He is to be understood as Simon bar Kokhba, the "Messianic" leader of the 132 ad Jewish revolt against the Romans.
There are no authenticated references to Christianity before this event (the earliest known New Testament texts are dated in the 140s ad).
In modern times many authors have written "historical" novels, with the fictional storylines (often revolving around actual historical characters and events) really referring to current events.
The Gospel of Jesus story starts in the 30s ad (Gospel of Mark) ... but it was written in the 130s ad.
Somehow what began as a sophisticated political comment on what was going on around the time of the Bar Kokhba revolt evolved into a religious cult (possibly founded by a single individual ... who wrote detailed fictional accounts of the supposed development of his movement during the 1st century ad).
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