Paul's letters predate the Gospels — his knowledge of Jesus is independent from them

Mike argues that because Paul's letters are generally dated before the Gospels were written, Paul could not have borrowed his historical details about Jesus from them. When Paul's material overlaps with the Gospels, that represents independent attestation to the same historical events — not literary dependence. This undermines the theory that the early church invented the Jesus of the Gospels later and retrojected it onto Paul.