(continued from last post)
D.) A Radical View (This owes a great deal to the book "Holy Blood,
Holy Grail" which raises some interesting questions about the life and
work and possible descendants of the Man of the Galil.)

The following is a scenario of what the historical Jesus might
have been all about based on looking at the Gospels without the
trappings added after Christianity was transported to Rome and
changed to bring it into alignment with competing religions.

Yehoshua ben David was a priest-king, an aristocrat and legitimate
claimant to the throne of Palestine, who embarked on an attempt to
regain his rightful heritage. He was believed to be a native of the
Galil region which was a traditional hotbed of opposition to the
Romans. He had numerous noble, rich and influential supporters
throughout Palestine, including the capital city of Jerusalem. One of
these supporters, Nicodemus, a powerful member of the Jewish council
known as the Synod or Sanhedrin, may also have been his kin.

As an unmarried rabbi (let alone an unmarried heir to the throne of
Judea) was unthinkable under Jewish law, Yehoshua finally, after a
period of indecision (inspired by his Essene period) marries the woman
that was betrothed to him in childhood, Miriam ha'Magdala, a woman of
the Israeli royal line of Benjamin. There is a possibility that she
might have been involved for awhile in an Asherah/Ishtar cult, hence
the biblical citation that she "had seven demons driven from her",
and/or that she was sold by her angered father briefly into
prostitution when Yehoshua broke the betrothal and his family withdrew
the bride-price, hence the description of Miriam as a "sinner" and a
"hetaira" or prostitute. (the hetaira distinction may also have been a
reference to a possible pagan initiation she went through) The wedding
at Cana mentioned in the Gospel of "John" was probably his own.

As an aside, the evidence that Yehoshua was indeed married and
married to none other than Miriam ha'Magdala illuminates the furor
surrounding the book, and later the movie "The Last Temptation of
Christ" in a much different light. Even in the context of the dream
sequence, the marriage of Yehoshua first to Miriam, then as was the
custom in ancient Israel to Miriam's sister Martha when Miriam died was
probably too close for comfort for certain elements of orthodox
Christianity.

In the Galil, Yehoshua established the center for his mystery cult,
an initiatory form of Judaism that drew extensively from both pagan
(Orphic, probably) sources and Essene mysteries. There is evidence that
this mystery cult was the direct origin for Catharism (the roots of
which will become obvious later) and Gnosticism. The "miracle" of his
brother-in-law Lazarus being "raised from the dead" was possibly a
description of one of the rites of his Judaic Mysteries.

He also probably had connections with the Zealots, the
proto-Zionist movement that wanted independence for the kingdoms of
Israel and Judea from the Roman Empire. As the heir to both the thrones
by his alliance by marriage to the line of Benjamin, and by his birth
as a scion of the line of David, Yehoshua was perhaps the last best
hope for independence. He was prepared to become the Messiah, the
promised liberator, the first priest-king of the Jews since Solomon.
And such an aspiring priest-king would have generated powerful
opposition in certain quarters...most definately the Roman occupation
government, and perhaps by the established Levites of the Temple, who
had been given a long leash by the Roman administration and prospered
even as common Jews chafed under Roman rule. This opposition succeeded
in eventually executing Yehoshua for sedition.