Is this a good place to ask about the non-supernatural Jesus?

Question

I would like to know what the man who believed himself to be the Jewish Messiah, sent to the Jews to become their king, meant when he said "believe in me", as in Matthew 18:6.

Christians interpret him as being the supernatural savior, and as far as I can tell, "believe in me" means something like "accept me as your personal lord and savior". I'm guessing that the Jewish Messiah didn't mean that.

Is hermeneutics.SE a good place to ask about what Jesus meant, in the context of him believing himself to be the Jewish Messiah?

Answer 1

Yes, "What did Jesus mean by 'believe in me' in Matthew 18:6?" is an on-topic question here. In your question you may want to provide a bit of your thinking as to why you are not satisfied with particular lines of interpretation. This will help guide answers beyond a facile understanding.

Answer 2

No, I would say this is not an on-topic question because it requires poor hermeneutics and will therefore generate poor answers (I have long maintained that good, on-topic questions are ones that will generate good answers).

Because this question starts from a conclusion in order to generate an interpretation - an eisegetical endeavor - results will be poor. Instead, good questions (generally) should seek to draw a conclusion using hermeneutics instead of seeking to arrive at a hermenutic using a conclusion.