The victors not only write the history, they also reproduce the texts. Ehrman examines how early struggles between Christian 'heresy' and 'orthodoxy' affected the transmission of the documents over which, in part, the debates were waged. His thorough and incisive analysis makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the social and intellectual history of early Christianity. In addition, Ehrman raises intriguing questions about the relationship of readers to their texts, especially in an age when scribes could transform the documents they reproduced to make them say what they were already thought to mean, thereby effecting the orthodox corruption of Scripture.
