What was the religious structure in Judea in Jesus' time?

Answer 1

It was called Judea during Jesus' time. People there followed Judaism until Jesus came as salvation and many became Christian, though not all. The Roman Empire was occupying Judea at the time. The Romans followed pagan mythology back then. The first Christians were Jews who became Christian, like the Apostles. I think that the first gentile(non Jewish origin) person who converted to Christianity was a Roman named Cornelius. Salvation was offered first to the Jews, and then opened up to the Gentiles.

Jewish answer:

1) The religious structure:

Each of the leading Torah-sages had his own yeshiva (Torah-academy): Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai, Rabbi Yonatan ben Uziel, Chanina ben Dosa, Bava ben Buta, Shimon ben Hillel, Rabbi Eliezer, Rabbi Yehoshua, Rabbi Akiva, and hundreds of others. Each of them served as the Rabbi of his community.

2) The division of power:

a. The Sanhedrin (court of Sages) was the final authority on Torah-matters. One of its functions was to ensure that the Torah-traditions were handed down intact from generation to generation.

b. In addition, there were local functionaries, similar to our mayors, aldermen etc.
c. The Kohen Gadol conducted the observances in the Holy Temple, together with the assistance of the rest of the Kohanim and Levites (Numbers ch.8 and 18; Leviticus ch.21). Though the Kohen Gadol had no formal power outside the Temple, he did have great influence due to the prestige of his position. In times of need, he occasionally dealt directly with foreign monarchs (see Talmud, Yoma 47a and 69b).

3) (In response to the Christian answer above): According to our tradition, the vast majority of the Jews at the time didn't hear of Jesus. The Torah-sages were active at that time and their Torah-academies were flourishing. Their tens of thousands of disciples and hundeds of thousands of sympathizers were active in the Jewish world in that generation; they were the leaders and the forefront of Judaism. As Josephus (Antiquities book 18) writes, "the cities give great attestations to them." The great majority of Jews loved their sages and their Torah.
The unlearned class of the Amei-haaretz (ignoramuses) was a small fringe of society, but even they would and did lay down their lives in order not to violate anything of the Torah. As one ancient historian famously wrote:
Hecateus declares again, "what regard we (Jews) have for our laws; and we resolve to endure anything rather than transgress them." And he adds: "They [Jews] may be stripped on this account, and have torments inflicted upon them, and be brought to the most terrible kinds of death, but they meet these tortures after an extraordinary manner, beyond all other people, and will not renounce the religion of their forefathers."
No one (even any who did hear of Jesus) - would have given heed to what was and is considered unacceptable for us. The few who came in contact with him soon lost interest, and the early Christians felt the need to turn to non-Jewish centers of population in order to gain adherents, while the Jews remained Jews.

The view that "many (Jews) became Christian" is, according to Jewish tradition, inaccurate.