Mark 8, Reincarnation & Resurrection

"Who do people say I am?”

28They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.”

This verse has really been sticking in my craw lately. Might it tell us everything we need to know about the environment in which Jesus lived? I think it tells us what we need to know about the resurrection too.

Namely that Judea was a hotbed of superstition, apocalyptic movements, reincarnation cults -- and that identification of someone recently dead (John the Baptist) to another was like second nature to these people.

That's why I think the resurrection was just another guy, likely a newcomer to the group, that looked and talked close enough to Jesus to be wish fulfillment. Yeah, I've been reading Ehrman, and I think his group-vision theories play a part. But when you also have eyewitness testimony like "I didn't recognize him at first, but after we ate, I realized it was Jesus!", I think something else is going on as well.