Solo

Luke is naturally the most interesting of the synoptics for this kind of thesis.
Significantly, it's not "just" Jesus but the one who first recognizes him as the Lord: John the Baptist....who the angel announces " shall drink no wine, nor strong drink and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb" (1:15).

Wisdumb

My evidence is the new testament. Many of the parables and stories reflect Jesus' dissatisfaction with what was occuring in the religion at the time. For instance he dissaproved of its highly ritualistic nature and how it was not the same Judaism it was before. He questioned why a man couldn;lt work on the sabbath or why a man couldn;t eat pork. He said it isn't what you put into your body that matters but rather what comes out of your heart. I can get you the exact quote if you want. He turned over the tables of the merchants and gamblers in the temple and chastised them for what they turned the temple into. He touched dead bodies, which was forbidden for rabbis to do. he had dinner with criminals, social outcasts, things the religion looked down on. His entire life, or atleast the last 3 years of it were spent doing things in protest of the religion at the time and the direction it was headed in. He wanted people to know that you can reach a higher level of understanding God and share a life with God even if you've made mistakes in your life and even if you weren't a member of the chosen people, which is why he wanted his diciples to travel to gentile lands to spread the word.
Your argument about him having a poor attitude towards his family is only rooted in one story in which Mary and her children come to get him and take him home. But that is not related to this quote, he is not talking about family in Mathew 34-35. He used very symbolic language. He was referring to religion. Yes many of his quotes did sound a lot like Old testament quotes because he was a rabbi after all and that was what he studied, among other texts. He was a revolutionary who used both traditional and..well...revolutionary ideas. I respect your opinion but had he really promoted violence in this passage, dont you think the people who compiled and organized the gospels would have kept it out? They knew he didn;t mean violence and thats why it stayed in there.

RUmike

Well thanks, I respect your opinions too. But in my own humble opinion, I don't see a single indication in the passage to take it as a metaphor for religion. I agree that Jesus probably wasn't happy with the religion of his day and sought to reform it, but I just don't see that in this passage. To me, you are simply speculating.

IronWill

Might wanna tell that to Messianic Jews who worship the God of Abraham, and Jesus Christ.

Gamera

That's a different topic and your claim of an apparent contradiction can be argued against. But that's not the issue here.

Gamera

I take it from your response that Price was unable to find a source for the teaching, which is my point and which argues somewhat against the anti-historicity camp. Your polemic about Jesus, etc, isn't the issue.