Quote Originally Posted by Rhyfhylwyr View Post
If there was such a force then it was minimal in Jesus' Judea - as testified to by both his treatment at the hands of his fellow Jews, and the failure of Christianity to take root in the Judean population. Where it did take off was with the more Hellenized diaspora - attitudes may have been different there, but then Jesus wasn't a product of the Hellenic world.
But surely, with historical eyes, Jesus ideas and surroundings are of minor importance compared to what ideas spread and where. But then with religious eyes Jesus original idea is of course the paramount thing.

But then again, find two Christians with some centuries in between them, who have the same view on what those ideas were. What is written has imho always come second hand to how people interpret it.