Was Jesus of Nazareth a religious loon?

[Pat Mustard]

I believe that Jesus of Nazareth was a historical figure who existed; I do not believe that the canonical Gospels fall into the category of being "ancient biographies" of his life.

I'm surprised that you think that, given it is the consensus of scholarship that they are. Indeed, so assumed is it that writers are using that as a basis for implications

To be fair, they are widely recognised as being far more than simple bioi. Luke subverts the thrust and context of pagan bioi by proclaiming his monotheistic theology. Matthew tells it as a conclusion to the Jewish story. Etc.

But they are all for sure within the category of bios.

As for Paul, who shows little interest in the historical Jesus,

Really? He is writing pastoral letters, so he could be forgiven for not saying much about Jesus' history. But that's absolutely not the case- his writing is grounded in who Jesus was and what He did. For example, start right at the beginning Romans 1:

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God—  the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.

I believe that he was an apocalypticist who advanced his own theology about Jesus, as did Paul's competitors in the diverse set of religious traditions that scholars have come to refer to as ancient Christianities.

I agree there was immense friction between the various factions within the Early Church. The NT is very open about this.

Paul's problems were about the continued insistence by some on following Torah. There's nothing to debate about: Jesus' mission, death, resurrection, relationship to the Father etc.

(In the writings towards the end of C1 gnosticism becomes a problem, but Paul was long gone by then.)

This is what wikipedia says about the consensus:

The consensus among modern scholars is that the gospels are a subset of this ancient genre of bios, or biography

May I remind you that a) biographies have been written about fictional people and b) biographies have been wriien about ral people which turn out to be a tissue of lies.