alternatehistory.com

So, I was listening to a Podcast earlier today, and something in the discussion reminded me of an alt-history I read in a book where the author posited "what if Jesus wasn't crucified?" In the story, Jesus dies of old age, and his teachings change Judaism in such a way that his followers make up the majority of the Jewish faith, and eventually it spreads throughout the Roman empire, and by the end of the story, a Roman Emperor is overseeing the construction of the "Great Synagogue" in Rome (or Constantinople? I can't remember for sure, the details are a little fuzzy now.

And this got me thinking of the following question:

"What if Jesus was born significantly later?"

Now, for the sake of this discussion, we are going to assume a few things:
- the story of the gospels are "true"
- if Jesus shows up later, the events of the Gospels would still occur (with different details but the same basic events - IE some sort of divine hand etc).

I'm not trying to start a religious debate with this. Just a thought experiment of how history would have played out differently. Obviously "christianity" showing up later would lead to considerably different developments in the development of first the West, and eventually the wider world.

Now I now already some people grumbling about this for a variety of legitimate reasons, So for further context as to where I'm coming from with this, while I grew up in a conservative Christian background I'd currently identify as a liberal, main-line protestant, and also gay so I don't hold a lot of stock in biblical literalism. But I find the overall alternate that would ensue here interesting.

First, how would Rome move on differently. Then there is the idea of the gospels playing out in a somewhat different setting with different details and how things would develop differently afterwards.

Any thoughts/takers on this?
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