Preface

These volumes, which are complete in themselves as a series of studies on a specific body of tradition, are intended to eventually contribute to the path toward solving the immense problems involved in the scientific study of the origins of the Christian faith. They could perhaps be described as a preparation of materials for the historical, mythic, and mystic consideration of the origins of Christianity. In this context, the term "mythic" is used in its true sense—referring to inner, symbolic, sacred, and "logical" truths—as opposed to the external sequence of physical events known as "historic." Similarly, the term "mystic" is used to describe anything pertaining to spiritual initiation and the ancient mysteries The "mysteries" were secret religious rites of the Greco-Roman world into which only initiates were admitted to learn sacred knowledge..

I hope that a serious consideration of the information contained in these pages will enable the attentive reader to visualize, however vaguely, some small part of the environment of early Christianity, and allow them to take a few steps around the metaphorical cradle of the Christian world original: "Christendom".

Although we have tested the external facts of the material we collected to the best of our ability using the methods of scholarship and criticism, we have also freely allowed it to show its own outward...