Did Paul faithfully carry Jesus’ message forward—or reshape it into something Jesus never taught?

In Episode 6 of Under Review: The Verification Project, we continue our examination of Jesus and Paul with a question at the heart of Christianity: are their teachings part of the same message?

Reading Jesus’ teachings alongside Paul’s letters raises difficult questions about faith, salvation, the law, and what it means to follow Jesus. When the texts appear to disagree, does context resolve the tension—or do meaningful differences remain?

We examine the biblical evidence, historical context, and competing scholarly and theological interpretations. We also ask what evidence would challenge our own conclusions.

Whether you’re a committed Christian, questioning your faith, or curious about how Christianity developed, join us for Jesus and Paul, Part 2.

Follow Under Review: The Verification Project for evidence-led conversations about the Bible, Christian history, and theology.

Did Paul invent Christianity? Thomas Jefferson called Paul the "first corruptor of the doctrines of Jesus," and scholars from F. C. Baur to Gerd Lüdemann have argued that Paul, not Jesus, founded the religion we know today. In Part 1 of a three-part investigation, we put that claim under review.

We compare what Jesus preached in the Gospels with what Paul wrote in his letters. Jesus proclaimed the Kingdom of God, repentance and radical ethics. Paul proclaimed Christ crucified and raised. We also look at the strange chronology of the evidence: Paul's letters were written before the Gospels.

Then we ask the key question: did Paul know what Jesus actually taught? We examine every place Paul explicitly cites the Lord: divorce (1 Corinthians 7), paying missionaries (1 Corinthians 9), the Last Supper (1 Corinthians 11) and "the word of the Lord" (1 Thessalonians 4). We also look at where Paul adapts, or sets aside, those teachings.

We read the Bible in the World English Bible, steelman both sides and try to prove our own hypothesis wrong. Don't take our word for it. Verify it.

Part 2 covers the resurrection, the Law, and what actually saves you.

Scripture: Mark 1:15; Mark 10; Mark 12:29–31; Matthew 5:17–18; 1 Corinthians 7:10–15, 9:14–15, 11:23, 15:50; Galatians 5:21; 1 Thessalonians 2:12, 4:15

Short version (for Apple/Spotify previews, under 300 characters)

Did Paul invent Christianity? In Part 1 of our Jesus vs. Paul series, we compare Jesus' Kingdom of God preaching with Paul's letters and test whether Paul knew, or changed, what Jesus actually taught.

A couple of small SEO notes. Keep "Did Paul invent Christianity" in the first sentence of the description, since many platforms show only the opening line or two. And use the same "Jesus vs. Paul, Part X" pattern for Parts 2 and 3 so the series groups together in search.

“The Bible says women should be silent.” But did Jesus say that?

In this episode of Under Review: The Verification Project, Cody Clark tests a specific claim: Do the Gospel accounts record Jesus telling women not to speak, teach, or participate in the community? We examine how Jesus treats Mary of Bethany, the Samaritan woman, and the women who carry news of the resurrection. Then we turn to the passages most often cited in church debates—1 Corinthians 14 and 1 Timothy 2—and ask who is speaking, whom they are addressing, and what they actually restrict.

The answer to what Jesus is recorded as saying does not, by itself, settle every debate about women preaching or serving as pastors. Christians disagree about how to apply the letters today. This episode gives both the restrictive and egalitarian readings a fair hearing while keeping one question in focus: Are we attributing a rule to the right source?

Scripture readings are from the World English Bible.

Episode 2: Who Wrote the Gospels?

Matthew. Mark. Luke. John.

Four names most Christians recognize immediately—but how much do we actually know about the people who wrote the four accounts of Jesus' life?

In Episode 2 of Under Review: The Verification Project, we examine what the Gospels themselves say about their authors, the ancient traditions connecting them to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and why scholars continue to debate exactly who composed these texts.

Then we go a step further.

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John don't always tell the story in exactly the same way.

We examine the literary relationship between the first three Gospels, why scholars believe their authors used earlier sources, and what happens when their accounts differ in wording, chronology, people, or events.

Are those differences contradictions?

Are they normal features of ancient biography?

Can the accounts be reasonably harmonized?

And when does harmonization become a new hypothesis—adding details that none of the individual Gospel writers actually gave us?

We put several examples under review, including Jesus' birth and childhood, the genealogies, Jairus' daughter, the timing of Passover and the crucifixion, the women and messengers at the empty tomb, resurrection appearances in Jerusalem and Galilee, and the placement of Jesus' cleansing of the Temple.

And as always, we don't begin with a verdict.

We establish a hypothesis.

We look for evidence capable of proving it wrong.

We examine the strongest arguments on both sides.

And when the surviving evidence doesn't allow certainty, we say so.

This isn't about proving the Gospels true.

It isn't about proving them false.

It's about understanding what these ancient documents actually are—and allowing each author to tell the story they chose to tell before we combine them into one.

Under Review: The Verification Project

Bigger questions. Deeper evidence. A clearer world.

Don't take our word for it. Verify it.

Episode 1: What Is the Bible, Actually?

Before we can put the claims inside the Bible under review, we need to understand what the Bible itself actually is.

It looks like a single book. Historically, it's much more complicated.

In the first investigation of Under Review: The Verification Project, we start with the fundamentals: how the Bible was assembled, why its books aren't arranged in the order they were written, what we know—and don't know—about who wrote them, why Jesus left us no known writings of his own, and how historians evaluate accounts written decades after the events they describe.

We also address an important point: none of those issues automatically makes the Bible unreliable. Ancient history routinely requires us to reconstruct people and events from later sources, copies, competing accounts, archaeology, and overlapping evidence. The question isn't whether a source is perfect.

The question is: what does the available evidence allow us to say?

Along the way, we introduce the Under Review methodology: develop a hypothesis, identify what would prove it wrong, and then actively search for that evidence rather than trying to confirm what we already believe.

Sometimes a claim survives.

Sometimes it changes.

Sometimes it fails.

And sometimes the most responsible conclusion is simply: we don't know.

This episode isn't an argument for or against Christianity. It's the foundation for everything that comes next.

Before we ask what the Bible says, we need to understand what we're actually reading.

Under Review: The Verification Project

Bigger questions. Deeper evidence. A clearer world.

Don't take our word for it. Verify it.