tanakh : "here is no other logical explanation as to why the Disciples risked their lives carrying on as his followers if "
Again, this assumes that everything described in the New Testament are true accounts. We simply have no basis for assuming that, especially when the books of the NT were written long after Jesus resurrected. And neither do we have any evidence either, that the disciples died for their faith and became martyrs. There simply is no confirmation of that. I could take any fictional story to draw conclusions in the same manner as Christians do.
Other things to consider:
-The followers of Jesus were Aramaic speaking peasants from Galilee who were illiterate like most of the people of the ancient world. They couldn’t read and write, they were fishermen, they didn’t went to school.
[SUP]“13 [/SUP]When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.” (Acts 4:13)
-The Gospels were written in Greek, in the third person decades later after Jesus supposedly resurrected by anonymous writers who did not witness Jesus’s resurrection. They were not written by the characters John, Luke, Mathew and Mark from the bible, they are only called the gospel of John, Luke, Mathew and Mark. These stories, “the gospels” are based on oral reports that had been in circulation for decades.
Q: So what can happen to oral reports, year after year, decade after decade?
A: They get changed.
If we analyze the gospels we see discrepancies:
-John says it was witnessed by one woman. Matthew says two women. Mark says three women. Luke says it was at least five.
-Luke, Mark, and John all indicate the tomb was already open when the woman/women got there. Matthew says the tomb was closed, but an angel rolled back the boulder covering it.
-Matthew says an angel was waiting outside the tomb. Mark says a young man was inside. -Luke and John say two men/angels were inside.
-Mark and John say the man/men were sitting, while Luke indicates they were standing.
“Jesus Has Risen 28 After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.
[SUP]2 [/SUP]There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it.”(Matthew 28:1-2)
“Jesus Has Risen
24 On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. [SUP]2 [/SUP]They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, [SUP]3 [/SUP]but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. [SUP]4 [/SUP]While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them.”(Luke 24:1-4)
“Jesus Has Risen
16 When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. [SUP]2 [/SUP]Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb [SUP]3 [/SUP]and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?”
[SUP]4 [/SUP]But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. [SUP]5 [/SUP]As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.”(Mark 16:1-5)
“The Empty Tomb
20 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance.” (John 20:1-5)
The mainstream scholarly view is that the Gospels are anonymous works, written in the third person, in a different language than that of Jesus, in distant lands, after a substantial gap of time(decades), by unknown persons, compiling, redacting, and inventing various traditions, in order to provide a narrative of Christianity’s central figure–Jesus Christ–to confirm the faith of their communities.
Who Wrote the Four Gospels of the New Testament? An Introduction to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_reliability_of_the_Gospels
Dr. Robert M. Price’s says:
“…there are many viable explanations [for the rise of the belief that Jesus resurrected], not least Festinger’s theory of cognitive dissonance reduction, whereby more than one disappointed sect has turned defeat into zeal by means of face-saving denial. “
Firstly the assumption that the Disciples were all illiterate is incorrect. During that period boys up to the age of twelve attended the local synagogue and had a basic education centered on the scriptures. Those that showed some promise
were able to progress to become scribes. It is commonly thought that what you quoted in Acts was that which was mentioned not the basic education which was started by a Rabbi who lived some hundred years earlier. It was also a common feature for Rabbis to teach groups of disciples so it wouldn't be unusual for Jesus to do the same.
The idea that the NT is a work of fiction does not take into account that there are a huge number of references to the OT
either by direct quotations or inferences. The idea that the New Testament and Jesus himself was created as a work of fiction begs several questions. 1 Why would anyone bother? An individual would have to be incredibly knowledgeable of OT scriptures to achieve it bearing in mind that everything was hand written on scrolls. 2 Whoever did it would have to be Jewish or someone with a very good working knowledge of Jewish culture and customs. As most Jews were opposed to Christianity it seems unlikely to me that they would be Jewish. 3 One of the main messages of the Gospels is that Jesus
is the Messiah. Why isn't there a single detailed denounciation of this supposed fake Messianic movement? 4 You speak of
the many decades that passed before the Gospels were written but present scholarship believe the earliest of Pauls recognised Epistles, 1 Thesselonians was written within 25 years of Christs death and all of them within the generation that
were alive during his ministry. We also should bare in mind that people then relied mainly on memory which was far more accurate than it is to us. Having said that at age 68 I can remember events in my Childhood including our Queens Coronation day that took place in 1953. If I can remember that far back it would be simple for those people who relied almost entirely on memory to recall the events of Christs life.
I have read some of these theories some are very informative others are mere speculation disguised as expert academic knowledge. My reading material has included books by Bishop John Shelby Spong and Marcus J Borg among others.
(rhetorical question) 
