Lecture 6: The Diversity of Early Christianity
o The memories of Jesus’s statements and deeds were, in all
likelihood, transmitted orally in specific social contexts (worship,
teaching) in the form of individual units, called “pericopes.”o Stages of composition probably preceded the writing of full
narratives. The Passion account (from Jesus’s arrest to his
burial) probably reached set form first.o It is possible that a collection of Jesus’s sayings was also
gathered. Scholars hypothesize a source, called Q, whose
material is found in Matthew and Luke.• The best explanation for the appearance of written narratives after
generations of oral tradition is a convergence of historical factors
around the year 70.
o The death of eyewitnesses (often by martyrdom), such as
Peter, James, and John, meant that the oral tradition lost
important controls.o The destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in the Jewish War
against Rome meant the loss of the Jerusalem community,
as well as the symbolic center for the movement in
Jesus’s homeland.o The rapid increase of Gentile conversions meant that Greco-
Roman more than Jewish perceptions would be at work
among believers.o The threat was that the meaning of Jesus’s words, actions,
and story could be lost with the loss of the Palestinian Jewish
context. Writing them in the form of a narrative served to
stabilize the tradition.• Despite obvious literary similarities to other ancient Greco-
Roman and Jewish narratives, the Gospels share certain distinctive
characteristics. Most important is the nature of memory found in
them. The Resurrection is not simply an event at the end of the