You know for certain this Saul bloke existed?
and
How accurately have they presented Saul's words and if you say they have how would you know? I suggest you nor anyone else can know for certain.
ippy
This applies to a very great deal of historical material. We can't be certain that Boudicca existed, even though Tacitus wrote of her as if she did. We can't be
certain that any of Julius Caesar's memoirs are accurate reportage - or even if they proceeded directly from the hand of the emperor in question (the only manuscripts we have date from years after his death). We do possess quite a few early documents which purport to be accurate transcriptions of what St Paul actually wrote. It is true that many scholars, Christian and non-Christian(indeed downright atheist) dispute that a number of these are authentic. But most of these scholars accept that quite a number of the original letters were indeed written by a very real Saul/Paul of Tarsus.
All this is quite different from the argument as to whether there was an actual historical Jesus, since there are no accounts written by Jesus himself, only very contradictory accounts written
about him and what he is supposed to have done and said.
However, given that we have a number of documents purportedly written by one historical individual (St Paul), and that these refer to his own doings and experiences, I'm wondering just what your criteria are for doubting his existence - indeed, I'm wondering just how much you doubt about history in general, or reality in general. Do you adopt - in your general approach to life - a completely Cartesian standpoint? "We must begin by doubting everything" (and this would include your own existence - or certainly that of other people). Or do you just like to doubt the existence of people who make religious claims? If so, this would certainly apply to Julius Caesar, who, I'm sure, believed in the gods Jupiter and Mercury.
