So much of biblical scholarship centres around correlation of one text with another
or in comparing the evidence of other historical records with Biblical texts.
Yet the bulk of the Bible is allegorical, for, as it says in John's Gospel:
"these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is Christ,"
not necessarily as a record of events, or of his life.

Thus we may see the first miracle that John records, turning water to wine,
as a metaphorical introduction to the message that he is trying to instill.
It is a wedding, a coming together of a loving couple, (God and Israel)
in which the previous generation (Mary) turns to Jesus for help
and he produces wine of a better vintage.

This account is followed in John's Gospel by the clearing of the Temple court,
which occurs in the last week of Jesus's life in the other Gospels,
but is positioned here as a deliberate contrast
to the feel-good factor of an everlasting supply of wine.
Jesus is shown as firm and forceful in rejection of false teaching.
Maybe Jesus did, at some stage, upset a stall or two in the Temple court,
for John, like any preacher and all the gospel writers,
uses and extrapolates the legends and stories
available to illustrate his message.

Jesus himself used parables to make his points,
and the very same form of imagery is made by the Gospel authors to make their own.
The Woman at the Well is the quintessential forgiven sinner - and a woman to boot.
Lazarus emerges unscathed from the tomb, despite being incarcerated for four days
Mary and Joseph travel to Bethlehem and then to Egypt, to fufil ancient prophecy.
The angels appear to shepherds, the outcasts of society, who hurry to Jesus.
Jesus accepts the touch of a woman who is ritually unclean,
puts her need above that of an important official.
Demonstrating his priorities.

All these stories have their own message to tell.
They are included for a purpose, not just as a record of events.
In fact we have almost no information about the real life of Jesus.
How or where he lived, his family, and appearance are unknown
for Jesus has been stripped of his human nature
to become a vehicle for religious propaganda,
a source of worthy texts, a heroic myth,
a sacramental focus.

We are not left with a true historical record of any man,
but with a medieval image of the essence of divinity in human guise,
to present something that can lead and guide us to the ways of God,
as envisaged by the authors and editors of that time
and exploited by the church's leaders