Jesus was a religious reformer

[Strato]

All that he is reported to have said and done, grew in the telling, exploiting superstition. Add the huge Pauline spin. That just tells a great deal about the control-freak self image and mid-life crisis, Damascus road epilepsy pathology and Hellenized, Platonized intellect concerning "Pharisee of the Pharisees" (studied under Gamiliel!), Saul of Tarsus. Paul was the greatest spin doctor in history.

But it's safe to say Jesus reinforced the fundamental assumptions of monocultural late Bronze Age Middle Eastern monotheism from Zoroaster to Judaism: spirituality is real, we have a soul, God, Satan and angels exist, the Law of Moses stands, sin is certainly real, like karma, etc.


But I accept he was out to expose and denounce the powerful Pharisees' and Sadducees' exploitation and tyrrany over the common people. I hate fascists too, myself. And for, and with, Jesus, God was on your side.

But as an original, courageous thinker, Jesus can't hold a candle to Socrates, or Strato, that other Greek, either.