>>17845698
There's a lot that's quite off about the traditional understanding. The Pharisees didn't want to kill Jesus because he claimed to be God. They plainly state the reason, they wanted the Romans to keep them in power. And the messiah in the Jewish understanding was a king who would rule over an earthly kingdom and not just a spiritual one. It's a direct threat to the empire, basically a claim to independence. This is why they mocked him as the king of the Jews when he was crucified. Jesus himself didn't have many religious differences with them, he was more opposed to the Sadducees that way. I mean he plainly tells people to listen to everything the Pharisees teach.
>Not totally persuaded by this
understandable, you might want to take a look at this https://www.angelfire.com/space/thegospeltruth/TTD/verses/john8_58.html he explains it better than I ever could