Who Really Founded Christianity, Jesus or Paul?
Jesus preached a kingdom on earth, but Paul built a religion that ignored him and took over the world.
Most people think Christianity started with Jesus. Sounds cute, but not quite so. Jesus preached, healed, ticked off some priests, and got nailed to a cross. Then came Paul — a guy who never met Jesus in life — and suddenly Christianity exploded into the giant religion we know today. If you ask me, the real founder of Christianity wasn’t the guy walking around Galilee, it was the ex-Pharisee writing letters and stirring fights in every city he stepped into.
Jesus Was a Jewish Preacher, Not a Church Builder
Start with Jesus. He wasn’t trying to start a brand-new religion. He was a Jewish reformer. His message was “God’s kingdom is coming soon, clean up your act.” He followed Jewish law. He kept the Sabbath. He ate kosher. He prayed in synagogues. He even told people he wasn’t here to abolish the law but to fulfill it. That’s not the blueprint for global Christianity; that’s just a Jewish prophet doing his thing.
Did he call himself God? No. Did he plan to set up a new religion with cathedrals, popes, and TV preachers asking for money? Absolutely not. Jesus was laser-focused on Jews. His own words: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” End of story.
Enter Paul, Stage Left
Then you’ve got Paul. He starts as a Jesus-hating Pharisee, sees a vision on the road to Damascus (convenient, since nobody else saw it), and boom — now he’s the self-appointed apostle. Did he know Jesus? No. Did he follow him around? No. But somehow Paul ends up writing more of the New Testament than anyone else. In fact, his letters are the oldest Christian texts we have.
Paul flipped the script. Instead of Jews, he went for Gentiles — Greeks and Romans who couldn’t care less about Torah law. He told them, “Relax, you don’t need circumcision, you don’t need kosher, just believe in Jesus’ death and resurrection and you’re good.” That was the sales pitch of the century. Nobody wants to chop their foreskin for a religion. Paul knew his audience.
Jesus vs. Paul: Different Religions
If you line up Jesus’ teaching next to Paul’s, you’d think they were talking about two different gods. Jesus said: love your neighbor, obey the commandments, forgive, and prepare for God’s kingdom on earth. Paul said: forget the law, salvation comes from faith alone, and the whole point of Jesus was dying for your sins.
Jesus: good works matter.
Paul: works don’t save you, faith does.
Jesus: obey God’s law.
Paul: law is a curse.
See the problem?
It’s like Jesus built a house and Paul came in, bulldozed it, and built a shopping mall on the lot.
The Fight with James and the Jerusalem Crew
The clash wasn’t just theory. Paul fought tooth and nail with Jesus’ own family. James, Jesus’ brother, led the Jerusalem church. He wanted followers to stay Jewish, follow the law, and keep it in the family. Paul said, “Nope, everyone gets in, Jews and Gentiles alike.”
The Book of Acts tries to sugarcoat it, but Paul himself admits they had brutal arguments. He even called out Peter for being a hypocrite. Imagine that: the guy who never met Jesus lecturing the guy who walked on water. That’s Paul for you — loud, bossy, and impossible to ignore.
Why Paul Won
So why did Paul’s version win out? Because it was easy. Jesus’ strict Judaism was a tough sell to Gentiles. Who wants dietary rules, Sabbath restrictions, and circumcision? Paul stripped it all down to a simple package: “Believe Jesus died for your sins and you’ll get eternal life.” One-liner religion. Perfect for the Roman Empire.
Plus, Paul was a Roman citizen who spoke Greek. He knew how to work cities, synagogues, and markets. He wrote letters, argued nonstop, and built a network of churches. Jesus had disciples, sure, but Paul had marketing skills. In history, marketing often beats the original product.
Christianity Today Looks Like Paul, Not Jesus
Look at modern Christianity. Is it about obeying Jewish law? No. Is it about the Sermon on the Mount? Not really. It’s all about Paul’s stuff: justification by faith, salvation through the cross, original sin, and the resurrection.
Churches preach Paul’s theology every Sunday, not Jesus’ Judaism. Ever hear a sermon about keeping kosher? No. But you’ve heard plenty about “saved by faith.” That’s Paul talking, not Jesus.
Paul the Hijacker
Let’s call it what it is: Paul hijacked Jesus’ movement. Without him, Christianity might have stayed a small Jewish sect, just another reform group. Instead, Paul rebranded it, ditched the Jewish rules, added Greek philosophy, and sold it to the Gentile world. Jesus planted the seed, but Paul grafted it into a whole new tree.
Some Christians don’t like hearing that. They want a clean story: Jesus founded the church, Paul just spread it. But history’s messy. The truth is, Paul invented the religion most people follow today.
Before You Go
So who really founded Christianity? The Jewish prophet who preached about God’s kingdom but never left Palestine? Or the fiery ex-Pharisee who rewrote the rules, wrote half the New Testament, and convinced the Roman world to buy in?
If you judge by doctrine, structure, and the Christianity you see around you today, the answer is ugly for some but simple: Paul. Jesus may be the face on the poster, but Paul wrote the script. And whenever Paul’s teachings clash with Jesus’, Paul’s version wins — because he wrote it later.
So what do you think — did Jesus start Christianity, or did Paul pull a takeover? Drop your thoughts in the comments and let’s see who you think the real founder was.