Some evidence points towards there having been twin brothers, Jesus the revolutionary, and James the mystic, belonging to a Messianic Gnostic cult. It is believed that Jesus was indeed crucified as a threat to Rome, while James survived to continue living a normal life, perhaps marrying and having children. Some believe James was responsible for taking Gnostic Christian ideas to Europe, where they took root in Celtic Christianity.
Other scholars believe that the crucifixion story is simply the perfect ending to a classic myth, and that the historical Jesus was merely a storyteller and charismatic mystic who probably was never killed, though later followers of this guru figure Hollywood-ized his life story with a poignant climax. In fact, the entire Christ story precisely follows classical story structure of a traditional Hero myth, as is carefully detailed in Joseph Campbell's influential study of storytelling and comparative mythology "The Hero with a Thousand Faces", and in the many books of modern psychology creator C.G.Jung.
It is certain that Jesus followed Gnostic teachings that were forced underground with the collapse of early Christianity under the Roman Church. The recent discovery of the Gnostic Gospels and the Dead Sea Scrolls detail the beliefs and practices of the times, and it is thought that Jesus belonged to an Essene or Nasorean ecstasy cult. The scrolls state that a leading figure of the times, thought to be Jesus, "loved his bodily fluids", a distinctly Gnostic trait, albeit a huge simplification of Gnostic and Eastern teachings.
The revolutionary mixture of Judeo-socio-ethical teachings and Indian/Buddhist mystical practices have made the surviving image of Christ, whoever he may have been, an indestructable aspiration for Humanity who sense the true nature of Eternity within it.
When Gnosticism rose again in Europe, followers developed stories based upon the survival of Jesus, preferring to see their idol as victorious over Rome, instead of the victim of a grisly capital punishment. Many religious orders such as the monastic Cisterians and the Knights Templar believed so strongly in the survival of Jesus that they began to search for evidence of his heirs. The possibility of the existence of true "scions" to a God-figure such as Jesus sparked many mythic tales and legends, and created obvious political ramifications. Stories of the Holy Grail and legends of King Arthur flooded European culture, and were particularly kept alive in secret orders such as the Priory of Sion and the Dragon Court.
It is ironic that in the battleground of who Jesus was, and what exactly he did, much of the world has forgotten to adhere to the very parts of his teaching that we do have accurate records of - namely the sayings of Jesus. These are consistent throughout the Gospels, and recorded in full in the recently discovered Gospel of Thomas, which had previously been destroyed along with other records of Christ by the early Church of Rome, when they burned to the ground the great library of Alexandria. This is the only surviving gospel written in the original tongue of Jesus - Aramaic. The official four Gospels were written in Greek, then translated to Latin, and then to English, which allowed for many changes, additions, and deletions to be made, by the forces of power who's interests would be threatened by the authentic words of Christ being accessible to all.
The sayings of the Historical Christ are the true legacy that if followed allow Humanity to see as he did, and realize the ultimate truth that is central to his message:
"Heaven is spread upon the face of the Earth, its just that Man does not see it".