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Keep several things in mind when you consider the map above:
- As far as we can tell, no early Christians
every referred to themselves with these labels. They called themselves
"Christians." Only their opponents called them by these other names.
(One possible exception: the term gnostikoi, or "ones in the know," may have originated as an in-group label, although probably modifying "Christian.")
- Ancient heresiologists (writers against heresy) were eager to pin
heresies on "founders," individuals who were "responsible" for the
wrong teaching. Why would this be a persuasive way to argue against
these modes of being Christian?
- The geographic spread of these Christian movements is vast: there
is no corner of the Roman Empire that did not produce some variant form
of Christianity. Why is there no "origin point" for orthodoxy?