Theories about Jesus?

[smax]

Are you talking about Constantine and what followed from his time? I'd have to disagree, as the earliest fragments of NT are dated to be from the 2nd century, but Christianity was embraced by Rome in the *4th* century. Therefore evidence of some vague guy by the name of Jesus would be an original idea by the early Christians.

By the time Rome took over Christianity, there were literally dozens upon dozens of interpretations of the religion, so I'm certainly NOT suggesting that Rome invented anything about it.

The truth is, prior to Rome's involvement, Christianity was widely viewed as a religion open to interpretation, and there were hundreds of documents supporting all different types of views.

That said, the views that I am drawing attention to right now are most likely at the very core of the religion, even pre-dating the alleged events of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ by several centuries. Those are the views of the Gnostics.

Now, of course much of the Gnostic influence on Christianity has been utterly destroyed, but what we know of the Gnostic views explains a lot about the progression of Christianity.

For example: why does Jesus have no face to speak of during the early centuries?