Is Allegorical Religion better than Fundamentalism?

[JairCrawford]

Is there any pattern to or commonality between the things that strike you as less than genuine?

In some cases yes. The two most common elements when it comes to the canonical gospels specifically that stand out to me are:

1. The random “sermons” injected into the dialogue in John. Most of the teachings in said sermons are just fine, and I don’t have an issue believing that Jesus taught said things, but within the context of the dialogue it’s put into, it often comes across as too clunky and weird to be read literally. I mean… John has Jesus praying in Gethsemane, and in the middle of praying he goes into a sermon, mentioning himself in the third person multiple times, even though he’s the only one there. That’d be pretty awkward if it was meant to be taken literally.

2. Some of the things that Jesus is described as saying in Matthew. This one’s a bit more juicy IMO because Matthew has Jesus saying some pretty intense theological statements that are often times unanimously contradicted in the other 3 Gospels. So, whenever that happens, I look at it as 3 to 1 and take it more with a grain of salt.

For instance; Matthew has Jesus explicitly instruct the disciples not to preach in any non Israelite town. That statement is solely unique to Matthew IIRC. I know it’s not in Mark or John. I’d have to double check Luke again but I’m pretty sure it’s not in Luke either. What I do know is Luke, Mark, and John deliberately describe Jesus going and preaching to gentiles. So Matthew is decisively outnumbered here.