and had opportunity to look the other way. Purists will argue that I’m not exactly describing a resurrection. Details, details: I say beating the Roman army counts as a miracle. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-paul-hijack-christianity/530342)._