Seems like the classic tale of a prophet then.
Absolutely not! With all due respect of course.
The archetype of the prophet who marries a whore is of course Hosea, who only symbolically did this to prove a point, and did not presumably consummate the relationship. For someone to openly do such a thing has only one precursor (Magus) unless you are a Dan Brown fan.
It seems fairly straightforward to me that the narrative is very up front with Christ imagery, but upon further examination Kellhus bears a far greater resemblance to Simon Magus. I'm sorry to say, no one else even remotely fits the bill.
The question is - how familiar is Bakker with our sources on Magus - from canonical Acts of the Apostles, to apocryphal acts, to the clementine literature and homilies, - I even wonder how familiar he might be with Hellenistic romantic fiction and the recurring motif of false death and crucifixion survival.
This is a "crazy speculation" thread, after all, but I'd be curious to know what Bakker knows about Simon Magus, or even perhaps the Tubingen school of radical critics who associated him with Pauline non-Torah based Christianity.