that's where we differ. I don't believe that's the principal concern of the Bible. I agree with Hudson. It makes much more sense to me that Jesus, again hard to know if any of these stories are true, was a threat because he threatened the economic power of the day. And the cover up for killing him and to diffuse the populist power of his message about the jubilee law was to turn him into a religious figure and put everyone off the trail. I'm seeing these kind of reframings of factual things to protect the moneyed powerful IRL today. Of course it went on before the internet. So to me that seems likely here. The history of regular clearing of debts, is on the other hand, empirically provable. And then it stopped.

As for transforming hearts, calling people "sinners" from the get go is completely the opposite of the spiritual truth imo. That's a program meant to control and manipulate the masses if ever I saw one. "You're a sinner, just do what we tell you and you'll be 'saved,' oh and give us your money and don't question us or you'll be excommunicated." ... ah, I see what's happening here.