Jesus was murdered by the Jewish religious leaders whose power base was the temple of Jerusalem. Saul of Tarsus--later the Paul of Christianity--was one of these, and his brand of faith theology mirrored their theology of covenantal entitlement. Thus, Christianity's basic theological principles derive from those who killed Jesus. This is just one of many challenging propositions backed with strong evidence that appear in this book. Jesus, like most Jews, was attuned to faithfulness rather than pure faith, to ethical behavior based on human empathy rather than metaphysical beliefs and rituals. The central focus of Jesus was hesed, the heart of the Jewish covenant with God which linked God's mercy to human compassion and forgiveness, making both mutually interactive. This hesed forgiveness was anathema to the temple's faux forgiveness and threatened its very existence. Therefore, Jesus came not to save us, but to show us how to save ourselves. Reinterpreting a key parable of Jesus in this light, the Parable of the Tares, Jesus can be most plausibly understood as an incarnation of Adam, the original prototype human who God, in Genesis, appointed to oversee his creation and guide our spiritual evolution. His mission was not about any sacrificial death, but about establishing the spiritual humanism of Judaic hesed as the central purpose of human existence.
