Jesus

 My best guess at the bio Jesu model is the messianic secret theory that Albert Schweizer made in his Seccert of the Kingdom of God, modified by my appreciation of the role of the Baptist's movement, modified slightly by the gospel of John.

     We start with the Baptist Movement.  Josephus mentions the Baptist as an extremely popular religious reformer. Many ppeople made the trek down to the Jordan River, and as it was a take home movement instead of a commune, the people trekked home, up the 1300 ft to sea level and up 2000 more ft for those from Jerusalem. Like most reformers, John was anti establishment, his movement held the mainstream to be deficient and negligent. So it took some commitment to go see him.

     Jesus met the fishermen at the Baptist's and they did not just leave their nets and dad suddenly but already knew jesus as a rabbi. And the synoptic gospels give the impression of a short ministry for Jesus but the Gospel of John would elongate that, though i would not try to count it out exactly from gJn which seems to me to be an old man's remembrance of an early teenage self (as i will show in a post about either the Gospel or of the Petership of John. i would tend to place the cleansing of the temple after the Entry into Jerusalem.

     Schweitzer's Messianic secret theory says that Jesus thought he was the messiah but kept it secret. After the Baptist was arrested Jesus began to preach in Galilee . Feeling himself as the messiah, meant the end times were upon the world, and in an apocalyptic fever he sent his disciples out as a quick herald.  While they are gone the Baptist sends word asing if Jesus thinks he is the Elijah who comes before the messiah.  Jesus sends John's messangers away and tells the crowd that John himself is the Elijah, leaving unsaid who then Jesus might be. 

      Herod killed the Baptist and the Baptist's movement gathered around its second string preacher, its Elisha, to mourn and decide what next. This is the feeding of 5000 but Jesus gives them the slip and heads nortg to gentile territory. Maybe Jesus's viewpoint of messiahship tried out the ore universalist prophesies about the messiah's work but Schweizer points out that Jesus already has incorporated the Suffering Servant Lamb of God prophesies into his idea of what must happen to the messiah, and when he tells his disciples he thinks he is the messiah he also tells them he is determined to be the suffering servant. They agree he is messiah but try to talk him out of the suffering servant plans: it is a sore subject anong them all the way to Jerusalem.

     Jesus and his disciples see the entry into jerusalem as purposely fulfilling messianic prophecy, but the Baptist's Movement welcome him in as champeon of their recently killed founder, and it is this movement that soon calls for his crucifixion learning he thinks he is meessiah and they felt he manipulated them.

     I would put the cleansing of the temple here where his political power is strongest, though if it were earlier it would then be a festoring threat to the mainstream religious authorities who must admit the act is defenable due to the ambiguities of the practice being whipped away by a man the enthusiastic rabble held as a prophet.

     Judas, a disciple, sells his secret to the priests.  Jesus thinks he's Christ and is derermined to become so at the festival.  Naturally the priests freak on one hand and see a charge against their religious rival, and when the trial gets iffy for him, the priest puts it to him plain - he could not plow except with Jesus's heffer - do you think you are christ the son of the living god?

     I don't see, as some do, the characterization of Pilate as an exhoneration of the Roman culpability for the crucifixion. It is in his interest to kill a real problem child and he's probably picked out a character the people would rather see dead. And the jews turn over a powerless fanatic as their king to be killed, the fanatic himself is not much help and pilate, in jest at these crazy people, lets it happen.

Albert Schweizer reviews his own theory and a theory that saw the messianic secret as invented by Mark, which shook Schweizer's certainty somewhat, but in his later work, his autobiography and in his posthumous book, the kingdom of god, he maintains belif in the historiocity of his model.