In “The Early Christian Preference for the Codex,” by Larry Hurtado and in “The Conversion of Christianity,” by Peter Brown, both authors aim to educate a specific audience about the social and cultural aspects of the rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire, using different styles and approaches to effectively inform their readers.

Larry Hurtado’s paper focuses on a more specific topic than Brown’s, as he discusses the Christians’ inclinations towards codices rather than scrolls as the favored method in recording sacred writings. In contrast to Hurtado, Peter Brown has not just one intended purpose in his paper. Brown’s work covers a broader topic and includes many significant historical events and figures during the rise of Christianity. The audience Hurtado addresses does not have any prior knowledge on the subject, therefore it is necessary for him to include other sources and quantitative data to support his credibility. For example, he states, “G.H.R. Horsley proposed that a combination of factors disposed early Christians to favor the codex. Contending that in the early centuries Christians were largely from social levels with limited educational attainment, he suggested that they were more accustomed to the codex because of its use in elementary schooling and in day-to-day business dealings…”(Hurtado 68). Brown speaks to a more educated audience which is better prepared for the information that is being presented to them. As a result, Brown utilizes terms such as “aggiornamento” and “razzias,” assuming the audience understands what he is saying and does not further explain a concept or term in detail. Brown also never cites any sources and has no footnotes. He speaks purely from personal knowledge and opinion, whereas Hurtado provides a source and then uses his opinion to either expand on an idea or disprove it. He says, “Several proposals about the supposed practical advantages of the codex were subjected to a rather rigorous critique by Roberts and Skeat, and I need not do more here than summarize the results and add a few comments of my own”(Hurtado 63-64). In terms of visual aid, Peter Brown embeds pictures to help the readers visualize the time period. But Larry Hurtado presents his statistics with pie charts and bar graphs at the end in order to redirect the reader’s focus to just analyzing the data when it is represented on its own.