Early groups of Christians possessed many sacred texts. Their religious material included letters, gospels, acts, manuals, epistles, hymns, apocalyptic literature, and treatises and were as diverse as the people who possessed them and the times and cultures in which they lived. Some of these writings made it into the New Testament canon; others were rejected, suppressed, and destroyed. Through the process of selection over many years, the documents collected into the canon offered a particular view of Christianity, but there were other documents and other views as well.