There are many theories of who and what Jesus was, starting from the traditional Christian views and the early heretical interpretations and ending with modern proposals of Jesus and Magdalena as a couple, Jesus as the grandson of Antigonus Mattathias, Jesus as a myth, Jesus as this or that, but finally it all comes down to the proofs that can be given to the alternative theories. It is not much that can be asserted with any level of certainty. I give my arguments, you see if they are convincing.
There are two Messiahs, Jesus was the prophet Messiah
In Messianic Judaism there always were two messiahs: the prophet Messiah and the king Messiah. This is so in the writings of the Dead Sea Scrolls. In Kabbalism the two messiahs are Messiah ben Joseph and Messiah ben David. It is also so in the Gospel of John 1:25 where the Jewish priests and Levites ask John the Baptist if he is Elijah, the prophet, or the Christ. The Christ is the king Messiah, Elijah is the miracle worker and rain maker, and the prophet is the prophet Messiah, the new Moses, Samaritan Taheb. Of the prophet Messiah it is written that I take away the sin of the world in one day. It is the prophet whose hands and legs will be pierced and who in a mistaken interpretation was thought to be born from a virgin. This is the Messiah who was before John the Baptist and of whom it was told that he will heal the sick, make the blind see, awake the dead, make the lame walk and proclaim the good message to the poor. Jesus was ben Joseph. For Christians Messiah ben David means the second coming of Jesus, but as a human this other messiah is no the same person. In John 1 John the Baptist denies being any of the three figures. This is so because Elijah in the Gospel of John is Nicodemus: this famous miracle worker is present at the burial of Jesus only in this Gospel.
The genealogy in Luke is of a Hasmonean prince
There are two different genealogies of Jesus, in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. The genealogy in Luke lists the Hasmonean kings from Mattathius Maccebee to Alexander of Judea omitting only Simon Maccabeus, the Wicked Priest for Essenes. The king Messiah was therefore Hasmonean. The story of Herod the Great killing the children of Bethlehem can only mean Herod killing Hasmonean princes. Essenes thought they were living at the end of the times and as there was no Davidic king house, they understood Hasmoneans as the new Davidic lineage, Kittim as Romans, Pharisees as collaborators of Romans, Saul as Hyrcanus II and Herodes the Great. Essenes were led by Zadok priests. In the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew Jesus has Zadok as an ancestor. The genealogy in Luke fixes Bethlehem, the birth place of King David, to Samaria, probably to Sebaste (the city Samaria). The genealogy in Luke ends to Joseph. The story of Joseph and Mary is similar to the story of Mariamne I and Joseph in Josephus, thus we can be sure that the king Messiah is a descendant of Mariamne I. Thus, he is not a grandchild of Antigonus Mattathias. In the Gospel of John there is a story of the wedding in Canaan, Galilea. This soty most probably refers to the wedding of Mariamne I and Herod the Great in Samaria: this wedding turned water (Herod’s blood) to wine (royal Hasmonean blood), which was essential for Herod Agrippa’s plans of becoming the king Messiah.
The star of Bethlehem is Halley’s comet of 11 BC
There are many efforts to explain the star of Bethlemen, but they ignore the fact that the king Messiah and the prophet Messiah are not the same person. Octavian proclaimed Caesar divine when the Caesar comet was seen 44 BC. This way Octavian, Caesar Augustus, become the son of a god, as Caesar posthumously adopted Octavian as his son. Caesar’s comet is described in coins and the diagram closely resembles a Christian symbol. In 11 BC died Roman general Agrippa and another bright comet was seen. It was Halley’s comet. Herod Agrippa was born in 11 BC and was named after Agrippa, but it also implies that his birth was announced by a comet: he was to be divine. Both Acts and Josephus tell of Herod Agrippa’s plan of declaring himself divine. As a result he was poisoned in 44 AD. Herod Agrippa tried to fortify Jerusalem and was clearly preparing a rebel against Rome and against his old friend Caesar Claudius. Jewish rabbis knew that there was a comet with a period about 70 years. The period of Halley’s comet is 75-76 years. Calculating 75-76 years from Caesar’s comet of 44 BC takes the possible appearance of a bright comet to 30 AD. The very time when Jesus was crucified. I reason like this: Jewish priests could not know if the comet of 44 BC or of 11 BC was the returning comet. They were prepared to start a rebel when the comet would appear. Halley’s comet appeared in 66 AD and Jews started the war.
The whore of Babylon
Caesar Gaius, that is Caligula, had Herod Agrippa as a friend and a mentor. Caligula tried to place his statue to the Temple on Jerusalem, thus creating the abomination of desolation, a sign of the end of the times. He also demanded that Roman noble ladies worked in a state brothel, making Rome to the whore of Babylon. Caligula also made his horse a senator. This is just what Yeshu Ha-Notzri taught: not to look at the person, so treat everybody the same, do them what you would like them to do to you, applies also to animals. Claudius was another fried of Herod Agrippa. According to Josephus, Agrippa had much influence over Claudius. Strangely, Claudius had a wife Valeria Messalina, who worked as a prostitute in a brothel and made a contest with a whore. Roman historians claimed that Messalina was a nymphomaniac, but women nymphomaniacs are very rare, especially such nymphomaniacs, who were so offended by adultery as Messalina: she sentenced Seneca to a punishment for adultery. It is much more probable that Claudius ordered Messalina to act as a whore. And why would that be so? It is because Herod Agrippa wanted to present Rome as the whore of Babylon. Burning of Rome at the time of Nero is part of the same plan, as Babylon was to burn. Nero accused Christians and burned them as torches. That is also a fulfillment of prophesy: at the end of the times the righteous will be lamps to people. I very much suspect that Nero got the idea either from Paul or from Sabina Poppaea, who was influenced by Jews. Notice how close burning Christians on stakes is to what Paul promised to Christians: before the end of the times they would be raised to the air to receive the Christ. Everything was done to bring forth the end of the times. The end of the times was supposed to end to a victory of the Jews. Herod Agrippa I was murdered, but Paul met Herod Agrippa II and probably tried to get him to take the role of the king Messiah, but Agrippa II refused. I think the most likely person to have been the king Messiah of the First Jewish War was Josephus Flavius. He was a Hasmonean, he was given the charge of Galilea, the most Messianic part of the country. He declared Vespasian as the Messiah and the Pharisees agreed: in my opinion only the captured king Messiah could pass the title to a Roman general.
Maria Magdalena was most probably Mariamne II
After Herod the Great killed Mariamne I he married a young beauty, Mariamne II Boethus. Herod had build two towers to his castle: one to his brother, who was killed by Antigonus Mattathias, and one to Mariamne I. The tower, Migdal, gave the nickname: Mariamne Migdal, Mariamne Magdalena, to both Mariamnes. In Gnostic texts Mary Magdalena is called Mariamne, which is not the usual form of Miriam. Maria Madgalena was most probably Maria of Bethel with a brother Lazarus and a sister Martha. The family resembles the family of Boethus. Boethus had earlier been high priests, but they got out of favor. Then they again got in favor and were high priests: this can be resurrection of Lazarus. The interpretation of the stories in Gospels is usually always symbolic. This is made clear by Mark 4:11-20. Jesus told everything in allegories so that they would not understand. Who are they? Jews? More like the ruling class: Romans, Herodians and Pharisees. The rebelling Hasmonean Herod Agrippa and Essenes were the other side. And read Mark 4:20: those who understand it will bring the fruit 30,60 or 100 times. These are sizes of military units: organize in units. The same can be said of Jesus’miracles of feeding thousands of people. Josephus tells of a miracle makes who took people to the desert and tried to attack to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives around 44-48 AD. Gathering people and feeding them was Messianism and not so peaceful. Finally, Jesus changed the Sabbath rule: it was possible to do good in Sabbath. This was essential for a war because Jews had lost against general Pompei because they could only defend in Sabbath and Romans filled Jewish fortifications without Jews being able to stop it.
Most Jews accepted Jesus as the prophet Messiah
There is a strange claim that since the Church of Jerusalem was always small and probably only about 1000 Jews were disciples of Jesus, he would not have been widely accepted as the prophet Messiah. How then could the rebellion of 66 AD start and why Josephus describes how there were heavenly signs and dead were seen to walk among the living? That is, there could not be a rebel before redemption. There could not be redemption before the sacrifice of the prophet Messiah. There was no other prophet Messiah than Jesus in that time. If this is not enough to convince you, then notice that without the new Moses, the prophet Messiah, the Sabbath law could not be changed and Jews could fight only on self-defense on Sabbath. In the was they fought on Sabbath, so the law had been changed. Only the Messiah could change it. Calculations from the Old Testament make it perfectly clear that the prophet messiah was to appear before the Second Temple was destroyed and calculations give just the time of Jesus, the dawn of the time of Fishes. The comet of 66 AD was the second coming of Jesus in the skies, as promised in Gospels. Jews were not expected to become disciples of Jesus. According to Josephus they joined Essenes in large numbers. In Gospels a rich man asks Jesus what he should do and Jesus tells him to obey five of the Ten Commandments: they are enough for going to the Heaven, but if the rich man wants to follow Jesus, then he must give away his property and become perfect as Jesus was perfect. That is, the sacrifice must be perfect. Jesus and his disciples were to redeem the people from their sins, which was essential before Jews could win the war. But ordinary Jews were not asked to become disciples of Jesus and sacrifices. Indeed, Paul thought that Gentiles would be more suitable as disciples since they were not under the Mosaic Law. The scene when Jesus was sentenced to death by Pilate shows this clearly: the crowd asks for Jesus’ blood to come on them. It is not: they wanted to take the guilt. It is: they wanted to be blessed by the blood of the sacrifice. Only blood redeems the sins.
Essenes prepared for a war
It is very clear from the war scroll in the Dead Sea Scrolls that there would be a war. In the first stage the Children of the Light would lose, but finally they would win. Essenes had a huge treasury as described in the Copper Scroll. Yet, Paul collected money from Gentile Christians and sent them to the Poor of Jerusalem, that is, Essenes. The difference between Essenes and the Church of Jerusalem was that Christians were all Essenes, but Essenes were not all disciples of Jesus. Christians did not fight in the war, they were to be perfect, but Essenes did.
The twin and walking on the waters
Most of the miracles that Jesus did were commanded in prophesies and they had to be done: healing, raising the dead, delivering the good news. Walking on water is not one of these miracles, so what is its allegoric importance? Everything is told in allegories so that they would not understand. Jesus is seen walking on water in three gospels, but the issue seems to be that there was only one boat, Jesus was left on the other side of the lake and was seen on water on the other side. If we assume all these stories have some underlying meaning, which is not a miracle, this story may imply that there were two Jesus characters. That is explicitly stated in the Epistle of Barnabas: like there were two goats in the Great Atonement Day, there were two Jesuses, who resembled each other so much that people said: have we not killed this one already.
Sons of Zebedee may have been sons of Judas of Galilee
This is a hypothesis I have not been able to verify. In Galilea there was another family with Messianic aspirations, that of Judas of Galilee, the one who led the tax revolt in 6 AD, mentioned in Acts. Herod Agrippa I killed two of his sons around the time James the Greater was killed by the same king in Acts. If so, then Jesus was related to Judas of Galilee, which makes sense as Jesus acted in Galilee.
Was Jesus a Kabbalist?
Kabbalism in the present form developed in the Middle Ages, but there was Jewish magic. Jesus came from the same tradition as Honi the Circle Drawer: indeed, Gospels tell of Jesus drawing in the sand. Jesus called spirits, which is done in kabbalism. Kabbalism most probably developed from Gnosticism of the Orphite tradition and from neo-Platonism (that is, horoscope astrology, astrological eras and so on). There are close parallels between Christian and Gnostic beliefs and kabbalism, including Adam Kadmon and the Bride of the Messiah. I think they reflect an earlier form of Judaism, before the new priestly class returned from Persia. As pointed out by the commenter Ari, Isaac Luria apparently considered Jesus as a Tzaddik as he identified the grave of Yeshu Ha-Natzri close to Safed. Jacob Frank also counted Jesus as a Messiah. My answer is yes, with reservations to what one means.
Conclusions
What ever importance this has to us? Not so much. The real story of Jesus is connected with the political plan Hasmoneans had and it extended to an attempt to take over Rome. It failed, as such attempts must. The religious teachings of Jesus were not meant to be followed by normal people: they were to become a perfect, innocent sacrifice for redeeming the sins of the tribe, a very primitive idea to say the least.
These Jewish beliefs have nothing to do with the little we know of the existence of a soul. I think we can conclude with certainty that something other than material must exist. It is easily shown. Consider complex numbers, electromagnetism is best described with complex numbers, yet we see only real numbers and must take a norm in order to measure anything. Does it mean that only real numbers exists and complex numbers are mathematical artifacts? Probably not. It is a similar situation as if we look at a movie in the television. What we see is 2-dimensional but if behaves as a 2-dimensional projection of a 3-dimensional reality. It is reasonable to assume that the movie was made in a 3-dimensional reality, so somewhere there is the 3-dimensional world. Likewise, somewhere there is the complex number world. This implies that what we see is not the whole world. The time seems to be external to the material 3-dimensional world even if it is in complex numbers (that is, 6 real dimensions). So, there is still something more that is not material. There is even more: we are conscious and think we have a free will and all mammals and birds have the same feeling as we do. Yet the material world obeys simple mathematical laws that do not have consciousness or free will. So, these things do not come from material. They also do not come from complexity. That is, theoretically we can write computer programs of any complexity, but programs are not conscious and they cannot be given a free will. This is easy to show as a computer is just a mill and a library and we can play the role of a processor and no consciousness comes from performing the simple tasks of a processor. So, very clearly, there is more to this world than what is seen by eyes or measured by measurement equipment. But further than this one cannot get. There is something, but one cannot say what.
Then there are the religions, most of them deriving from the same tradition. This tradition was originally astrology: people were looking at circumpolar stars and invented some meaning to them in terms of gods and times and so on. There is no wisdom in any of these doctrines. Even animals know what is good and what is bad, they do not need a teacher for it: if in doubt, treat your dog badly, it will fear and hate you, treat it will, it will like you. Where is the need for a revelation from the heavens?
I prefer the wisdom of Väinämöinen. It at least is a bit witty, and moderately wise. So, one teaching is that before wiping the floor one should pick up the children from the floor so as not to wipe away the children with the dust. That is a good advice. Then it is advised not to go to the death (Tuonela) to look for wisdom as it is pretty difficult to get back from there. Yet more: Väinämöinen teaches that an old man should not look for a young wife (they get unhappy and drown themselves) and that when rowing close to large stones one should not talk in a loud voice. This advice may not be so obvious to many modern people but they could ask Saami or Iceland people, who know that there is stone folk who should not be disturbed. In case you doubt if stone folk exists, turn a big stone. Under it there usually are all kinds of creatures that you prefer not to mess with. Also, do not bake a stone into your subordinate’s bread. I still add one. Assuming you take a wife and she turns out to be unwilling, say to sex, and you kill her, then going back to her mother to ask for another daughter for a wife, as this one was not as good as promised, the Finnish wise man warns that the mother may not be willing to give another daughter and will ask what happened to the previous one, so you should prepare some convincing story. So, these are real wisdom. From the Middle East we only find bloody traditions and greed for power.