You said that the Jewish leadership kept the common people out of the kingdom. I acknowledged that this was true pre-cross but NOT post cross.
OK. So Rabbi Saul, who [post cross] goes to the High Priest to get arrest warrants for christians in Damascas was ENCOURAGING people to follow Jesus??
In Acts 20 and 21 where the Jewish Leaders [post cross] arrest Paul for blasphemy was trying to PROMOTE the gospel?
And the fact that the leading rabbi of the day (Akiva) in 134 ad [post cross] declared the revolutionary Bar Kochba to be the Messiah was to get people to become New Testament believers?
And how about a plethora of leading rabbis and sages who wrote the Talmuds and said basicly "Anyone but THAT MAN," whom they refused to even write his name, calling him "yishky," an acronym standing for "may his name be blotted out" instead of Yeshua.
So these are the Jewish leaders of the first few centuries ad. Were they promoting the gospel to their people or trying to keep them away? You tell me.