honorentheos wrote:To the point of the OP, the historical Jesus wasn't attempting to establish a new community around unique religious views. Instead, he had a community in Israel he was attempting to turn back to God. The call to be more faithful, less influenced by Roman and Greek occupations are not about setting up a new religious order. Instead, as fence sitter has pointed out, it was an urgent call to return before it was too late when the arrival of the Son of Man and champion of God brought about the destruction of the wicked including those who forgot their covenant and were living too cozy in a gentile world.
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Jesus didn't try to establish a church. He was a faithful Jew seeking to return of the people of the covenant to God. Saying he was trying to establish a church however one wants to define it is anachronistic as the concept had no meaning in the context of his religious world view. The various camps within Judaism of the time weren't churches, but more like schools of thought with teachers and students. Church is a very Pauline invention, likely derived from his establishing pockets of believers throughout the areas of his ministry.
Honorentheos, I find myself holding no disagreement with these comments of yours. I believe they are the main point you were trying to make so perhaps chasing a few tangents about Paul I see a bit differently is just unnecessary distraction.