Seems like you could just study some history?
First of all you are going by what stories say. All stories contain those elements? Every hero's journey contains persecution, this is essential to the myth. Since they are updating the OT there is sure to be old persecution updated to the NT as well.
So we have to turn to what scholars and historians think was going on at the time. For one Judaism was not like it's presented in the stories, as I pointed out it was very diverse.
Some scholarly treatments of why the writers included persecution in the stories is on the persecution in Christianity Wiki page with sources.
Purpose of persecution
If Luke-Acts is not an accurate catalog of every Christian persecution during the first century, scholars have offered a variety of interpretative frameworks to understand what motivated the author of the books and how the author uses persecution to argue their claims. These interpretations include:
Persecution used to contrast Jews and Christians
S. G. Wilson has argued that Luke-Acts was composed to portray Christianity as a more peaceable form of Judaism to the books' (in part) Roman audience. He points to Luke-Acts' deep reverence for and reliance on Jewish scripture to legitimate Jesus and the mission of the church (cf. Luke 3:4-6, Acts2:17-21) as evidence for the author's continued connection to Jewish heritage, even as the author sees as Christianity's future goal to spread to the Gentiles. Wilson argues that in Acts, Jews repeatedly stir up trouble for both Christians and Roman authorities , and the accused Christians are repeatedly found innocent by the Roman authorities, often by showing how they uphold both Roman and Jewish law and are therefore morally superior to their accusers.
Persecution as a rhetorical weapon against critics'
Kelhoffer spends part of his book
Persecution, Persuasion and Power arguing that persecution in Luke-Acts is used by the author to accomplish three things: question the legitimacy of the accusers, (2) confirm the legitimacy of the faithful accused, and derive legitimacy for the author's Gentile audience who might be suffering their own persecution. For example, in the story of Stephen's martyrdom, Stephen links his accusers to those who resisted Moses (Acts 7:51-53), and his death is paralleled with Jesus' (Acts 7:59-60). Acts 28:25-28 also provides strong encouragement and validation for Gentiles readers, while Acts 9:4-5 makes a direct link between the persecuted and Jesus, which further indicts any critics or persecutors of Christianity. Kelhoffer sees the author of Luke-Acts as turning the dishonor of persecution into an honor, placing those who suffer "on account of the Son of Man" (Luke 6:22 NSRV) in the legacy of Old Testament and Israelite salvation history
Persecution as a tool for example and encouragement
Robert Maddox interprets Paul's experiences in Luke-Acts as the model example for its audience, not only as a devout believer but also as one who suffers repeated persecution. Passages like Luke 12:4-7 and Acts 14:22 are read by Maddox as warning Christians of the hardships they will face. Evidence for the deep value early Christians put on persecution may also be found in Acts 5:41 and Acts 8:1-4 (which states that even as Christians were persecuted, they spread the word).
[12] Additionally, in Luke 6:26, 40, Jesus speaks of coming hardship not just for himself, but for his followers. Touching on a theme that will be later explored more fully by Stephen in his final speech in Acts (7:1-53), Jesus and his followers are likened to the Jewish prophets of old, who were rejected by the Israelites despite being sent by God. Therefore, to follow Jesus is to suffer greatly as he will later in Luke. Through his crucifixion Jesus becomes the most important and potent example of suffering for which every Christian must prepare; those who do will be justly rewarded (Luke 6:22-23)
Persecution of Christians in the New Testament - Wikipedia
There is also stuff like this which I do not know if it's peer-reviewed? But it shows the gospels were borowing ideas of martyrdom
The Myth of Persecution: How Early Christians Invented a Story of Martyrdom is a 2013 book by
Candida Moss, a professor of
New Testament and
Early Christianity at the
University of Notre Dame. Moss's thesis is that: -
- The traditional idea of the "Age of Martyrdom", when Christians suffered persecution from the Roman authorities and lived in fear of being thrown to the lions, is largely fictional.
- There was never sustained, targeted persecution of Christians by Imperial Roman authorities.
- Official persecution of Christians by order of the Roman Emperor lasted for at most twelve years of the first three hundred of the Church's history.
- Most of the stories of individual martyrs are pure invention,
- Even the oldest and most historically accurate stories of martyrs and their sufferings have been altered and re-written by later editors, so that it is impossible to know for sure what any of the martyrs actually thought, did or said.
Martyrdom before Christianity
The book explains the origin of the Greek word "martyr" and how it came to be used by Christians as signifying someone who had witnessed for Christ with their life.
[1]:26–27 Moss states that the Christian tradition held that martyrdom did not exist in previous eras. She goes on to argue that there were examples of martyrs among earlier Jews, Greeks and Romans, they were just not called by that term.
[1]:52 Citing the deaths of
Socrates and the aged Jewish teacher
Eleazar, Moss maintains that they heavily influenced Christian martyrdom narratives, to the extent that "Christians adapted their ideas about martyrdom and sometimes
even the stories themselves" (italics in original) "from both ancient Jewish and pagan writers."
[1]:80
Historicity
It is a central thesis of the book that the ancient writings on martyrs and martyrdom are not reliable accounts of the events described. Moss characterizes most of the extant sources, such as the
Acts of the Martyrs, as "elaborate, ornate, entertaining, and far from the truth".
[1]:87 Moss also finds similarities between the events related and those of ancient
Greek romance novels.
[1]:77–78 In her book, Moss examined the oldest and generally agreed to be most authentic of the martyrdom accounts: the
Martyrdom of Polycarp, the Acts of
Ptolemaeus and Lucius, the account of the trial and death of
Justin Martyr and companions, the Acts of the
Scillitan Martyrs, the story of
Perpetua and Felicity, and the
Persecution in Lyon involving the bishop
Pothinus,
Blandina and several others. She claims that one cannot rely on these primary sources as accurate historical accounts because they have been altered and re-written by subsequent generations of Christians.
The Myth of Persecution - Wikipedia