No wonder scholars speculate so much. Sigh...
Exactly! There were so many influences going on in the Roman Empire of those early centuries and the documentary record is so incomplete that I think we just don't know and short of excavating some hidden well preserved complete library we'll never know.
People have their needs and their milieus and will interpret these books to fit their preference. That is to be expected. This is why I don't believe any religion is revealed. I'm interested in understanding which is a less literal approach to being.
On the other hand it is an interesting journey through intellectual history to try and track these notions down.
lfen
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