WHY were the writings destroyed?

It's standard operating procedure for all governments in all eras to stamp out "seditious" literature. 

Who says they were sought out and destroyed, maybe they never existed in the first place. Maybe they are a complete fabrication. Even if you accept that there were so called 'signature' writings, the so called 'NEW Testament' was written at least 200 years after the event, that makes it HEARSAY, not generally admissable in a court of law even, and yet here we go, on something we call 'FAITH', we accept anything. YHWH Elohim is our saviour, our redeemer, the one who blotteth out our sins, why invent a replacement 'god'. ..........zaq, a follower of true scripture.

Zaq, you might be right, but there are manuscripts that were written during the first centuries BC and BCE, which corresponds to the atmosphere and values expressed in the New Testament.

There were the Qumran scrolls, the Nag Hammadi codeces  and maybe there are others as well.

Sarina, forgive my delay in responding, I didn't see your reply. I note that you have an interest in Judaism, & therefore will be trying to make sense of the whole NT thing, at least for curiosities sake if nothing else. Don't bother, but rather look to your own people to see what they have done. They have added to scripture ( ie the Talmud & traditions ), rather than following scripture ( Tenach ) as delivered to Moshe, and as it was from the beginning. The Jews have made the same mistake as the 'christians' by seeking other gods. I am not judging you in this matter, though I probably presume too much, forgive me if this is so. I consider myself of the Hebrew family, by descent, and a spiritually adopted child of YHWH, as such, I have no need to create new gods - ie 'jesus'. Indeed this would be a sin. The idea that that "no man comes to the Father except through me" is rediculous. As Voltaire wrote.... "If god has created us in his image, we have returned the favour" I don't know what texts you are referring too, so I cannot comment, save to say that no one has the slightest physical evidence to support a historical jesus; no artifacts, dwellings, works of carpentry, or self written manuscripts. All claims about jesus derive from writings of other people. There is no contemporary Roman record that shows Pontious Pilate executing a man named Jesus. Not one single contemporary writing that mentions jesus, All documents about him were written well after his alleged life from either: unknown authors, people who never met an earthly jesus, or from fraudulent, mythical or allegorical writings. Hearsay in other words, information derived from other people rather than on a witness' own knowledge. Hearsay doesn't work as evidence because we have no way of knowing whether the person lies, or simply bases his or her information on wrongful belief or bias. I could go on. in YHWH, ZAQ

If you invented a way for cars to run on water alone and you could do it for one fourth of what cars cost now, and big oil and the top auto makers killed you because they saw you and your invention as a threat, what do you think they would do with anything that was written down?

Get the picture?