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  • 8 - The emergence of the written record

  • from Part III - Community Traditions and Self-Definition
  • Edited by Margaret M. Mitchell, University of Chicago, Frances M. Young, University of Birmingham
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Christianity
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    19 January 2006, pp 175-194

  • Summary

    The first followers of Jesus of Nazareth had turned to their 'scriptures', the sacred texts of Judaism in the Hebrew and Greek languages, and sought to explain the Jesus whom they had come to know by what they found there. The first element in the establishment of the Christian 'written record' was the singularly most significant decision to carry out Christian literary activity under the umbrella of the Torah, the prophets and the writings. This chapter discusses the letters of Paul, Gospel literature, and fourfold gospel. Early Christian literary culture was initially carried out within the lexical field, world-view and theological presuppositions of the scriptures of Israel, predominantly as known in the Greek translation called the Septuagint. The pseudepigraphical Pauline letters draw upon the original letters and 'update' and refine them to suit later circumstances. The chapter includes Christian gospel literature of John, Luke, Matthew and Mark.