I still don't understand why anyone would make up a person like the Biblical Christ..

[Minimalist]

You still haven't proven why any first-century Jews would invent a Messiah who was NOT a political/military deliverer from Rome.

I guess I need to introduce you to the Gabriel Revelation Stone, Dave.

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0...85,00.html

A 3-ft.-high tablet romantically dubbed "Gabriel's Revelation" could challenge the uniqueness of the idea of the Christian Resurrection. The tablet appears to date authentically to the years just before the birth of Jesus and yet — at least according to one Israeli scholar — it announces the raising of a messiah after three days in the grave. If true, this could mean that Jesus' followers had access to a well-established paradigm when they decreed that Christ himself rose on the third day — and it might even hint that they they could have applied it in their grief after their master was crucified. However, such a contentious reading of the 87-line tablet depends on creative interpretation of a smudged passage, making it the latest entry in the woulda/coulda/shoulda category of possible New Testament artifacts; they are useful to prove less-spectacular points and to stir discussion on the big ones, but probably not to settle them nor shake anyone's faith.

In the years since this article was published the reading by Israel Knohl has been accepted by leading epigraphers, including Ada Yardeni: "In three days, live"

It must be understood that this was an age when literacy was rare. The priests in the temple controlled the official state religion but we know, for example as a result of the Dead Sea Scrolls, that there were other offshoots existing aside from the temple orthodoxy. What the discovery and authentication of the Gabriel Revelation Stone tells us is that there was yet another strand which had a belief in the resurrection of its leader. The problem is that the rebellion in question dates to the death of Herod the Great c 4 BC. In his will, Herod broke up his kingdom among his surviving children. Serious revolts broke out which caused the Roman Governor of Syria, Publius Quinctillius Varus to intervene with his army to crush the revolts. This he did. One of the rebel contingents was led by Simon of Perea who seems to be the central figure of the Gabrield Revelation Stone. Varus caught up with him after Simon had destroyed one of Herod's palaces. Simon was beheaded but plenty of other rebels were crucified. The only problem this holds for xtians is that their boy was either not born or, at best a newborn babe, depending on which version of their bullshit stories you wish to consult.

But the idea of a dead and resurrected Messiah - which is certainly not any part of Judaism - did exist among the lower classes at the close of the first millenium BC.