Christian theology tells us that St. Paul was once known as Saul of Tarsus.  The scriptures say he was educated by the noted first-century Rabbi Gamaliel. There is evidence of the existence of  Gamaliel,  but, like St. aul, there is no evidence that Saul of Tarsus ever existed. 
     All references to Saul or Paul exist only in the New Testament  or  in Christian documents written several centuries later.  We read of Gamaliel because he was a noted Jewish theologian. But why do we read nothing of Saul, a man so respected he was chosen by the Sanhedran to lead the prosecution of heretical Jews who were corrupting Jewish doctrine, preaching treason and bringing down the wrath of Rome, (i.e. the Zealots).
     It was his job to capture them and bring them to public trial and execution. Saul was present when Stephen was stoned for blasphemy. Saul went door to door in Jerusalem finding  and imprisoning radicals.The trail-blazing Christian missionary and apostle, St Paul, appears nowhere in the secular histories of his age (not in Tacitus, not in Pliny, not in Josephus, etc.) The only gospel writer who mentions him is Luke, in the Gospel of Luke and Acts of the Apostles, in which Luke places himself in a prominent position. Though we are told by Luke that St. Paul mingled in the company of provincial governors

and had audiences before kings and emperors, no scribe thought it worthwhile to record these events.
     The only notable historical character named Paul was Lucius Sergius Paulus, or Paullus, who was a proconsul of Cyprus under Claudius (c. 45 AD). He was converted to Christianity and we hear  no more about him. But his story might be found in Acts 13:9—20:38. 

     The legendary Apollonius of Tyana might be the source of the letters attributed to St. Paul. Apollonius was a Pythagorean philosopher and contemporary of Jesus Christ. Many agnostic and atheistic scholars as well as other free thinkers believe that some portions of the Gospels of Jesus Christ are actually modeled on the adventures of Apollonius. Quite possibly, due to the lack of historical evidence for Jesus as depicted in the Gospels. Some believe him to have actually been the Jesus Christ. Others postulate the theory that Paul the Apostle and Apollonius are one and the same.Some scholars argue that Paul of Tarsus a/k/a Paul the Apostle did not exist, and that All of the original writings and teachings attributed to him in the New Testament

     1. Apollonius is a Greek name, the Latin Romanized version would be Apollos . Apollos over a period time as well as convenience morphed to Paulos. Paulos in its English format is Paul

     2. Apollonius was born in the city of Tyana, in the Roman province of Cappadocia, in present day Turkey. At the age of twelve Apollonius went to Tarsus and was educated there, coincidentally Tarsus is given as the birthplace of Paul of Tarsus a/k/a Paul the apostle. Tarsus is the place Apollonius moved to at a young age and went to school, hence he could be referred to as Paul of Tarsus. Apollonius and the traditional dates given for Paul place them in Tarsus at the same time in their youth. Apollonius and Paul were also at Ephesus and Rome at at exactly the same time. Apollonius's biographer does not mention Paul at all, but Paul's biographer (Luke) speaks of "Apollos" having been at Ephesus with him. .Many of his teachings coincide with those attributed to Paul of Tarsus, and Paul is said to have done many of the same things Apollonius did. {

      3. Martin Luther (Founder of Protestant- Christianity} believed Apollonius to be the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews . And there are strong cases that early Christian censors, and plagiarizers inserted the name Pol / Paul in place of Apollonius/apollos/paulos wherever it could be found, it remained in the New Testament as Apollos in some instances because the Paul character they were creating was the speaker in the instances in question .

     4. One book about Apollonius survived in its entirety - The Life of Apollonius of Tyana by Flavius Philostratus. It was secretly carried to the Near East where it remained over a 1000 years. In 1801 it was brought to Europe and was translated into English .

     5. Apollonius is named for the Greek sun god Apollo. Paul's original name as per the Gospels was Saul, a mutation of Sol / The Sun God as per the religion of Constantine - Sol Invictus/ The invincible Sun.

     6. The companion of Apollonius, as well as his scribe, was Demis. In 2 Timothy 4:10 Demas was the companion of Paul See Also Philemon, Verse 24; I Corinthians, Chapter 3: Verses 4 -- 6 & Verse 22; I Corinthians, Chapter 4: Verse 6; Titus, Chapter 3: Verse 13.

 are the writings and teachings of Apollonius of Tyanna. Other scholars present reasonable arguments that Paul was only a mythical character patterned after Apollonius.

     The hypothesis that Apollonius was actually the apostle Paul lends itself much credence upon a brief review of the available facts:

     According to Flavius Josephus, there were no “Christians” in Jerusalem prior to 70 AD. Act 11:26 says; “. . . So it was that for a whole year they assembled with the church and taught a great many people. And the disciples (only Paul’s disciples) were first called Christians in Antioch”.

     The earliest written mention of the birth of Jesus, aren’t the nativity stories in the gospels of Matthew and Luke, but in Paul’s letter to the Romans, after having met with Peter and others who had known Jesus, his mother and his brothers. Despite gleaning everything from them he could about Jesus, Paul shows no sign of having heard of a virgin birth

     Instead, he wrote that Jesus “was descended from David according to the flesh” and was declared to be the “Son of God” by his “Resurrection”. [Romans 1:3-4] The nativity stories in Matthew and Luke, suggesting that Jesus had a virgin birth in Bethlehem (the birthplace of David), were composed later and even the original Apostles, showed no indication of knowing anything about it.

     The Gospels appear almost contradictory to Paul’s teachings and it’s almost as if they were written to counter his “New Gospel” and clearly show that Paul was only using snippets of the “real story”.

     Say what you may, it’s inconceivable that God sent Jesus to the world, to start a different religion to the one he had gone to so much trouble to give the Jews originally.

     According to letters found with the Dead Sea Scrolls and written by James the brother of Jesus, he hated Paul and called him “a spouter of lies” [Dr. Robert H. Eisenman] and in Acts 24:5 we are told that “For we have found this man (Paul) a plague, a creator of dissension among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes”.

     Not a single word that Paul wrote in any of his “epistles”, gives any of the actual teachings of Jesus, nor does Paul even mention one of Jesus’ parables; instead, he plugs his own ideas of what his new religion should be.

     As we know, none of Jesus’ Apostles were Pharisees and Jesus taught that none of the Pharisees would inherit the kingdom of heaven, so that would include Paul, as he claimed to be a Pharisee in Acts 23:6, Acts 26:5 and Philippians 3:5 “circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee”.

     Next, in Galatians 3:19-29, Paul claims that “the Law of Moses was given to Moses by angels and not directly by God”, both contradicting and denigrating the Old Testament at the same time. In Galatians chapter 4, he denigrates the Old Testament once again, repeating his claim of; “Why do we want to be subject to those (angels) that are not gods?”.

     Paul unilaterally decides that he is the “Apostle to the Gentiles”, even though Matthew 10:5 says; “These Twelve, Jesus sent out and commanded them, saying: “Do not go into the way of the Gentiles”. In his books, James emphatically debunks Paul’s argument that faith is all you need to be saved. James states; “it takes two things to be saved, faith plus works”, concurring with what Jesus taught in numerous passages and parables.

     The epistle of James, appears to have been written in part for Paul’s trial at the church of Ephesus [Revelation 2:2], where he was tried, found a heretic and expelled, as “the false prophet”. Paul actually admits it when he says; “This you know, that all those in Asia have turned away from me”. [2 Timothy 1:15]

Was it Saul or Paul?

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