"They were just prophets, messengers of God; he was more intimately related, and blood is always thicker than any message.

"Also, he insisted, for all the three years that he was teaching, that he was the messiah for whom the Jews had been waiting.

"The Jews were not ready to accept him, but he went on insisting. The only people who followed him were uncultured, uneducated, poor people – and not many. They followed him in the hope that perhaps he was the son of God, perhaps he was the messiah, and he would fulfill his promises: 'Blessed are the poor, for they shall inherit the kingdom of God.' 'A camel may pass through the eye of a needle, but a rich man cannot pass through the gates of heaven.'

"He was consoling those poor people who had no understanding. And Judea was full of learned scholars, rabbis – nobody was impressed by him.

"His claims and his teachings are contrary. He teaches 'Blessed are the meek' but he is not a meek fellow. He teaches, 'Love your enemies just as you love yourself,' but he curses a poor fig tree because it is out of season and there are no fruits on it! And he becomes angry, 'I and my followers have come here hungry, and you are not ready with fruits – there is no welcome from your side.'

"Now, cursing a tree when it is not the season for the fruits – what can the poor tree do about it? This is the man who is teaching 'love your enemies,' and he cannot even forgive a poor fig tree, which has not committed any crime.

"He himself was uneducated, uncultured, but had got into his head this madness that he was the only son of God, that he was the messiah the Jews had been waiting for. He has given these ideas to the following generations of Christians.

"All his miracles are bogus. Miracles don't happen. Existence never changes its laws for anybody, even for the only begotten son of God. I say with absolute certainty that all his miracles are bogus, because if a man had done those miracles, the whole Jewish community would have accepted him as the messiah."