Like Donuel, I too have a secular interpretation of what happened to Jesus. My ideas were influenced mainly by a book called "Revolution in Judaea" by Hyam Maccoby.

In fact, I wrote the following review which is posted at Amazon.com:

An essential Jewish critique of the origins of Christianity, December 4, 1998
By A Customer
SYNOPSIS: The New Testament treats Pharisees unfairly. Pharisees were the religious liberals and reformers of their time. They were the founders of rabbinical Judaism. We know from independent sources what they taught, and it was consistent with what Jesus taught; in fact, Jesus probably was a Pharisee. The Sadducees were a puppet government that collaborated with the oppressive Romans; the Pharisees opposed them as hopelessly corrupt. Jesus was a Jew who believed he was the Messiah, and in accordance with orthodox Judaism, he saw this as a political office. Jews saw political oppression as punishment for sin; therefore, repentance was a necessary precondition for overthrow of the oppressors and establishment of a righteous government. Jesus meant his moral teachings as preparation for political revolution. Those who hoped to ingratiate themselves with the Romans expunged Jesus' political views from the NT. They distorted or changed facts to exonerate the Romans for the crucifixion and shift blame to the Jews while blurring the distinction between Jewish factions. Someone who did not understand Jewish law inserted the charge of blasphemy after the fact for this purpose. Jews had a narrow clear definition of blasphemy, and it did not include claiming to be the Messiah. Romans would not have cared whether a Jew committed blasphemy, and the Jewish punishment for blasphemy was stoning, not crucifixion. Only the Romans practiced crucifixion. They reserved it for political criminals and they did not need or seek Jewish consent to use it. OPINION: Maccoby's book is essential for a historical understanding of the origins of Christianity. Drawing on a thorough knowledge of Jewish sources, he corrects many distortions and omissions committed or accepted by Christian commentators.

Sorry if it seems "dense." When I wrote that, I was trying to cram as many ideas as I could into as few words as possible, because I thought Amazon wouldn't accept a long review. Silly me. Gotta go. I might write more later.