General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: do you believe there was a historical figure the Jesus story was built on? [View all]nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)you either accept it or you don't. So nobody who deals with the historic Jesus or many of them, even argues whether this person was the son of god or not. That is akin to arguing how many angels dance on the head of a pin and not relevant. The OP asked if there was a historic Jesus. These days we believe there was one, unlike Moses, but the Last Super, and the stations of the cross never happened to the historic Jesus. That is kind of the common consensus emerging, and for some odd reason it is not popular because those two are also articles of faith.
Other parables are just that, parables. And they are very much in common with the era.
As to the existence of a historic Jesus, there is enough information to believe there was at least one that was proximate to the one in the NT. Joseph, the brother, his grave marker is believed to have been found. And if they found the right one, Jesus was not a carpenter, or poor. You do not get buried in Jerusalem in the first century of the CE, if you are poor, period. You had to have connections.
This is also controversial but they think they found the tomb of the real historic Jesus too. The link is to a reaction from a Christian perspective.
http://carm.org/has-tomb-jesus-been-found
I do not believe that person (or persons) wanted to create a religion to supersede Judaism. That came later. And that is where politics enter the scene in a nasty way. But if we could take a time machine back, and talk to this man, who spoke Aramaic, I am sure that superseding Judaism was not in the plans. Now fighting the priesthood was, but that was part of the Rabbinic movement. After the Temple was destroyed, the Priests did indeed go away, and the Rabies (meaning teacher) took over.
One clue that tells you about this happening in the first 200 years, is that he indeed went against the merchants in the Temple, but he also went to synagogues. The latter did not take off until after the destruction of the temple. So having a scene at the temple and then one at a synagogue are an interesting juxtaposition.