Jesus: Man, Messenger, Messiah · 1. Beginnings of Christian Scripture

Christianity began as a religion of the book

In short

1.Paul's letters are situational documents written to specific churches about specific disputes.
2.They were read aloud to largely illiterate congregations, then copied and passed on.
3.No author of a New Testament book knew he was writing 'the New Testament'.
4.The collection took shape over roughly three centuries of use, argument and selection.

The claim being examined

The New Testament is often imagined as a single volume delivered to the early Church.

The Islamic position

The Qur'an was recited, memorised and written in the Prophet's lifetime under his supervision; the New Testament writings were occasional letters and narratives circulated among scattered congregations.

Analysis

Chapter 1 sets out how central texts became to Christian identity — more so than to any other religion of the Roman world — while simultaneously showing how uncontrolled their earliest circulation was. Letters were carried by hand, copied by whoever in a congregation could write, and read aloud in assembly. There was no scriptorium, no authorised exemplar and no mechanism for checking a copy against the author's original.

From the Qur'an

Q 5:48

وَأَنزَلْنَآ إِلَيْكَ ٱلْكِتَٰبَ بِٱلْحَقِّ مُصَدِّقًا لِّمَا بَيْنَ يَدَيْهِ مِنَ ٱلْكِتَٰبِ وَمُهَيْمِنًا عَلَيْهِ

And We have revealed to you the Book in truth, confirming what came before it and as a criterion over it.

From the Bible

Colossians 4:16

Greek: anagnosthe

And when this letter has been read among you, have it read also in the church of the Laodiceans.

Read it in their Bible

Sources

Bart D. Ehrman · Bart D. Ehrman, *Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why* (HarperSanFrancisco, 2005), ch. 1 'The Beginnings of Christian Scripture', pp. 17-25

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