In virtually every debate I see between a Skeptic and a Christian Apologist, the Apologist throws out this “multiply attested” or ” – witnessed” argument:
That the people and events described in the NT manuscripts should be viewed as more historically reliable/likely than pagan historical figures/events because (1) we have many more NT manuscripts than pagan manuscripts, and (2) the NT manuscripts were prepared closer in time to the events they describe than were the pagan manuscripts.
While (1) and (2) may be true, isn’t it also true that Christians were responsible in a significant way for this state of events through their “destruction”¹ of pagan manuscripts?
If so, wouldn’t that (at least to some degree) further undermine the credibility of the NT manuscripts since it would indicate that not only were Christians willing to forge NT manuscripts to fit within their preferred theology (as Dr Ehrman has written about extensively), but they were also willing to destroy texts of any potentially competing literature or knowledge?
¹By “destruction,” I mean not only the physical destruction (like discarding or burning) of pagan texts by Christians, but also the scraping off and writing over of pagan texts by Christian monks which I believe paleographers refer to as “palimpsest.”
I know Dr Ehrman touches on this topic in Ch 9 of his book The Triumph of Christianity, but I’ve been doing some additional reading on this (see list of books below) and wanted to know if anyone had any further thoughts on this line of argument or other sources I should consider.
- Dirk Rohman, Christianity Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity (Studies in Text Transmission) (Baylor Univ Press, 2016)
- Michael Gaddis, There Is No Crime for Those Who Have Christ (Religious Violence in the Christian Roman Empire)(Univ of California Press, 2015)
- Catherine Nixey, The Darkening Age (The Christian Destruction of the Classical World)(Houghton Mifflin..2018)
Well it wouldn’t have always been necessary for Christians to actively destroy pagan cultural documents although I’ sure some of that went on. Time and neglect can do as much damage. One can imagine the public and personal libraries whose materials were allowed to simply decay and not be replaced.
Agreed. I’m not suggesting that active Christian destruction of pagan texts was solely or primarily responsible for the disparity in surviving manuscripts. (Clearly both Christian and pagan texts were lost due to neglect or other “passive” causes). Rather, I’m suggesting that Christian destruction appears to have been at least a significant contributing cause. Granted, I’m not an expert in this field so would be open correction. However, based on the above cited sources and others I’ve read, it appears that there is solid evidence not only of such practices, but also of at least one Church Father’s writings providing the ideological basis for destruction of pagan texts and another’s celebrating their apparent disappearance from his community. For example, one of the Fathers refers to pagan literature as demonic.
There are many instances of Christian clerics preserving pagan legacies that would otherwise have been lost–obviously they did yeoman’s work preserving pre-Christian Greek and Latin texts. Most of the Celtic mythology we have is due to monks writing down what was an entirely oral tradition, with a light Christian gloss that scholars can easily filter out.
You’re talking about anti-Christian polemics? We know many of them through Christians like Origen responding to them and transcribing large portions of them for posterity.
You can’t say most of the problem is the books not being copied for lack of interest and then say “But we’d have so many more if they hadn’t burned them!” The problem is much more serious than that–pagans were often much less inclined to commit their religious ideas to paper in the first place. They were not People of the Book–Jews were, and Christians inherited that fervor to get it in writing. Non-religious pagan writings were preserved assiduously by Christians, particularly after Constantine gave them the keys to the Empire. And the fascination with the Greco-Roman gods continued long after the worship of those gods had ended.
I’d agree there may have been a brief period right after Christianity gained the ascendancy, where a subsection of Christian fanatics wanted to burn everything. But it didn’t last very long, and there would have been many who dissented from this, and preserved what texts they could. Clerics of any religion have a shared passion for preservation. I think if not for Christianity, we might have far less of the past.
And please note–a lot of the destruction might have been done by barbarian conquerors, looking for kindling. Or toilet paper. To blame it all on Christians is so predictable. Christians were as horrified by the fall of Roman civilization as anyone–more than most. Augustine became such an influential writer because he wrote powerfully to this shared fear of the impending Dark Ages. He and others like him were not out to erase the past achievements of Rome–they wanted to hang onto them, and build upon them. To create a City of God.
Tell the whole truth, not just the part that suits you. As good a message for today as it was for that time.
car3366 said
Agreed. I’m not suggesting that active Christian destruction of pagan texts was solely or primarily responsible for the disparity in surviving manuscripts. (Clearly both Christian and pagan texts were lost due to neglect or other “passive” causes). Rather, I’m suggesting that Christian destruction appears to have been at least a significant contributing cause. Granted, I’m not an expert in this field so would be open correction. However, based on the above cited sources and others I’ve read, it appears that there is solid evidence not only of such practices, but also of at least one Church Father’s writings providing the ideological basis for destruction of pagan texts and another’s celebrating their apparent disappearance from his community. For example, one of the Fathers refers to pagan literature as demonic.
What is the evidence for this exactly? When did this alleged destruction supposedly begin? If pagan texts were intentionally destroyed by Christians, why do you have so many surviving pagan sources, not only Greek and Roman, but also so-called barbarians?
The historical criteria of something having more weight if it is attested multiple times and attested closer in time to the event does not care about “blame.” It just deals with the facts. I don’t think we should discount historical material that is attested by many and written close in time to the event just because we assign blame to what we consider different sides to a debate.
But also you are assuming the existence of these writings would have helped paganism. Maybe if the important pagan sources were preserved they would have demonstrated that the pagan religions were full of contradictory information and hurt the cause of the pagan religions more than it would have helped.
Also it is possible that important Christian sources were lost during the Roman persecutions.
BDEhrman
FreedomBen
evgendob
Robert
1 Guest(s)