My musing is that God is ever in control moving the course of history together towards the new heaven and the new earth
Why new heaven? I though heaven is pristine.
I do not consider it a coincidence that Daniel prophesied of Alexander the Great, nor that Alexander the Great learned at the feet of Aristotle who learned at the feet of Plato
The book of Daniel is a highly suspect book. Its acceptance is also fragmented between different churches and groups. It's zilch to me as a reference.
As a result of his conquering the civilized world, the Greek language was "normalized" and became the common language of the civilized world; and certain word concepts became common knowledge, e.g. Logos. Thus the ground was prepared for the spreading of the Gospel to the gentiles.
A-G, the ground was prepared by the Jews rejecting Christ. Had Caiaphas realized that he was staring God in the eyes as he condemned Christ, Alexander and his Greek influence would have been meaningless.
Had the Jews not asked for Barabbas, had the Jews not thrown Christ's followers out of the synagogues, just as Christ predicts in the Gospel, had the 12 tribes of Israel not rejected His teachings, Christianity would have never needed to seek Gentiles. It was not the reason He came and it was not what he instructed the Apostles to do.
And, since we are here quoting what Jesus and others "said." Ancient writers quoted others as they believed what a particular person would have said, and not what he or she actually said. Take such quotes with a grain of salt.
Also, because of this Hellenization of the Jews - the Essenes withdrew from mainstream society
The Essenes had issues with the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem who were, as you know, Sadducees, thoroughly opposed to resurrection, messianic apocalypticismn of the Essenes and angeology of the Pharisees, and who subscribed only to Torah (Five Books of Moses) as the Jewish canon.
Dead Sea Scrolls were preserved thus proving the faithfulness and true antiquity of Scripture
Dead Sea Scrolls proved no such thing. If anything they show us that the Scripture was not unified or that there was a set "Jewish canon." Rather, Judaism was a sectarian society, laced with different beliefs and scriptural canon.
So do you think all those things occurred by happenstance? Do you think God rolls the dice and lets them fall where they may?
Now when the congregation was broken up, many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas: who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God. And the next sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God. But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming. Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the gentiles. For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth. And when the gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. And the word of the Lord was published throughout all the region." -- Acts 13:42-49"And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next sabbath.
As God willed.