[Taraz]

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That is an interesting explanation, but I think it suffers somewhat because the disciples entire course of action seems to flow from actually witnessing a resurrected Christ, rather than just some rationalizing paradigm shift. It was the resurrection itself and not Jesus's teachings which seemed to spur them on.

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What evidence do you have in claiming this? Couldn't a resurrected Christ be a vision in a dream or something similar? How would their actions be any different if it was actually his teachings that spurred them on?


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Secondly, it is not clear at all that they had any agenda prior to the death of Jesus other than that they were followers of Jesus. Something about his death (or ressurection) seemed to inspire them and set them on a new level.

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What agenda did I mention? If they believed in his cause and it seemed to come to an end, it would make sense that they would experience cognitive dissonance. They "knew" that his cause was righteous and the way to God, but he was killed. If his cause were true, it shouldn't be able to die away. So, in their minds, there must be some way for his message to carry on.

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Moreover-- and admittedly I think this is a lot less "historically" established, but I do not believe that either Jesus or his disciples went around proclaiming he was the son of God for any length of time prior to his execution. I think this largely came after. I don't think being the son of God was at all essential to Jesus ministry during his life.

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I don't think I mentioned anything about this. How does this connect?