The latter part of Brooks' book deals with the gamma Christians i.e. the Gnostic group. They offered another way to salvation. Theirs was through a special knowledge, not from good works (alpha) nor from sacrificial atonement (beta). This was especially strong in early second century and again in the 3rd century in some who objected to the Trinity Doctrine had been recently codified. They could not logically grasp how a Father and Son could both exist eternally simultaneously (the construct in the Nicene Creed). The Son from the Father also implied a more human Jesus--also an alpha Christian concept. These anti-trinity believers were banished outside the Roman Empire but persisted and reemerged in the Reformation and even exist today (e.g. modern Unitarian-Universalist Church).
While Brooks says his book is not a history book but rather a philology work, he paints a vivid historical sweep of Jesus' ministry, his death, and subsequent events. We see the changes in writing that take Jesus from being human calling for a return to God (Mark) to Jesus being recognize before his ministry with special birth (Matthew and Luke) to his being the same as God (John). The more simple Christian sect is seen in early Mark, the Epistle of James, and the Didache. Paul in his writings brings in the atonement understanding and Jesus dying for salvation and his resurrection as assurance for His followers. The Canon contains evidence of struggles between the two groups to sway people from the other group even to the point of usurping the other's text by interpolations.
----the Bishop
----the Bishop
