They would have been burning

the "heretical" versions of written impressions about this character.

Remember ...

He was entirely an ANTICIPATED figure. You can see that all through the NTestament (except for the 4 Gospels and a wee bit at the beginning of Acts).

He was anticipated, based on hope and based on interpretation of OTestament scriptures which were perceived WITHIN their hope.

The NTestament epistles never Once talk about his returning; they always talk about his appearing or being revealed.

And the NTestament writings never refer to the Gospels as a source. They refer to OTestament writings.

But ...

As people do, when they anticipate and concentrate on their anticipation ...

MANY of them started to FIND their own Jesus characters! There were something like 52 "gospels" written on Jesus.

The problem with these "first hand accounts" is that they didn't jibe or agree with each other. That caused some "concern" amongst the church elite. They had to round up all the gospels/stories and DESTROY them -save for the ones which- supported their own viewpoint/doctrine. They settled on 4 "best of" versions and presented those 4 ... and even then, the 4 contradict each other considerably.

You can see a similar pattern occurring today amongst the "knowing" new age or UFO believers. They have some remarkable knowledge! The problem is ... their knowledge doesn't correlate well with other experts' knowledge ... and so they remain (quite a bit) ... in disagreement on their "facts."

-Vince