Were Jesus' teachings original

Answer 1

Yes and no.

Jesus made it clear that he did not come to destroy the religion ('the Law') but to fulfil what God actually intended by it. The problem with the Jews was that, despite God's law being simple, they complicated things by inventing their own rules and turned away from what God had really intended for the Jewish nation. A simple example was the law the Sabbath day. According to Genesis, God made holy the Sabbath day as a day of rest from labour - a day which a labourer could rightly down-tools to enjoy the day without his employer accusing him of slacking. This day was meant as a refreshment for the poor people so that they always had time once a week to 'catch up' and 'recharge the batteries' after spending some time in the temple in worship. Sadly the Jewish authorities manufactured petty rules the sabbath and made the Sabbath day miserable for all by breathing down peoples' necks checking up that they were not breaking any rules - for example, they were not allowed even to attend someone who was sick or dying on the sabbath.

Therefore, Jesus, in one way, did not preach anything original as he preached what was God's law in the first place. Christians believe that Jesus Christ was God incarnate and so he simply preached his own laws.

However, to the Jews, who were used to a plethora of petty rules and the message of Jesus was definitely original, as they regarded his delivery not as the High Priest would preach, but one with charisma and authority.

yes
Not really his teachings were similar to Hillel and many other Jewish rabbis of the time