What religion were the Palestinians when Jesus Christ was alive?

Answer 1

During the early part of the first century, all areas of Palestine contained some Jews and pagans living together, although the larger cities were mainly pagan, apart from Jerusalem. The Cambridge Ancient History says that the coastal plain and cities had predominantly non-Jewish, or pagan, inhabitants. The small inland enclave of Judea proper was predominantly Jewish. To the south of Judea, Idumea was inhabited by Jewish converts. Farther south, in the Negev desert, the Nabateans were pagan. Samaria, situated where ancient Israel had once been, belonged to the Samaritans, who practised a variant of the Jewish religion. Galilee, in the far north of Palestine, supported a mixed population of pagans and Jews, but scholars are uncertain of the relative populations.