The Pharisees were the rabbis. The Sadducees were temple priests and attendants. The ancient rabbis were heads of local religious communities, and they also served as judges in local religious courts, where they often had to decide on various points of Jewish law.
You can read the rabbis' decisions in the Talmud and various commentaries on it. Normally their strategy was to uphold the written law (Pentateuch), and then "to build a fence around it" so that no one could break it inadvertently so long as they tried to hold to the main Talmudic tenants.
Moses was not a figure to be "believed in," but was rather, esteemed as a major leader in Jewish history.
The Talmud says nothing about Jesus. Believe it or not, there are virtually no contemporary testimonies to the existence of Jesus outside of the NT. The passages in Josephus are considered to be a late addition by subsequent editors, not by Josephus himself.
I think you're mistaken about the primary commandment of Jesus is that people believe in him. He says himself what the primary commandments are: to love God whole-heartedly, and love your neighbour.
In contrast, you seem to express your Christianity as a weapon, with which to beat up on non-believers, and to demonstrate your command of proof-texts. This is ego talking, not Christian love.
So who or what was Jesus? As a man, he was surely a great teacher. I see him as symbolizing the earthly life principle (Zoë) vs. the individual life (bios.) When Jesus said that nobody can get to the Father/heaven except through him, I think he expressed a more universal philosophy: that the earthly life is the prerequisite for the spiritual after-life.
Then there are various theological arguments as to what the guiding principle of the Christian earthly life should be. Faith? Works? Grace?
So how do you express your Christian love for people in your day-to-day life?
Jesus equates himself with the Father who had sent him a no. of times in the New Testament. At the Transfiguration the Father said "This is my son , whom i love;with him i am well pleased. Listen to him!". As for believing in Jesus as the Son of God he said in answer to the question "What must i do to be saved?" "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved". Acts 16:30,31
Not sure from what i have said that you can interpret it that i use my faith in hostile terms. I was secular up to age 35 and spiritual experience from an initial prayer led me to become a catholic christian ( see my other earlier UFO post). In the 23 years since then i can assure you i have been shunned by some when i was temping in various workplaces for simply expressing my beliefs in the context of our world. The christian faith is the most persecuted in the world.
In terms of the christian earthly life "It is by grace you have been saved , through faith and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God not by works, so that no one can boast." Ephesians 2:8,9
So although we are saved by faith alone as the apostle Paul states this must be accompanied by good works. That is why in my faith unbelievers in Jesus go to hell, those who are saved by belief in him are then judged on what they have done, this is the good works. So the souls whose good works do not outweigh their unremitted sins are sentenced to a period in the purification fires of purgatory, before eventually being released.
So i apply my faith through alms giving, giving of my time, trying to be helpful to others, being tolerant of the beliefs of others, agreeing to disagree at times when i express my faith in terms of world events etc.
I admit i am no expert on the Book Of Revelation, I believe Our Lady's appearances to be true.
When the UFO & Consciousness show came to Manchester, England in 2017, it took place across the road from where i had witnessed a hovering UFO in 1999.
Last year i had a letter in the local secular press published about the UFO phenomenon on the Feast Of The Assumption Of The Blessed Virgin Mary, after not having my previous letter published a couple of years before.
Thats why for me prayer is key, the enemy of christianity does not like it as it effects him adversley.
I am not on the internet at home so my time is limited, but for me tolerance is the key in a world that is becoming increasingly less so.
