Fun Christianity detail.

All three Synoptics (Mark, Matthew, Luke) have Jesus telling his followers they aren’t allowed to bring purses or money to minister.

This naturally would have prevented monetary collections.

But then in around 54 CE, 20 years after Jesus is killed, a guy who never met him and was known to be persecuting his followers shows up in areas outside his jurisdiction telling people he’s one of them now and to ignore any versions of Jesus he doesn’t approve of. He even acknowledged that people were saying he was doing evil in the name of good (Romans 4:8).

He argued with the church in Corinth that their belief “everything is permissible” was wrong and on top of it argued that he was entitled to make a living off his ministering, while then asking for monetary donations “for the poor in Jerusalem” (but in other letters we see he was also enriched himself with donations).

Eventually the gospel of Luke had Jesus at the last supper straight up like “Hey guys, remember when I said you can’t carry purses? Let’s 180° that.”

I say eventually because the likely earliest version of that text we have was the one preserved by ‘heretics’ following Marcion, and their copy of Luke is missing that part at the last supper.

Christianity as canonized was in at least one way exactly opposite what had likely been the actual command of a historical Jesus. Out of all the various sects, the one which succeeded was not the one with divine editorial oversight, but simply the one with the most adaptive policies for sociopolitical success (such as fundraising to the point they eventually became endorsed by the emperor of Rome).

Additionally, other sects deemed heretical (with their texts eventually banned on penalty of torture and death) were also vehemently against profiteering by religious officiants:

Jesus said, “The messengers and the prophets will come to you and give you what belongs to you. You, in turn, give them what you have, and say to yourselves, ‘When will they come and take what belongs to them?’”

• The Gospel of Thomas saying 88

TL;DR: It’s so much worse than most people realize, especially Christians, who arguably should be made the most aware.