POD: Instead of starting a new religion, the people who otherwise would've founded Christianity opt to start a more worldly and less strict branch of Judaism instead. In other words, they founded Reform Judaism, only it was 19 or so centuries earlier than Reform Judaism began in OTL, and so the characteristics of this movement take the flavor of classical thought and the ancient Mediterranean world-view.
There was a predecessor to this, actually: hellenized Judaism. This was popular a few centuries back, what with Jews restoring their circumcised foreskins in Greek gymnasia and all, but then the Maccabees pounced and that was that. (1)
We'll start with the founder of the ITTL "sect", John the Baptist. Instead of immersing people in a ritual bath, a cistern, he uses a river for a "mikvah" - a clear break from typical Jewish practice. (Jewish ritual baths are supposed to be based on cisterns: they collect rainwater, they fill up a pit with the dihydrogen monoxide, and then people are supposed to strip down and purify themselves by immersing themselves in the H2O. A flowing river, like the River Jordan, is something different.) This break from custom is the inspiration for a "back to nature" movement, a band formed around the notion of "simplify, simplify, simplify".
Along comes Jesus. This isn't a Jesus who gets executed, by the way. Sure, he might have still saved humankind from sin (if you believe in this sort of thing, and some of you probably do), but ITTL he does it in a manner other than getting crucified. Instead, he grows old and enters a sort of nirvana, like Buddha does. He still says "blessed are the meek", and some attribute to Jesus various miracles, as in OTL. Nonethless, there is more attention paid to Jesus's teachings ITTL. Also, the movement is closer to traditional Judaism; it is less of a personality cult because the movement is not overwhelmed by "mourners" for a "dead-and-risen" founder.
So what happened? First of all, Jesus resists Simon Peter's suggestion that he is the "Son of God" ITTL (in OTL, Matthew writes that he endorses this suggestion, and it is perhaps here that a religion sprouts into being). (2) Second of all, Jesus is more low key and less "revolutionary" ITTL. He doesn't go into the Temple and overturn the moneychangers' tables; instead, he settles down and becomes more ambiguous about whether he is a messiah, the son of God, etc. Jesus learns a bit more Hellenic rationalism ITTL, and so the cluster of people and disciples around him become more rationalistic, perhaps more Socratic, and less cultic and miracle-oriented.
Perhaps influenced by stories about his "miracles", Jesus becomes interested in alchemy and perhaps physics. Turning water into wine? How to spread that miracle among the people? And what of the loaves and the fishes? Perhaps some sort of fertilizer can increase the productivity of the land, and perhaps roe can be protected from the fishes' predators. And he teaches people to make water-feet...(3)
In short, instead of a Divine Son of God, Jesus ITTL becomes a sort of Jewish Leonardo da Vinci, and what spreads forth from this is a liberal and easily spreadable form of Judaism, one that catches the Greek and then the Roman eye.
(1) This is why the wintertime Jewish holiday of Hanukkah exists, by the way.
(2) Other OTL Gospels merely say that Jesus asks Simon Peter who he thinks he is, and Peter replies "the Messiah", whereupon Jesus says that his disciples shouldn't tell anyone about this.
(3) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4v-7PTZF9mc , nuff said.
There was a predecessor to this, actually: hellenized Judaism. This was popular a few centuries back, what with Jews restoring their circumcised foreskins in Greek gymnasia and all, but then the Maccabees pounced and that was that. (1)
We'll start with the founder of the ITTL "sect", John the Baptist. Instead of immersing people in a ritual bath, a cistern, he uses a river for a "mikvah" - a clear break from typical Jewish practice. (Jewish ritual baths are supposed to be based on cisterns: they collect rainwater, they fill up a pit with the dihydrogen monoxide, and then people are supposed to strip down and purify themselves by immersing themselves in the H2O. A flowing river, like the River Jordan, is something different.) This break from custom is the inspiration for a "back to nature" movement, a band formed around the notion of "simplify, simplify, simplify".
Along comes Jesus. This isn't a Jesus who gets executed, by the way. Sure, he might have still saved humankind from sin (if you believe in this sort of thing, and some of you probably do), but ITTL he does it in a manner other than getting crucified. Instead, he grows old and enters a sort of nirvana, like Buddha does. He still says "blessed are the meek", and some attribute to Jesus various miracles, as in OTL. Nonethless, there is more attention paid to Jesus's teachings ITTL. Also, the movement is closer to traditional Judaism; it is less of a personality cult because the movement is not overwhelmed by "mourners" for a "dead-and-risen" founder.
So what happened? First of all, Jesus resists Simon Peter's suggestion that he is the "Son of God" ITTL (in OTL, Matthew writes that he endorses this suggestion, and it is perhaps here that a religion sprouts into being). (2) Second of all, Jesus is more low key and less "revolutionary" ITTL. He doesn't go into the Temple and overturn the moneychangers' tables; instead, he settles down and becomes more ambiguous about whether he is a messiah, the son of God, etc. Jesus learns a bit more Hellenic rationalism ITTL, and so the cluster of people and disciples around him become more rationalistic, perhaps more Socratic, and less cultic and miracle-oriented.
Perhaps influenced by stories about his "miracles", Jesus becomes interested in alchemy and perhaps physics. Turning water into wine? How to spread that miracle among the people? And what of the loaves and the fishes? Perhaps some sort of fertilizer can increase the productivity of the land, and perhaps roe can be protected from the fishes' predators. And he teaches people to make water-feet...(3)
In short, instead of a Divine Son of God, Jesus ITTL becomes a sort of Jewish Leonardo da Vinci, and what spreads forth from this is a liberal and easily spreadable form of Judaism, one that catches the Greek and then the Roman eye.
(1) This is why the wintertime Jewish holiday of Hanukkah exists, by the way.
(2) Other OTL Gospels merely say that Jesus asks Simon Peter who he thinks he is, and Peter replies "the Messiah", whereupon Jesus says that his disciples shouldn't tell anyone about this.
(3) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4v-7PTZF9mc , nuff said.