Before the Coming of the Mammonites

[MarjaE]

So what can we know about early Christianity, and working from that and from the development of other religious movements, about the teachings of Iesus?

I assume that most of the sayings which the gospels attribute to Iesus come from Iesus, but that some of the sayings are distorted. Mark and Q are relatively early, but Mark isn’t much use as a biography. None of the gospels provide an adequate account of the events at the temple, leading to the crucifixion.

It should be possible to get some idea of the variety of early Christian views, from the variety of early Christian texts ranging from Mark, to Thomas, to Paul, to Revalation.

It might be possible to compare the trajectories of better-documented religious movements, to determine if it’s possible to work backwards…

Since I can’t read Koine or Hebrew or Aramaic, I can’t even begin my own research, but what’s a good overview of the existing scholarly research?

[Ignatius]

I’d start with some Bart Ehrman. His work is very Lay friendly. I haven’t read this particular one myself, but it looks like Jesus Before the Gospels: How the Earliest Christians Remembered, Changed, and Invented Their Stories of the Savior may have what you’re looking for.