There was a pre-Christian belief in a Jesus

Jews were looking for a MessiahNow, the religion of Judaism holds a belief that there would be a messiah coming. The question is if there were any Jewish sects that held a belief of a messiah that was similar to Jesus before Jesus’ ministry.First, we will look at the Philo of Alexandria.I will quote Richard Carrier on this subject from his book “Not the Impossible Faith” page 250-251.“Nor was the idea of a preexistent spiritual son of God a novel idea among the Jews anyway. Paul’s contemporary, Philo, interprets the messianic prophecy of Zechariah 6:11-12 in just such a way. In the Septuagint this says to place the crown of kingship upon “Jesus,” for “So says Jehovah the Ruler of All, ‘Behold the man named ‘Rises’, and he shall rise up from his place below and he shall build the House of the Lord’.” This pretty much is the Christian Gospel. Philo was a Platonic thinker, so he could not imagine this as referring to “a man who is compounded of body and soul,” but thought it meant an “incorporeal being who in no respect differs from the divine image” whom “the Father of the Universe has caused to spring up as the eldest son.” Then Philo says, “In another passage, he calls this son the firstborn,” and says “he who is thus born” imitates “the ways of his father.””So, we have 4 similarities of a pre-Christian view of a messiah and Jesus.1) Firstborn son of god (coincides with Romans 8:29)2) Celestial image of god (coincides with 2 Corinthians 4:4)3) God’s agent of creation (coincides with 1 Corinthians 8:6)4) God’s celestial high priest (coincides with Hebrews 2:17)My next piece of evidence will be from the Talmud.While it is agreed upon by scholars, like Bart Ehrman (Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium by Bart Ehrman) and Mark Powell (Jesus as a Figure in History: How Modern Historians View the Man from Galilee by Mark Allan Powell), that the Talmud is not reliable enough to establish evidence of a historical Jesus, some things written in there make more sense if there were some beliefs that coincided with what was written.In the Talmud, there exists some writing of Jesus preaching in the early half of the 1st century BCE:“The Rabbis have taught: The left should always be repelled, and the right, on the other hand, drawn nearer. But one should not do it . . .[2] as R. Joshua ben Perachiah, who thrust forth Jeschu with both hands. What was the matter with regard to E. Joshua ben Perachiah? When King Jannai directed the destruction of the Rabbis, R. Joshua ben Perachiah and Jeschu went to Alexandria. When security returned, Rabbi Simeon ben Shetach sent him a letter to this effect: 'From me, Jerusalem the holy city, to thee, Alexandria in Egypt, my sister. My spouse tarries in thee, and I dwell desolate.' Thereupon Joshua arose and came; and a certain inn was in the way, in which they treated him with great respect. Then spake Joshua : 'How fair is this inn (akhsanga)!' Jeschu saith to him: 'But, Rabbi, she (akhsanga = a hostess) has little narrow eyes." Joshua replied: 'Thou godless fellow, dost thou occupy thyself with such things?' directed that 400 horns should be brought, and put him under strict excommunication. Jeschu ofttimes came and said to him,' Take me back.' Joshua did not trouble himself about him. One day, just, as Joshua was reading [? reciting] the Shema,[3] Jeschu came to him, hoping that he would take him back. Joshua made a sign to him with his hand. Then Jeschu thought that he had altogether repulsed him, and went away, and set up a brickbat and worshipped it. Joshua said to him: 'Be converted!' Jeschu saith : 'Thus have I been taught by thee: From him that sinneth and maketh the people to sin, is taken away the possibility of repentance.' And the Teacher [i.e., he who is everywhere mentioned by this title in the Talmud] has said: 'Jeschu had practised sorcery and had corrupted and misled Israel.'”http://gnosis.org...If the passages are reactions to Christian proselytism, then we would not expect a story about Jesus that is this different than the common stories at the time.That means that this passage means one of three things:1) There existed Christians that started believing that Jesus lived during the early half of the 1st century BCE, and this was a recorded version of what those Christians believed.2) The story of Jesus, or similar enough stories, were around since the early half of the first century BCE, and this is a story of Jesus during those times (not meant to be taken as literal history).3) Jesus was a historical figure that preached during the early half of the 1st century BCE.The third option is very unlikely as there is more evidence that exists for a Jesus during the early 1st century CE than BCE. That leaves us with options 1 and 2.Now, if Jesus did exist, then we would expect for the stories of him to be decently consistent as they spread. We would not expect for people to hold the belief of a historical Jesus from earlier then when Jesus taught unless there existed a pre-Christian belief in a Jesus. This makes number 1 unlikely.This means that the most likely of the three is 2, where there existed pre-Christian beliefs in a Jesus.In conclusion:1) The Jews were already looking for a messiah before the start and rise of Christianity2) The Philo of Alexandria establishes the view of a pre-Christian Messiah that shares the same qualities that are attributed to Jesus, and possibly even named Jesus (as the Philo of Alexandria has many similarities with Zechariah, which talks about Joshua (which is what Jesus’ name actually would have been in Hebrew)3) The Talmud helps establish that there was a pre-Christian belief in a Jesus from the early 1st century BCEReposting the sources:1) Richard Carrier “Not the Impossible Faith” page 250-2512) Bart Ehrman “Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium”3) Mark Allan Powell “Jesus as a Figure in History: How Modern Historians View the Man from Galilee”4) http://gnosis.org...AKA: G. R. S. Mead “Did Jesus Live 100 B.C.?”