long ago is not within our perception. We are looking back at a creation story; mythical at best.
In college, 70's, I took a course on the Dead Sea Scrolls professed by a Catholic nun who assisted Yigael Yadin, a serious student. Don't remember his credentials, but he had a book.
She took the perspective of the Essenes, a sect of intellectuals entranced by John the Baptist.
He was a pretty advanced philosopher who inspired a spiritual connection with a Supreme primemover. He anticipated a messiah.
Or so I remember my professor.
He laid the foundation for an escape from the drudgery of hopelessness most people of his time experienced.
Since that time in class, I always suspected, the Essenes were devastated by the death of John and symbolically, his message was resurrected in the jesus story as it was translated many years later by the stories of The Baptist's preaching.
The Gnostiics tell an interesting tale.
The story became political with Constantine and the council of Nicea set the stage for a political juggernaut still in use today.
Have never read any theory along these lines, but he was accused of being a messiah. And as there were assigned secular and religious delineations of messiah, the powers that be, feared a coming; hence his demise.
My toss into the quagmire.
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