All the earliest writings were letters written to various Churches...and all are acceptably agreed to have been written between 45AD and 140AD.Letters written to churches by said apostles, not that long after Jesus' death?
That however does not mean that these letters were not altered over time to include an icon to which could be used to convert the masses...many early writings did not even mention a Jesus...or in many cases mentions him in a very different light...I posted some on your site not long ago.
eg. Taitian the Assyrian [AD 110–172.] a student of Justin Martyr refers to Jesus as the Logos.
Athenagoras, was an Athenian philosopher who had embraced Christianity, and that his Apology, or, as he styles it, "Embassy" (presbeia), was presented to the Emperors Aurelius and Commodus about a.d. 177.
partial quote
A Plea For the Christians
By Athenagoras the Athenian: Philosopher and Christian
To the Emperors Marcus Aurelius Anoninus and Lucius Aurelius Commodus, conquerors of Armenia and Sarmatia, and more than all, philosophers.
Injustice Shown Towards the Christians.
In your empire, greatest of sovereigns, different nations have different customs and laws; and no one is hindered by law or fear of punishment from following his ancestral usages, however ridiculous these may be. A citizen of Ilium calls Hector a god, and pays divine honours to Helen, taking her for Adrasteia. The Lacedæmonian venerates Agamemnon as Zeus, and Phylono� the daughter of Tyndarus; and the man of Tenedos worships Tennes. [699] The Athenian sacrifices to Erechtheus as Poseidon. The Athenians also perform religious rites and celebrate mysteries in honour of Agraulus and Pandrosus, women who were deemed guilty of impiety for opening the box. In short, among every nation and people, men offer whatever sacrifices and celebrate whatever mysteries they please. The Egyptians reckon among their gods even cats, and crocodiles, and serpents, and asps, and dogs. And to all these both you and the laws give permission so to act, deeming, on the one hand, that to believe in no god at all is impious and wicked, and on the other, that it is necessary for each man to worship the gods he prefers, in order that through fear of the deity, men may be kept from wrong-doing. But why--for do not, like the multitude, be led astray by hearsay--why is a mere name odious to you? [700] Names are not deserving of hatred: it is the unjust act that calls for penalty and punishment. And accordingly, with admiration of your mildness and gentleness, and your peaceful and benevolent disposition towards every man, individuals live in the possession of equal rights; and the cities, according to their rank, share in equal honour; and the whole empire, under your intelligent sway, enjoys profound peace. But for us who are called Christians [701] you have not in like manner cared; but although we commit no wrong--nay, as will appear in the sequel of this discourse, are of all men most piously and righteously disposed towards the Deity and towards your government--you allow us to be harassed, plundered, and persecuted, the multitude making war upon us for our name alone. We venture, therefore, to lay a statement of our case before you--and you will team from this discourse that we suffer unjustly, and contrary to all law and reason--and we beseech you to bestow some consideration upon us also, that we may cease at length to be slaughtered at the instigation of false accusers. For the fine imposed by our persecutors does not aim merely at our property, nor their insults at our reputation, nor the damage they do us at any other of our greater interests. These we hold in contempt, though to the generality they appear matters of great importance; for we have learned, not only not to return blow for blow, nor to go to law with those who plunder and rob us, but to those who smite us on one side of the face to offer the other side also, and to those who take away our coat to give likewise our cloak. But, when we have surrendered our property, they plot against our very bodies and souls, [702] pouring upon us wholesale charges of crimes of which we are guiltless even in thought, but which belong to these idle praters themselves, and to the whole tribe of those who are like them.
this letter to the Emperors Marcus Aurelius Anoninus and Lucius Aurelius Commodus is more than 30 chapters long...and never mentions the name Jesus once.
Chapter 4. The Christians are Not Atheists, But Acknowledge One Only God.
As regards, first of all, the allegation that we are atheists— for I will meet the charges one by one, that we may not be ridiculed for having no answer to give to those who make them— with reason did the Athenians adjudge Diagoras guilty of atheism, in that he not only divulged the Orphic doctrine, and published the mysteries of Eleusis and of the Cabiri, and chopped up the wooden statue of Hercules to boil his turnips, but openly declared that there was no God at all. But to us, who distinguish God from matter, and teach that matter is one thing and God another, and that they are separated by a wide interval (for that the Deity is uncreated and eternal, to be beheld by the understanding and reason alone, while matter is created and perishable), is it not absurd to apply the name of atheism? If our sentiments were like those of Diagoras, while we have such incentives to piety— in the established order, the universal harmony, the magnitude, the colour, the form, the arrangement of the world— with reason might our reputation for impiety, as well as the cause of our being thus harassed, be charged on ourselves. But, since our doctrine acknowledges one God, the Maker of this universe, who is Himself uncreated (for that which is does not come to be, but that which is not) but has made all things by the Logos which is from Him, we are treated unreasonably in both respects, in that we are both defamed and persecuted.
So..it's curious as to why some early writings mention Jesus and some don't...equally curious is how in many cases Jesus is seen as god's logos.
