Two points you both need to consider are:
1- At a time when barely 10% of the population could read at all there was probably 1% that could read/comprehend advanced philosophical/historical/theological texts at all. The audience for what they were writing was limited. The vast bulk of the people were told what to do - and what to believe - orally.
2- On the morning of Oct. 27, 312 xtianity was a suspect doctrine recently the victim of Diocletian's persecution. By that afternoon they had backed the winning horse at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge and were duly rewarded for their support by Constantine. All of this crap about Constantine seeing signs in the sky and having his troops write xtian bullshit slogans on their shields came from two xtian writers, Lactantius and the ubiquitous Eusebius.
The paperwork explosion of xtianity begins after 312. Whether or not Eusebius actually forged documents ( why bother?) or merely took oral traditions, edited them to suit his current need, and wrote down what he wished, is unknown and will probably never be known. But the idea that the earliest church was based on written documents founders on point #1. Few people could read, fewer still could write, and even fewer could read and write Greek AND Latin.
How much better for the world had Maxentius won the battle and gone on to exterminate those xtian fucks!
1- At a time when barely 10% of the population could read at all there was probably 1% that could read/comprehend advanced philosophical/historical/theological texts at all. The audience for what they were writing was limited. The vast bulk of the people were told what to do - and what to believe - orally.
2- On the morning of Oct. 27, 312 xtianity was a suspect doctrine recently the victim of Diocletian's persecution. By that afternoon they had backed the winning horse at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge and were duly rewarded for their support by Constantine. All of this crap about Constantine seeing signs in the sky and having his troops write xtian bullshit slogans on their shields came from two xtian writers, Lactantius and the ubiquitous Eusebius.
The paperwork explosion of xtianity begins after 312. Whether or not Eusebius actually forged documents ( why bother?) or merely took oral traditions, edited them to suit his current need, and wrote down what he wished, is unknown and will probably never be known. But the idea that the earliest church was based on written documents founders on point #1. Few people could read, fewer still could write, and even fewer could read and write Greek AND Latin.
How much better for the world had Maxentius won the battle and gone on to exterminate those xtian fucks!
