I have always been passionate about the figure of Jesus and the first Christians, and over the years I have studied the topic very thoroughly.
One thing I have noticed over the years of study is that the character of Jesus is much more similar to an ante litteram deist rather than a Christian.
My thesis is that Jesus, the historical character not the mythological one, was an ancient case of a cryptodeist reformer ante litteram, and his movement was deist. Let me first specify what I mean by these terms.
Deist Reformer: A deist who seeks to reform the dominant religion of his era and geographic area, cleansing it of all dogmas. Jesus objectively spent his whole life eliminating the Jewish dogmas one by one, he did it every time he said "you have been told but I tell you", but not only that.
Cryptodeist: A cryptodeist is a deist who hides his or her true faith, often for reasons of safety. If Jesus had openly declared that he was going against Jewish law he would have been put to death on the first day of his preaching, but he instead explained that "I have not come to abolish it, but to fulfill it". Unfortunately we know that his defense didn't work. Deist Ante Litteram: An ante litteram deist is simply a person with a deistic spirituality but who lived before the term was coined, i.e. between 1500 and 1600.
MAN, NOT DIVINE.
Jesus did not consider himself God. This is evident in many places in the gospels, such as when he says "I am not good, only God is good".
The idea that Jesus is God and one with the holy spirit is actually a later forcing that has no confirmation in the gospels, the result of syncretism between Christians and pagans, for example from the Cult of Isis, which venerated the trinity of Horus, Osiris and Isis.
FROM THE ESSENES...
Jesus was born or studied in an Essenic community. This is clear if you make a comparison between the vision of Jesus and that of the various Jewish communities of the time. The only difference between Jesus and the Essenes is what probably caused the rift between the two: the Essenes did not want to proselytize, they stayed in communities isolated from society, leading an ascetic life aimed at self-sufficiency and study. The Essenes were probably the most developed community in terms of medicine, certainly more developed than other Jewish communities. In fact, Essene means "curator".
...TO THE EBIONITES
Jesus wanted to use the medical knowledge he learned from the Essenes to help others, so he started his community: the Ebionites.
Ebioniti means "poor", not unwanted poverty, but a minimalist philosophical life choice. The community founded by Jesus practiced sharing goods and vegetarianism, exactly like the Essenes.
The medical knowledge acquired in the eyes of fishermen and simple people seemed like magical therapeutic abilities, so it was not difficult for Jesus to be accepted as the Messiah, also thanks to his skilled oratory skills.
SINNERS... OR SICK?
The concept of disease was not completely unknown to the Jews, but it was not fully understood either. It could most often be associated with divine curses. Leprosy, for example, could be interpreted as the consequence of immoral behavior and therefore a divine punishment.
On the contrary, if a sick person was healed it meant that he had managed to obtain God's forgiveness.
Jesus' ability to heal sick people therefore had an eschatological value: by freeing people from their illnesses, he was actually "forgiving" them. Miracles that quickly made him associate with the figure of a prophet or Messiah.
THE DEIST BELIEF OF THE EBIONITES
The Ebionites did not believe in the trinity, in the virgin birth, in the resurrection of Jesus and perhaps in all the miracles recounted in the Catholic gospels.
However, they had their own gospel which contained exclusively the sayings of Jesus (logoia) and perhaps some passages from his life, such as the baptism of John the Baptist, probably his Essene teacher.
This gospel called the "Jewish Gospel of Matthew" or the "Gospel of the Hebrews" may be the famous Source Q from which all other gospels would evolve.
THE CHURCH ON THE EBIONITES
Obviously the Church, having to present itself as the true successors of Jesus, sought the Ebionites as a simple heretical sect.
Their gospel would not be the original one, but a "self-censored" copy of the official gospels. A lie that doesn't hold up.
Their name also probably derives from an elusive founder called "Ebion", or it could really mean "poor", but understood as "poor in intellect".
The Church's rewriting of history is clearly botched, and as in this case downright ridiculous.
MEMBERS OF THE EBIONITES
After Jesus' death, the Ebionite community in Jerusalem was presided over by his younger brother, James the Just.
After the death of James, the role was taken by Simon of Jerusalem, who was none other than Jesus' cousin, or the son of Clopas' brother, brother of "Saint Joseph".
Most likely other important members were also Mary, mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene and Peter.
PAUL THE IMPOSTOR
Paul arrived in the community years after Jesus' death.
Initially he chased away these reformers of the Jewish religion on behalf of the Sanhedrin, but during one of his expeditions he met Anano, head of the community of Damascus, who managed to convert him to this new movement.
Paul, together with Barabbas, demonstrates great oratory ability and manages to convert many to the Ebionite movement. Unfortunately, however, Paul is also inventing little lies that help him convert, but which distance him from the original message. For this reason Paul and Barabbas are asked to Jerusalem to discuss the changes introduced by Paul in the doctrine. Paul explains that he can convert pagans, provided that the need for circumcision and the prohibition on the consumption of meat are removed, the only two Essene dogmas not removed by Jesus. James decrees that the first dogma may not be required of pagans, but the second it must remain. Paolo pretends to accept, but in fact he continues to do what he wants.
THE FINAL
From this point the two paths, that of the Ebionites and that of the Paulines, took two different paths. In 66 the Ebionites largely moved from Jerusalem to Pella, given that in 62 the leader James had been killed by the Romans at the instigation of the Sanhedrin. The killing of James, now popular in Jerusalem, and the illegality of his death may have sparked the first Jewish revolt against the Roman Empire, which lasted from 66 until 73.
In the meantime, Paul was in Rome where between 64 and 67 he was killed by Nero. His followers here begin to create Christianity as we know it today. Jesus becomes God and Paul becomes a being also capable of miracles, almost more powerful than Jesus himself, as he manages to perform miracles from a distance. (Acts 19,12) The Ebionites, or what remained of them, divided into various sects. All of them were later branded heretics by the Church.