 Bousset posited a distinction between the early Palestinian community of Jesus' followers and the second generation of Christians, composed, to a much more significant degree, of non-Jewish Gentile Christians.Bousset, in coming to this conclusion, rejected evaluation of any sources outside the Synoptic Gospels, including the letters of Paul.These Christians, who lived and were highly familiar with the pagan and Hellenistic communities of the Roman world, developed a belief that Jesus was "Kyrios", Lord, analogous to other pagan beliefs in cultic deities and deified men.