"The Hebrew story prevails out of proportion to its initial readership, not because of chance but because of logic.
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Well, I tend to disagree with you on that one. The Hebrew Bible, meaning the Old Testament, alone, only has a small following...pretty much the same as it had back then.
In order for it to gain acceptance outside of Judaism, some new features had to be added. Jesus worked pretty well for that. By the time the New Testament was written, it included everyone on the planet.
It's a simple religion, Christianity. No tedious sacrifices to a host of minor deities. No treks to the temples. No pesky reincarnation nonsense. All you have to do is believe in this one thing and act nice and you're set.
It was a perfect match for the Greek, Roman, and Ottoman world. Simple to understand. Simple to follow. The Romans ended up having the strongest empire, and one of their leaders decided that Christianity was ideal. Much simpler than the old Pagan Roman religions.
So Rome spread Christianity around the world as it conquered. It's simplicity spread it everywhere else.
Only Islam shares the simplicity, and it's the second largest religion in the world.
Simplicity wins.
Simplicity (borrowing from the Old Testament) plus a lot of explicit hate hate hate. The Mooses seem unable to grok the Christian idea of agape, it's like been short circuited.
Well, I tend to disagree with you on that one.
In a picky point; the story lives on through Christianity (which preaches a transition) and in a manner through Islam (which just flat says the Old and New Testaments are hosed).