What does it look like to read the texts we now call the gospels like first- and second-century readers? There is no evidence of anyone regarding the gospel as a book published by an author until the end of the second century. So, put differently, what does it mean to read the gospels "before the book"? For centuries, the ways people discuss the gospels have been shaped by later ideas that have more to do with the printing press and modern notions of the author than ancient writing and reading practices. In Gospels before the Book, Matthew D. C. Larsen challenges several subtle yet problematic assumptions about authors, books, and publication at work in early Christian studies. He then explores a host of under-appreciated elements of ancient textual culture such as unfinished texts, accidental publication, post-publication revision, and the existence of multiple authorized versions of the same work. Turning to the gospels, he argues that the earliest readers and users of the text we now call the Gospel according to Mark treated it not as a book published by an author, but as an unfinished, open, and fluid collection of notes (hypomnmata). In such a scenario, the Gospel according to Matthew would not be regarded as a separate book published by a different author, but as a continuation of the same unfinished gospel tradition. Similarly it is not the case that, of the five different endings in the textual tradition we now call the Gospel according to Mark, one is "right" and the others are "wrong." Rather each represents its own effort to fill a perceived deficiency in the gospel. Larsen offers a new methodological framework for future scholarship on early Christian gospels.

"But the Bible says" is a common enough refrain in many conversations about Christianity. The written verses of the four canonical Gospels are sometimes volleyed back and forth and taken as fact while the apocryphal and oral accounts of the life of Jesus are taken as mere oddities. Early thinkers inside and outside the community of Jesus-followers similarly described a contentious relationship between the oral and the written, though they often focused on the challenges of trusting the written word over the spoken-Socrates described the written word an illegitimate "bastard" compared to the spoken word of a teacher. Nevertheless, the written accounts of the Jesus tradition in the Gospels have taken a far superior position in the Christian faith to any oral tradition. In The Gospel as Manuscript, Chris Keith offers a new material history of the Jesus tradition's journey from voice to page, showing that the introduction of manuscripts played an underappreciated, but crucial, role in the reception history of the gospel. From the textualization of Mark in the first century CE until the eventual usage of liturgical readings as a marker of authoritative status in the second and third centuries, early followers of Jesus placed the gospel-as-manuscript on display by drawing attention to the written nature of their tradition. Many authors of Gospels saw themselves in competition with other evangelists, working to establish their texts as the quintessential Gospel. Reading the texts aloud in liturgical settings and further establishedthe literary tradition in material culture. Revealing a vibrant period of competitive development of the Jesus tradition, wherein the material status of the tradition frequently played as important a role as the ideas that it contained, Keith offers a thorough consideratios of the competitive textualization and public reading of the Gospels.

This volume presents a detailed case for the plausible literary dependence of the Gospel of Mark on select letters of the apostle Paul. The book argues that Mark and Paul share a gospel narrative that tells the story of the life, death, resurrection, and second coming of Jesus Christ "in accordance with the scriptures," and it suggests that Mark presumed Paul and his mission to be constitutive episodes of that story. It contends that Mark self-consciously sought to anticipate the person, teachings, and mission of Paul by constructing narrative precursors concordant with the eventual teachings of the itinerant apostle–a process Ferguson labels Mark’s ‘etiological hermeneutic.’ The book focuses in particular on the various (re)presentations of Christ’s death that Paul believed occurred within his communities—Christ's death performed in ritual, prefigured in scripture, and embodied within Paul’s person—and it argues that these are all seeded within and anticipated by Mark’s narrative. Through careful argument and detailed analysis, A New Perspective on the Use of Paul in the Gospel of Mark makes a substantial contribution to the ongoing debate about the dependence of Mark on Paul. It is key reading for any scholar engaged in that debate, and the insights it provides will be of interest to anyone studying the Synoptic Gospels or the epistles of Paul more generally.

Valuable tools for study or scholarship. Taking a telescopic view of the Bible, Exploring the Old Testament Book by Book and Exploring the New Testament Book by Book enable readers to see the big picture behind this Book of books, to see how the various parts of Scripture relate to one another. These volumes from gifted expositor John Phillips teaches the importance of taking a few steps back from Scripture in order to gain fresh insight into the message, meaning, and art of the Bible.

In this book prominent biblical scholars engage with Francis Watson's most striking arguments on the creation of the gospels. Their contributions focus in particular on his argument for a fourfold gospel rather than four separate gospels, his argument against Q but for an early sayings collection, and on the larger landscape of Jesus studies, gospel reception and interpretation The contributors ask whether, and in what ways, Watson's reorientation of gospel studies is successful, and explore its implications for research. Leading scholars including Jens Schröter, Margaret Mitchell, Richard Bauckham and many others provide a close critical and creative engagement with Watson's work. More than merely a critical review of Watson's writing, this book carries forward his work with fresh treatments and provides an essential volume for students and scholars seeking to understand the landscape of gospel studies and to explore new directions within it.

This volume examines a multitude of characters in Matthew's gospel and provides an in-depth look at the different approaches currently employed by scholars working with literary and reader-oriented methods. Beginning with an introduction on 'the properties of character' and the several aspects involved in the creation of person, the contributors provide a close reading of numerous characters and character types in the Gospel of Matthew. Including Mary, King Herod, John the Baptist, Jesus the Preacher, Jesus the Teacher, God the Father, the Roman Centurion, Peter, Women, Gentiles, Scribes and Pharisees, and Romans. Such close studies aid the understanding of different issues in Matthean characterization, while also charting the development of hermeneutical vistas that have developed in contemporary scholarship, resulting in a collection of exegetical character studies that are self-consciously working from a literary, narrative-critical, reader-oriented, or related methodology.

The liturgical year invites us to walk with Jesus through the most wonderful story ever told: the Gospel. In Through the Year with Jesus: Gospel Readings and Reflections for Children, catechist and popular blogger Katherine Bogner reveals the rich mystery of the seasons we celebrate in the Church. With Gospel readings for each week of the liturgical year, along with tools for reflection, discussion, and prayer, Through the Year with Jesus offers endless opportunities for discovering who Jesus is and better understanding Catholic teaching about his life and mission. Promote prayer and conversation about the life of Christ with children through Weekly readings from the Gospels Lectio Divina prompts to nurture personal prayer or journaling Sacred art to accompany the Gospel reading Stories of saints and many rich Catholic traditions for the liturgical year The easy-to-use format of Through the Year with Jesus helps adults lead children to an intimate encounter with the heart of Jesus through the rhythm of the liturgical year and the powerful words of Scripture.

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This book has been largely based upon some informal instruction which I have given to my pupils in Oxford. But I have endeavoured to make every chapter intelligible to readers who are unacquainted with Greek, the welcome which has been extended to my Books of the New Testament having proved to me that there are many persons who, whether they can read Greek or not, want to know the true history of the Gospels. It has been necessary to omit all discussion of many interesting questions. But, I trust that attention has been called to all the most vital, and especially to those which bear upon the Person and teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ. - From the Preface

How early Christian gospels were written is an old question that continues to engage scholars. Moving beyond the traditional approach of reading Luke as a "gentile" gospel composed primarily using Greco-Roman methods of history and biography writing, this book argues that Luke’s use of the earlier Gospel of Mark should be understood in the context of contemporaneous early Jewish writings known as "Rewritten Scripture." Texts like the Book of Jubilees and Josephus’s Antiquities interpret Scripture by rewriting it in such a way that ambiguities and contradictions are diminished, while also adapting it to contemporary beliefs and practices. A similar strategy of interpretation through rewriting best explains Luke’s reworking of Mark. Even if Mark is not yet "Scripture," Luke’s manner of rewriting Mark suggests that Luke views the earliest gospel as an authoritative narrative about Jesus that merits interpretive clarification and expansion rather than rejection or critique. This approach offers solutions to various "problems" in the composition of Luke, such as the combination of expansion and omission, verbatim repetition and free paraphrase, and it also places Luke’s compositional process within a plausible ancient literary context.