Denomination: Sicariid Christianity.
Formative period: 41-74 AD Judea.
Summarized beliefs: With many of its initial membership drawn from the Sicarii (a group not above killing Romans in the 1st Century), this sect formed fairly different opinions about the Christ than their fellow Christians did...though all Sicariids were against the Gnostic schools. Sicariids viewed the actions of Judas as a neccessary deed (not evil or bad) because without Judas doing what he'd done, there would have been no Salvation Of The Faithful. Because of this, and owing to Zoroastrian influences in this ATL Judea, Sicariids do not allow powerful men in their society to die of disease or natural causes (to them...death is the work of demons, and the greater the status and belief of the man, takes a greater-in-power demon to kill him).
Background history (summarized) - (footnote1) After an early-in-the-century revolt that goes worse for Rome than it did in OTL, the Emperor decides to try to new tactic with this client state. He orders the Roman army out of Judea, having them sit and hold position on the northern, southern, and western borders (thus guarding Syria, Egypt, and the Judean coast). Persia is tempted, but does not invade the newly-defenseless Judea -- the King suspects that, if his army were to enter Judea, the Romans would use a pincer movement to sever his armies. Nonetheless, the King of Persia does order a sizeable portion of his army to the western border of Judea. None of this help the nerves of the religious authorities of Judea....or at least most religious authorities.
The Zealots (were they the same as the Sicarii?), like the Sicarii after them, wanted to get rid of those they felt were not being true to the Jewish faith. As there were no Romans (or Syrians, or Egyptians, etc) left in Judea, it was mostly Saduccees and Pharisees who felt the brunt of the Zealots' knives...the Essenes, by dint of being rural and self-isolating, managed to avoid most of the killing.
With the enthronement of a new Emperor in Rome, Rome re-entered Judea, tussling some with Persia in the process. During this tussle, a man named Jesus of Nazareth begins teaching...
(footnote 1) - this whole thing takes place during the lifetime of Jesus of Nazareth, thus avoiding the possibility (and debate) about him being butterflied away.
ps: I've got some thoughts on how to get this from a timeline...just need to get to a library to check a few things.
question: aside from the Essenes, Zealots, Sicarii, Saduccees and Pharisees, were there any other denominations of 1st Century (BC & AD) Jewry in Judea? *curious*
thanks for your time. extra thanks for any comments.