>>10359230 (lb)
>You won’t find any evidence of the practice by Jews in Roman occupied Palestine
Right, that's what stoning was for. That's the sort of thing that creates closeted homosexuality.
Paul's letters reveal what a Pharisee convert to the "Christian" doctrine would look like. Let's face it, he was very much a scold, though many of his teachings weren't "bad", just very heavily influenced by Pharisee doctrine. It's pretty damned obvious that Paul's take was to scale back his old tuition in exchange for a kinder, gentler approach + the Jesus thing.
I think it's also worth pointing out that Jesus very specifically said that he came for the lost sheep of the House of Israel. It was obvious he never intended to take his teachings to the Gentiles, though that didn't stop him from having mercy on them, either (on 2 occasions).
After the resurrection, he suddenly changed his stance on that, and Paul was the main character taking the new Gospel 2.0 to the masses instead of only the remaining Jews that were hanging out in Jerusalem.
Did you catch that?
Jesus' ministry was intended for Judeans, specifically (the lost sheep of the house of Israel). It was the authors of the 4 Gospels and remaining letters/books of the NT that pressed for taking the message to the rest of the world.
To understand why this distinction matters, you'd have to understand what happened to the decedents of the other tribes (Think Ephraim and Manasseh). In other words, before Christ came around, the Abrahamic blessing was already fulfilled. Sure, it took the fall of Israel (and eventually Judea) for that to happen, but it worked out nonetheless.