Yes, another book. David Dungan’s Constantine’s Bible has an amazing reach, starting from the beginnings of civilization, through the development of Greek philosophy and its distribution through the ancient East. Only a third of the way through, but I’m pretty sure I know how this one ends.
The second-century defenders of Christianity created Greek-type schools that required: stories and teachings of the founding figure; stories and teachings of the immediate disciples; and documentation of an uninterrupted line of school heads from the founder. As presented, the structure of Greek society required that these things be present in order for any system of faith to be taken seriously by the Greeks. The Greeks already knew of and largely approved the Hebrew writings and Jewish monotheism as legitimate, so early Christian groups needed only to show the writings from their founder and his followers in order to be “acceptable”.
Now I’m at the writings of Eusibius of Caesarea, and to be honest with you, I don’t think I can take another account of this Eusibius or any other. I can’t make another go at Arius vs. Athenasius without falling directly to sleep. There’s really only a limited amount of material about early church history, and I think I must have nearly covered it all, because I’m catching a lot of re-runs here. Disappointing, as there are still very many questions left to answer; speculation is a thin meal. On, I suppose, to the Selucids, Ptolemies, and Maccabees.
Antioch and Alexandria disagreed about so many things theologically that it is difficult to believe that they started from the same basis of faith. Given the general distribution of Greek culture and Jewish disapora in the Mediterranean basin, it’s much easier to believe that the same synchronism that would have developed a Hellenized Jewish savior cult in one place could have happened in many others. The application of the name “Christianity” came so late in the process that it’s almost an afterthought, but it’s subsequent application to anything and everything has made understanding difficult. Maybe this word should be retired, along with “Gnostic”, from the language of history.