Quote:I don't believe anyone saw him as a god who was a man on earth.
Agreed, with the exception of Zeus' occasional forays to earth to grab a little tail, but so what? At some point humanity invented these tales about Zeus and his fellow Olympians just like every other god. And Asclepius and Apollonius of Tyana were also considered earthly "gods." "Paul's" vision of god has him operating on the same heavenly plain as Zeus and all the rest....Paul doesn't know jack shit about Nazareth, Pilate, Mary, Joseph, etc.
Could the xtians greatest ploy have been a marketing strategy that claimed that their boy was "real?" Perhaps.
Still doesn't seem as if anyone in the first century knew anything about it.