I've been looking at early Christianity, and although we seem to have many copies of early writings in the New Testament, we have nothing before that or earlier. I'm just wandering if there is any specific reason for that (Mass destruciton of text), or if it's just unlucky!
Many thanks
If I understand your question correctly, I think you are asking why we don’t have sources for 1st generation Christianity?
The earliest sources we have are from Paul, which is c.50-55 CE. The fact we have a source so close to the death of Jesus is actually remarkable. Historians often have to work with much less. Paul’s writing tell us a lot about the first generation because Paul tells us about discussions he is having with James and Peter. So that is, in fact, a primary sources to conversations with first the first generation.
During Jesus time his followers most likely did not write his sayings down as this was an oral ministers with him travelling around and speaking and also his disciples such as James, Peter and even Mary Magdalena, also taking turns to speak and spread his message. This was an oral society and verbally hearing wise-men speak was the equivalent of our watching the news, or political debates and discussions on telly. There was no need for text/writing things down.
Another source we have for the period are Jewish writings. Don’t forget Jesus snd his followers were Jewish, so texts they found important were the Hebrew bible texts. For the first generation these were the holy words.
Jesus and his followers did not think they were creating a new religion. They were doing what many first century Jews did in the period - discuss the bible, the holy writings and try to get their version of the ‘correct’ way to follow the laws were. Just like rabbis do today and have been doing for the last 2,000 years. Without a centralised Jewish authority telling the people the ‘right’ way to worship, there was a gap for grassroots discussions. Discussions such as: when can you harvest corn, when does water stop being pure and so on. And many of Jesus’s subsequent sayings that were written down were exactly about those issues. Jesus was not the only person to discuss these things. Many people were. Including the Pharisees, the Sadducees and the Essenes.
Once Jesus died early Christians (who were not actually Christians but actually Jesus-following Jews) started to spread the world of Jesus’s words, actions and resurrection orally. Don’t forget, the majority of people at the time did not read, so stories were passed orally. These testimonies by first generation Christians, of Jesus’s sayings, actions and so on were eventually written down. Initially by Mark, at around 70 CE (which is only 40 years after the events - which in terms of historical sources is pretty close). Then Mathew and Luke shortly after.
To summarise, there are no text sources from 28 -50 CE -during Jesus ministers and directly after because Jesus was not starting a new religion, texts that were written down and kept by the Jesus sect were texts from the Hebrew bible, society was oral. Text surviving from c.50 CE is actually very close to events in terms of historical sources and reliability.
I hope that has answers your question somewhat?