Introduction to the Gospels & Acts | 1603
found useful this bound version , called a codex , because it allowed for more material to be included in one volume without making it too cumbersome .
Writing material was expensive ; for example , a copy of the Gospel of Mark may have required the equivalent early twenty-first-century buying power of $ 1000 – $ 2000 U . S . Most people thus could not own their own copies of books . In fact , most would not have needed these copies anyway , since most people were either illiterate or only semiliterate . Although inscriptions were posted in cities with the assumption that many people could understand at least some writing , illiteracy was high . It was highest among women ( due to the practices of ancient education ) and in rural areas , but even many urban-dwelling men could not read , especially a work as long and detailed as a Gospel .
Most people thus heard the Gospels rather than read them for themselves . ( That is why this study Bible ’ s notes usually speak of the Gospels ’ first audience or hearers rather than their first readers .) They might hear an entire Gospel read during a church meeting , which was typically an intimate gathering in the home of one of the believers . Because many were accustomed to listening intently to stories or speeches , they would be able to follow the stories carefully . Hearing the accounts over and over , they would quickly learn much of the material by heart . Additionally , most people could not unroll multiple scrolls trying to find related passages ; rather , they often quoted from memory from many different Biblical books .
Some books in antiquity were sold in book markets , but books achieved their greatest circulation when given public readings or especially when read at banquets . Persons of means who liked a book they heard could have a scribe write out a new copy for them . Because early Christians met around the Lord ’ s Supper , they also had a banquet setting for the reading of the Gospels . The most familiar form of public reading for them , however , would have been the use of Scripture in the synagogues . Already in the second century , Christians read apostolic works as Scripture alongside the Old Testament .
Authorship of the Gospels
By the standards used to evaluate ancient works ’ authorship , the traditions of the Gospels ’ authorship are very early . This is not surprising , given the amount of work represented by each of the Gospels . Works such as the Gospels normally would require careful writing and revision , then oral presentation and further revision based on feedback .
Works as large as these were major literary undertakings , requiring so much papyrus that in terms of early twenty-first-century buying power the larger Gospels may have been worth thousands of U . S . dollars , as suggested earlier . They were not as large as elite , multivolume historical works , but were nevertheless larger works than the vast majority of people could hope to afford .
Normally in antiquity readers knew who produced such major works , whether by information on the outside of the scroll or by knowledge circulated only by word of mouth . In a work this size , authorship would be one of the last details forgotten .
Moreover , had the church in fact forgotten the authorship of the Gospels , the traditions about their authorship would likely look very different . Second-century churches in different parts of the Roman Empire would likely have come up with different speculations about authorship , probably often preferring the names of apostles favored by their own locales . Instead , the early churches throughout the Empire settled on the same authors for the Gospels ( Matthew , Mark , Luke and John ). Moreover , if the church were inventing names for authors , non-apostles such as Mark and Luke make little sense .
These observations suggest that the traditions about the different Gospels ’ authorship are very early , as Martin Hengel argued . These traditions may offer more compelling evidence for some Gospels ( such as Luke ) than for others ( such as Matthew ), but on the whole they are stronger than many critics recognize . For Christians , of course , what matters most is not the tradition of human authorship , but our confidence that God speaks to us through these texts , and that they preserve the voice of our Lord Jesus Christ . ◆