Author Topic: Did ancient Christians burn all the books?  (Read 704 times)

jeremyp

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Did ancient Christians burn all the books?
« on: January 19, 2023, 10:22:37 AM »
Anybody versed in Betteridge's law will automatically assume the answer is no.

Here is a more evidence based article

https://historyforatheists.com/2020/03/the-great-myths-8-the-loss-of-ancient-learning/

The tl;dr is that the notion that Christians in antiquity expunged all the texts they didn't like is not based on evidence.
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Nearly Sane

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Re: Did ancient Christians burn all the books?
« Reply #1 on: January 19, 2023, 10:39:14 AM »
Anybody versed in Betteridge's law will automatically assume the answer is no.

Here is a more evidence based article

https://historyforatheists.com/2020/03/the-great-myths-8-the-loss-of-ancient-learning/

The tl;dr is that the notion that Christians in antiquity expunged all the texts they didn't like is not based on evidence.
Can We Be Sure Of This?  ;)

Dicky Underpants

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Re: Did ancient Christians burn all the books?
« Reply #2 on: January 19, 2023, 02:50:03 PM »
Can We Be Sure Of This?  ;)
Maybe they 'didn't strive officiously to keep alive'.
After all, we only know of Celsus' work from the quotes in Origen's 'Contra Celsum' - and I think a few other ancient pagan works are known only as a result of such selective quotation. Use once, and throw away.
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Nearly Sane

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Re: Did ancient Christians burn all the books?
« Reply #3 on: January 19, 2023, 03:00:45 PM »
Maybe they 'didn't strive officiously to keep alive'.
After all, we only know of Celsus' work from the quotes in Origen's 'Contra Celsum' - and I think a few other ancient pagan works are known only as a result of such selective quotation. Use once, and throw away.
I pretty much agree with the article. I was making joky reference to Betteridge's Law

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge's_law_of_headlines