text: We can't even know if there was a Jesus of Nazareth. But if you subtract all the stuff that is similar to Pagan imagery, such as virgin birth, human sacrifice, anointing, resurrection, drinking blood, bridegroom, etc., then you are left with Jesus' message of love, forgiveness, repentance, and presumably his mistaken belief the world was about to end. Probably most would agree Jesus was some sort of itinerant preacher and healer. I don't agree with the book 'Zealot' which has Jesus as an ordinary rebel in the civil strife of the times, with oppressed Jews fighting against Romans and their wealthy Jewish collaborators. Jesus seems more special than that. But it is important to know something of the mythology and the politics of the times to understand what may be factual in the New Testament. Jesus' message of a loving 'Abba' does not seem to be compatible with passages that make Jesus into a human sacrifice. And Vaticanism is not going to tell us much about Jesus with any accuracy.