Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site bbncca.ARPA
Path: utzoo!linus!bbncca!rrizzo
From: rrizzo@bbncca.ARPA (Ron Rizzo)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Destruction of literature by Christians
Message-ID: <1026@bbncca.ARPA>
Date: Mon, 15-Oct-84 15:33:27 EDT
Article-I.D.: bbncca.1026
Posted: Mon Oct 15 15:33:27 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 16-Oct-84 05:45:14 EDT
Organization: Bolt, Beranek and Newman, Cambridge, Ma.
Lines: 23

In "Hebrew, Aramaic or Greek (and no proof)", Yirmiyahu BenDavid alludes
to possible & large-scale destruction of scriptures in the early centuries
C.E.  To underscore the possibility of violent intolerance in the early
Christian church, at least one classics scholar (Don Liles of San Francisco
State) believes much of ancient Greek & Roman literature was lost not through
the ravages of barbarians, final collapse of empire, decline in culture,
etc., but by deliberate & systematic destruction by Christian zealots, often
acting "officially".  In support, he cites such mysterious facts as the com-
plete loss of the entire corpus of very prolific, highly-regarded, and wide-
ly read authors such as the poet Sappho (only quotations of individual
verses from her poems in other people's writings survive).  Liles has written
a book-length work on the subject, but I don't remember whether it's an un-
published dissertation or a commercially available book.

For a credible picture of a highly intolerant early church, see Gore Vidal's
historical novel, JULIAN, available in paperback.

Maybe Bertrand's Russell's basic objection to Christianity (in WHY I AM NOT
A CHRISTIAN), that Christ himself was utterly intolerant, rings true.


					Cheers,
					Ron Rizzo