Religious stories

I my world religions class we are reading a book called Jesus a Revolutionary Biography. i'm finding it very interesting because it talks mainly about not the bible or scripture but who Jesus was and how alot of the writings about him (currently talking about the cannonical gospels) are stories written many many years after his death. the author John D. Crossan spends alot of time talking about the symbolic relations between Jesus and prior figures like Moses and John the baptist. the entire thing is very interesting and is opening up alot of the symbolism and the fiction that i was unaware of in relation to the Bible.