Hey Switch.  I didn't know I had my own company, but kudos to them...whoever they are!

First, Paul never claims to have talked to people who "knew Jesus when he was alive".  No such statement exists in any of the epistles of paul.  In the book of Acts, yes, this conclusion is drawn, but Acts is not written by Paul.  Acts was written by Luke, sometime in the second century (Pervo 2006; Tyson 2006).  Keep in mind that what an Apostle was in Paul's day (the first century) was not the same as what an Apostle was in Luke's (second century), and the shift seems to be more focused around the idea of Jesus.  An Apostle to Paul was anybody who had received the revelation of Jesus (not from him physically, but through the holy spirit), and when Paul speaks of the "other" disciples he counts himself among them.  Paul makes it clear he never recieved his teachings from men.  See my article here: http://www.rationalresponders.com/paul_and_identity

Of Peter, James and John, they may have existed.  Peter and James certainly did, if Paul's letters are truly authentic and not just tradition.  John (I assume you mean the evangelist) is not the author of the Gospel of John.  The name comes from Christians who named the Gospel after the fact.  If you mean John, the epistle writer, that is also a pseudonymous work.  In other words, they were epistles written in the name of John, but not by John.  This was done for several reasons, most of which revolved around the idea of authority - if you had a "letter from John" that proclaimed your idea of Christianity, you could claim more weight to your ideas with it.  Another reason is just for entertainment.  During the second sophistic, fictional letter writing was the common thing to do.  (Costa 2002)

Please also understand that just because Christians exist in antiquity is not evidence of a historical Jesus.  Orphites and Dionysiacs existed in antiquity as well, many claiming that the figures of Orpheus and Dionysus were historical.  It is easy to read the New Testament through "gospel-colored glasses" and get lost in it all.

Best wishes,

Rook and Co.

Rook, your statements about Luke and everything else is SO untrue. Do you really believe what you are saying or are you just intentionally lying?

Scholar A.T. Robinson proves in his book "REDATING THE NEW TRESTAMENT" that all books in the NT were written in the mid first century, and he's not even a Christian.

W.F. Albright considered the world's greatest Bible archaeologist, says in his book "RECENT DISCOVERIES IN BIBLE LANDS," that all books in the NT were written before A.D. 75.

John A.T. Robinson wasn't a Christian?

<laughs maniacally>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_A.T._Robinson

Thank you, Incog, for revealing yourself as a fool.