Read the story of Moses . Definitely a cult leader. Hot line to god, Controllng his followers etc

It isn't easy to put our modern mindset back in time when people knew next to nothing about the amount of things we today take for granted.
When a whole peoples are persecuted, when the smallest weird thing happens and someone is labeled a witch or a shaman - bad or good.
When times are really bad humans create a magic person or persons with supper powers who will 'fix' everything. It is hard to imagine not knowing things so how can we really know how those folks in o early BC were thinking. To me the Bible and it's characters are simple early sci-fi, James Ellroy, etc. writers that rounded up a bunch of stories for people to hold on to for hope, inspiration and to ultimately control.
A way to get people to not think about the fact we are each ultimately alone in this world but together we can do a lot of good and a fuck load of really nasty shit. It's nice when we have a middle ground, a good balance.

Another possible explanation comes to mind, bogus baguettes!

I’d love to believe this but I think it was more nefarious as shown by current day religious hustlers. It’s a scam and always been a scam.

Certainly. This then sets those people aside in a way that others notice. If you are using the bible as a guide for anything consider that Jesus was "the first fruits of the dead" and that several people in the OT were also resurrected. Believers cannot explain that one.

Well one of them is likely to get it right one of these times just by chance….