The apostle Paul complained about the diversity of beliefs among early “Christians” and railed against rival apostles who preached another Jesus. He accused them of being agents of Satan and laid curses on them.

The Didakhe, an early manual of church doctrine and practices, also warned against false preachers and “traffickers in Christs”. So what did these other Christ-mongers preach?

• Some members of the Baptist cult argued that John the Baptist was the Christ. In fact, his nativity tale had been co-opted for Luke’s Baby Jesus scene.

• There is speculation that James the Just was believed by some to have been the Christ. The 2nd century chronicler Hegesippus wrote that when James was flung off a roof and then killed by stoning in the year 62, his last words were, “Father forgive them, they know not what they do” – words later put in Jesus’ mouth.

• The pre-Pauline Thomasine sect believed salvation came from embracing Jesus’ secret teachings. They say nothing about a death and resurrection. It is this group whom the Gospel of John targets with its “Doubting Thomas” passage (Jn 20: 24-29).

• In the Epistle to the Hebrews Jesus was a heavenly high priest who offered his sacrifice in the heavenly temple.

• Some thought the Messiah had been Jesus ben Pandira, who was stoned for sorcery a century before the supposed lifetime of the Gospel Jesus.

• The Docetists believed Jesus was never a fully physical being but only an illusory figure.

• And there were those (possibly Paul’s sect) who claimed there was no earthly Jesus at all, rather a cosmic Christ who descended to the underworld and back up through the layers of heaven – where he tricked demonic spirits into sacrificing him.

• The pre-Pauline Kenosis Hymn, which Paul quotes in Philippians, seems to say that God named Jesus only after his death!

So if Jesus actually existed as a man who died around the year 30, how came there to be so many bizarre and disparate beliefs about him before the Gospels were even written?

By the author of MYTHOS CHRISTOS