right. The film also portrays a population that was hungry for guidance, for somebody to tell them what to think, what to do. I think that's accurate, too.
The destruction of the old ways by the invasion of the Romans and their ways of life (along with previous invasions) set up the Levant for the spread of "cargo cult" type religions. (Somewhere, I have a great anthropology article on the spread of cargo cults (whose author I've forgotten). It describes not only the spread of Christianity (and Islam) but also the "counterculture" movement of the 1960s.) -- Jim Devine / "There can be no real individual freedom in the presence of economic insecurity." -- Chester Bowles