How do you explain the growth of the early Jesus movement…? It was a tiny group of men (some of whom might’ve even been teenagers) that was sandwiched between the powerful Jewish Temple (the very center of the religion of Judaism)…that despised them and wanted them to be nonexistent…and the mighty Roman Empire…who also despised them and wanted them to be nonexistent. Yet, despite the persecution from both of these entities (and the Jewish Temple was the first of those to persecute Jesus and His followers), the early Jesus movement spread like an airborne contagion.
What fueled it…? It certainly wasn’t fueled by something that was written. It was fueled by something extraordinary that happened. Even Bart Erhman asserts that the rapid growth of early Christianity was due to something extraordinary that happened. The movement of the once tiny group of Jesus’ earliest and most devoted followers eventually replaced the entire pantheon of Roman and barbarian gods, and it saw the end of the Jewish Temple (and ancient Judaism) and the Roman Empire ~ both of whom had been powerful and mighty entities that had tried…and failed…to stamp this tiny group…along with its movement…out of existence.
Even Bart Erhman concedes that “The ancient triumph of Christianity proved to be the single greatest cultural transformation our world has ever seen.”
For hundreds of years, the Jewish tribes got along fine with their priests as the only form of government. But just like any group with a monopoly of control, the priesthood got greedy and oppressive. Absolute power......and all that.
Then the Romans came along and civilized the world. All the sudden the peasants had to supports TWO governing bodies, not to mention the legal conflicts arising with deciding to follow the old laws, or abide by Roman Law.
No longer were Jews allowed to pick up arms and slaughter any village or tribe they disagreed with and claim it was God's divine will. The Roman Army took a dim view of such shenanigans.
The Jews were desperate for for change.
I believe Christ was a tool of a cabal of revisionist priests striving to save what they could of the Jewish tradition, before it was wiped from the Earth.
I believe the Cabal included Zachariah and Elizabeth, as Mary was living at their home prior to marriage to Joseph.
How did the Christian movement grow so rapidly?
How did the reformation grow so rapidly? It has been only 500 years since inception, yet observe the explosion of Protestant churches.
How did the the Bolsheviks envelope Russia in only a few years?
The Nazis took all of Europe in only a few years.
MAGA has taken America by storm with almost 1/2 our population supporting Trump ten years after inception.
How big is the Morman Church after only 200 years?
When there is a need, and a leader emerges, people flock to follow.
But that is just my take on the subject.
