Welcome James!

Ok you mustn’t think of it as all starting with the historical Jesus.  There were already in existence in Second Temple Jewish thought concepts of exalted divine figures who functioned at least in part as mediators between humans and God.  In short what happened is that as Jesus’ status among his followers grew they began to associate him with divine figures that already existed in their religious milieu.  For example, the Angel of the Lord, and the Apocalyptic Son of Man.  As the stories were told and the traditions developed Jesus took on their characteristics.  If you’ll allow me a metaphor, the historical Jesus was the wine poured into a cup that already existed.  

JamesFouassier said
I’ve always marveled at the high Christology evidenced by Paul’s Christ “Hymn”.  In a recent post Professor Ehrman emphasizes the point that since Paul inherited it the Hymn must have been circulating no later than twenty years or so after Jesus’ death.  I simply cannot fathom how it all could have happened so fast and in such a highly developed form.

Once or twice I put this to Professor Ehrman, who replied that despite primitive modes of transportation the Roman legions facilitated movement throughout the empire with their massive road construction projects, and that stories about Jesus traveled from Israel to other parts of the Roman world.  That might explain the pre-Pauline existence of a primitive Christian community in Rome, for example.  But I still do not understand how something as theologically advanced ( dare I even say “proto-orthodox”?) as the Hymn may have grown out of those spotty and probably contradictory stories in just twenty years.  Someone care to help me out?  Thanks!  

  

Steve Campbell, author of Historical Accuracy
It did not take 20 years, it took longer. Here is just one example.

There are watermarks of Julius Caesar in the story of Jesus Christ. There was a cult of Julius Caesar after he died. It seems that at some point the imperial cult of Caesar Augustus was combined with the cult of Julius Caesar.

There seems to have been a Passion of Julius Caesar where his “holy week” was re-enacted. The corpse of Julius Caesar was set on fire. A fire ceremony was probably part of the re-enactment of Caesar’s passion. This passion was picked up by Jews who liked Julius Caesar because in comparison to Pompey the Great, Julius Caesar was preferred. So, in Christianity, there is the Easter Fire. What is that?

As a ** you do not have permission to see this link **.

Easter fires are typically ** you do not have permission to see this link ** and secular celebrations.

In addition to Francesco Carotta writing Jesus Was Caesar, he also played an important role in the documentary, The Gospel of Caesar, where the re-enactment of a Passion of Julius Caesar is shown to resemble the Passion of the Christ.

Just watch the first two minutes of the documentary which introduces this concept–and probably watch the entire documentary.