To what extent was Jesus a man of his time?

He was very much a product of a pagan mindset and not Judaism. He could not have been a Rabbi for one very simple reason- the title of Rabbi only started AFTER the destruction of the Second Temple around 90CE- the fact that the Christian scriptures have people referring to Jesus as Rabbi is actually proof that they were written much later and by people unfamiliar with Judaism and Jewish life at the tine he was supposed to have lived.

Ont op of that, the title of Rabbi of rabbi could only be conferred by the Nasi (Head) of the Sanhedrin which was firmly in control of the Pharisees and which opposed the Sadducees who colluded with the Roman's and were hated by the general populace. Since Jesus supposedly taught things directly opposed and the opposite of what the Sanhedrin taught, it is clear his thinking did not reflect that of the Sanhedrin and thus of those who later became the Rabbis

There is not one single mention of Jesus in the entire Roman record - that is right - not one! At the same time as he was supposed to have been around there were a number of Jews claiming to be the messiah - all of whom are well recorded!

There is not a single contemporary record from any source and even the bible mentions of him like all other references were not written until many years after his supposed death!

He was supposed to have been a huge problem to the Romans and produced wonderful miracles but still not one contemporary record?

Even the bible mentions of him like all other references were not written until many years after his supposed death!

Pilate is recorded in the Roman record as a somewhat lack luster man but no mention of a Jesus, a trial or crucifixion that would surely have been used to make him look brighter!

At best he was an amalgam of those others but almost certainly never existed!

Not one word of it is contemporary with the period and was not written until several hundred years after the period the story is set in!! How did the apostles write their books more than a hundred years after they would have been dead?

Christianity is an invention of the Italians and that is why it came from the Holy ROMAN Catholic church!

Please realize that those claims for the Old historians are worthless since they were not even born until long after everyone in the stories would have been so long dead!

Josephus AD 37 – AD 100

Tacitus AD 56 – AD 120

Suetonius - 69 – 130 AD

Pliny the Younger, 61 AD – 112 AD

Justin Martyr (Saint Justin) AD103–165 AD

Lucian - AD 120 -180 AD but he was hostile to Christianity and openly mocked it.

Pamphilius AD 240-309 AD

Eusebius AD 263 – 339 AD

Photius AD 877 – 886 AD

Thallus - But there are no actual record of him except a fragment of writing which mentions the sack of Troy [109 BC] Showing that he was clearly not alive in biblical times.

Some even try to use Seneca. 4 BCE – 65 CE but as a Stoic Philosopher he opposed religion yet made not a single mention of a Jesus or Christianity!

Even funnier is trying to claim Celsus AD ? – 177 AD Who said that Jesus was a Jew who’se mother was a poor Jewish girl whose husband, who was a carpenter, drove her away because of her adultery with a Roman soldier named Panthera. She gave birth to an illegitimate child named Jesus. In Egypt, Jesus became learned in sorcery and upon his return presented himself as a god.

He was a rebel ; rebelling against oppressive practices and hard times in our history. Not a 'god' , a man.

He was revolutionary, his birth,ministry,life, death and resurrection changed history.

He will return one day. As the Christian Metal band Demon Hunter says He is the figure for the falling of time. That day will usher in 1000 years of his rule.

Shalom!

how could he have NOT been

those were days of great trouble and sadness in the land due to Roman occupation

the Jews of the time hoped for a Messiah to reestablish a kingdom like the imagined kingdom of David.

He held both Jewish and Greek thinking if his teachings are any indicator- I'm including both Christian and gnostic gospels here. That was very in line with his time. He was hardly the only Hellenic Jewish thinker of his day.

though there is no evidence for jesus existing, there certainly were other cult leaders, polemicists and magicians around at the time