I think that it is likely that a preacher called Jesus existed. The person in the New Testament isn't him.
It is like when you watch a movie that says "inspired by a true story". That means "there a story ... and this movie isn't it".
I recently watched the documentary "Creating Christ" on Amazon Prime. I thought it was going to be crap, but it was actually very good. It contained some things I already knew, but I learned some things as well.
They speculate that Jesus could indeed have been the brother of James, and James was the leader of a messianic Jewish sect (definitely not "Christian") that believed that if the Jews were righteous enough, God would send angels to destroy Israel's enemies (the Romans).
Paul turned the anti-Roman ideas of this sect on its head, and made Christianity pro-Roman and made salvation an other-worldly thing.
It is like when you watch a movie that says "inspired by a true story". That means "there a story ... and this movie isn't it".
I recently watched the documentary "Creating Christ" on Amazon Prime. I thought it was going to be crap, but it was actually very good. It contained some things I already knew, but I learned some things as well.
They speculate that Jesus could indeed have been the brother of James, and James was the leader of a messianic Jewish sect (definitely not "Christian") that believed that if the Jews were righteous enough, God would send angels to destroy Israel's enemies (the Romans).
Paul turned the anti-Roman ideas of this sect on its head, and made Christianity pro-Roman and made salvation an other-worldly thing.
