Paul's "persecution" of the early Christians?

[Wyrd of Gawd]

Your post is excellent analysis that the gospel authors were not concerned with historical accuracy but simply were telling stories to advance their theology about Jesus.

There's no celestial deity of any kind but the Bible is a beautifully written story with layers and layers of inter-twined complex themes.  It's the 24k gold standard of fairy tales.  The committee that wrote it did an amazing job without computers to keep track of the various threads.