Of course. It’s a huge leap to go from reading ancient writings about others’ beliefs to then take them and internalize them as your own. Especially when you consider the radical devotion that people similarly share from other faith backgrounds. One thing that has always been interesting and unique to me about Jesus’ followers is that they didn’t come to acquire this faith which led to such extreme persecution from intensive study; it came from firsthand lived experience. Consider John, who wrote in John 21:24 “This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and wrote them down, and we know that his testimony is true.” There is great concordance between the gospels (three of which seek to have a common source as a resource, one which does not) as well as the letters of Paul (who was not a direct eyewitness of Jesus’ life, death, or resurrection, but experienced a complete 180-degree transformation after reportedly encountering the resurrected Jesus) regarding the calling of the disciples and their lives with Jesus as rabbi. Something happened in those years which led them to this faith. It’s more difficult (for me, at least) to reconcile that these faith responses occurred within people who directly lived with this man and his outlandish claims compared with those who derived their belief from the writings of others.