>>514868416
They served everyone from farmers hoping to pray for a bumper crop, to wealthy psychopaths looking for a thrill only cutting open screaming babies for blood sports can provide. It was they who controlled the money lenders in the temples. That was them. Rich. Powerful. Well connected and able to host their own private armies. That's who was actively hunting known members of the cult of the Nazarene and put bounties on the Apostles. Ironically it was also they who in hindsight were responsible for starting the spread of Christianity by scattering the early sect to other kingdoms and lands through fugitives escaping from Judea to try and escape their reach. They viewed stories of sons of God returning from the grave as a competing business and took them VERY seriously. The irony is that Paul was already a fugitive when he arrived in . He would not have his homeland otherwise.