(08-24-2020, 10:08 PM)Jason Wrote: What teachings of Jesus? If you eliminate the New Testament documents, there are no teachings of Jesus. Nothing. What are you talking about?
I never said anything about eliminating New Testament documents, rather I encourage looking at them from an historico-critical perspective rather than from a Christian theological or doctrinal perspective. Critical scholars, be they Christian, Jewish, or atheistic, are able to create plausible historical reconstructions of Jesus' teachings. The predominant consensus is that Jesus was an apocalyptic teacher of an extreme ethic anticipating the imminent coming of the Kingdom of God. In some ways, the teachings of Jesus can be understood as a peculiar combination of those of the schools of Hillel and Shammai. Lenient and merciful to those who repent and yet more strict than Shammai, whose halakah would rule in the world to come.