Christianity-Early Years Documents and Images

The Gospels of the Nazoreans, the Ebionites, and the Egyptians

Selections from the Gospel of Thomas

A fascinating tale of a non-martyr heroine

Plotinus, a neo-Platonic philospher, provides in these excerpts a view of the origin of the cosmos, and of the return of humans to their origin.

A brief collection of legislation by Christian Emperors on the Jews.

The figure of Simon, known from Acts of the Apostles, is made into the first of the heresies by Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons, writing at the end of the second century CE.

One of the first Christian theologians, writing in the mid second century CE.

Origen, the first greata systematic theologian, sets forth his method, and discusses some topics which would later have him condemned as a heretic

This beautiful hymn, found in the Acts of Thomas, reveals classic folktale form, but with motifs which could be considered 'gnostic.'

A lovely collecton of early Christian hymns, written in Syriac, from the second (?) century

This speech was delivered in 336 CE by a Christian bishop on the occasion of Constantine's 30th anniversary

One of the earliest saints' lives, which was to have tremendous influence.

A fascinating holy man text from 5th century CE

Some of the correspondence between Nestorius and Cyril, including Cyril's famous 12 Anathemas