I’m trying to put together the big picture for the idea that the Jesus story was a noble lie:I'm interested, but still not clear exactly what you are trying to accomplish. Are you trying to show that early Christians invented the divinity of Jesus so as to sell love? Is that what you mean by "a noble lie"? Not arguing, at least not yet. Just seeking clarification.
(I’m trying to put together the big picture for the idea that the Jesus story was a noble lie).
I agree that the stories were lies, but believe Jesus was a person.
I believe Jesus was a person who was running for political office. And why waste time putting the big picture together. That already has been done. Read the book, The Lost Gospel.
WHY DID THEY INVENT CHRISTIANITY?
Can you list the “THEY"?
John, Mark, Mathew and Paul may be on that list.
Simple logic would say that after Jesus was removed from the picture. That part of his political team went north and continued with the campaign. The part of the team that stayed in Israel also tried to keep the movement going. But the Israel movement was Gnostic, as was Jesus. Gnostic didn’t sell up north, so they invented the Christian pathway. The area was ripe for change. The levels of heaven were understood and the god RA was only hanging by a thread. Jesus replaced RA. The plagues wipe out most of the people with eastern beliefs. So, the knowledge levels were low, the Greek influence was low. And at the time Christianity was being born. They were in the middle of another major plague. Everything was controlled by Rome. And Rome did not like Hebrews at that time in history.
To summarize my points. The religions that were selling were the religions offering afterlife. The Hebrew was out of the picture because of political turmoil. RA was on his way out because Egypt had gone Greek. That left the Eastern religions which offered heaven and then reincarnation. But, the Eastern religions were taken out by the leprosy plagues. Christianity was filling in the need for afterlife with very little competition.