thanks little hawk for your thoughtful response.
if the deciples did "spice up the pudding";it seems that they were willing to suffer and die for it.seems very foolish if they did,nt believe it themselves, or had falsified the story.

as you suggest the early church did not separate from the jewish worship at first,and went to the non jews after rejection of their message.i understand that rome at first tolerated christians as a subset of judaism, but later persecuted them-not tolerating a lord and saviour of mankind other than caesar.