The human mind has a foundational pattern of existence: it fills in the gaps. Our minds are designed to work by patterns. If there is not a pattern there for our mind to work by, we fill in the material necessary to make a pattern out of whatever few scraps of information we have. What we don't have, we make up.

This is the basis of religions. We start with an event or a set of events - which, in the nature of all events - are confusing, with threads leading in several different (often contradictory) directions. But the mind cannot hold on to this "chaos". The mind hates to be confused, so we immediately fill out "the pattern". It's an unconscious process; it can be witnessed, but it cannot be stopped.

So what exactly happened that created the "Jesus" stories? Nobody will ever know. That's not an exaggeration; it's the nature of how events are passed along through the stream of communication. Everyone who tells the story modifies it just a bit - either unintentionally or with an explicit agenda - to the point that we receive it and do the same. This process never ends. For the most visible current example, look at the split that is developing among churches arguing about whether trans ideology fits within the philosophy of Christianity.

This thread is yet more continuation of this process, at our own level.

There is no such thing as a "static" religion, any more than there is a static state to any other philosophy.

Each of us - to settle into a fully-formed human - must find our own individual relationship with this existence that surrounds us and comprises us. Even to "accept" some structure such as Christianity requires this process. One person's "faith" will be unique even relative to others who claim to share the same.

Who was Jesus? We will each find a figure in the recorded quotes that corresponds to some internal prompting within ourselves. Each of these images of him will be as unique as we ourselves are.

What is this? Who am I? Answering these questions is a permanently incomplete process. Until we address them directly, however, the reality we are surrounded by seems chaotic and hostile. The only way to peaceful existence within this reality we share is to face the confusion and realize just that: it's designed to be just as confusing as it ends up being. The confusion itself is hardwired in; as such being confused is just as perfect - and more accurate, though no "better" - as thinking to have "the answer" to a "question" which inherently exists beyond the limitation that any answer must necessarily place upon it.