Freddy, it did take centuries to work out fundamental Christian doctrine. In fact, Christianity is still quite diverse, with different factions of the church in fundamental disagreement about all sorts of issues! The first Christians were not even Christians; they were Jews, as was Jesus. It took several centuries for people who were struck by Jesus' message to teach and pass along the message, and gather more adherents. During those centuries, factions fought bitterly, the sect within Judaism which followed Jesus broke away bitterly, and there was a lot of carnage, really. Edicts of Toleration? That's sort of funny!! Everyone was fighting, slaying the Gnostic Christians and arguing about almost everything Jesus said, trying to decide which gospels were appropriate to include in the growing body of writings about Christ, etc.
These scholars are discussing Gnosticism, the "wildly diverse" early Christian beliefs, and the archaeological finds at Nag Hammadi. Do you disagree with all of this, or just part of it? How is your information more accurate than this body of scholarship?
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