Freshman Theology
Mr. Bart Geger, SJ
November 1997
Notes on Scripture and Tradition
How Were the Christian Scriptures Formed?
1. The Historical Jesus (what Zanzig calls "Events" on p. 184).
Jesus walked the earth for about thirty years (4 B.C.?--29 A.D.?) Thousands of people remembered what he said and did, especially during the last three years of his life, when he did his public teaching. Jesus repeated the same parables and teachings (like the Beatitudes) over and over, so it was possible for his followers to remember accurately what he said.
2. The Oral Tradition (see Zanzig, p. 184).
The twelve apostles and hundreds of other believers who had seen and heard Jesus, passed on his teachings by word of mouth. This oral tradition has continued for two thousand years. After all, you became a Christian because your parents told you about Jesus--not because you read about Christianity in a book!
The first Christians didn't write it down immediately for three reasons: most people at this time were illiterate (unable to read or write), papyrus (ancient paper) was expensive, and the early Christians believed Jesus was coming back right away.
3. Written pieces (see Zanzig, p. 186, top)
Short snippets of Jesus' teachings were written down by various Christians around the Roman Empire. For example, some Christians wrote down the Beatitudes, other Christians wrote down the "Our Father," and still others wrote down the story of Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection. Thus, before the Gospels were written, thousands of little fragments were passed around to Christians living in the Roman Empire.
Most scholars believe that most of these fragments were eventually collected and written down on one huge document, which they call "Q" (from the German word Quelle which means "source"). Archaeologists hope to find a copy of Q, but so far, no luck.
4. The Gospels were written (what Zanzig calls "Edited books" on p. 186).
Around the year 65-70 A.D., an early Christian wrote an entire gospel about the life and teachings of Jesus, using information from Q, plus other information about Jesus which he already knew. Today we call this gospel the Gospel of Mark. About ten years later, the Gospels of Matthew and Luke were written. For sources, their authors used the Gospel of Mark, Q, plus their own knowledge of Jesus. Around the year 90 A.D. someone wrote the Gospel of John. This person used Q, but did not copy anything from the other three gospels which were already written.
The real people Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John might not have written these gospels. It's possible that, after Jesus was gone, that these Christians had students of their own, whom they taught about Jesus, and that these students wrote the four gospels. Nobody knows for sure!
More than four gospels were written! Many gospels were written, although not all of them gave accurate information about Jesus. Therefore, as time went on, the bishops of the Church gradually decided which gospels were accurate and which ones weren't. The four they chose were the ones we have today.
5. Canonical Status (see Zanzig, p. 187)
The word canon means the official list of holy books for a certain religion. For example, the Catholic Canon contains 27 books in the New Testament, which the Church says are the "official" books and letters of the New Testament. These 27 books and letters first appear as one set in 120 A.D., but the Magisterium did not declare them the "official" books and letters until the Council of Trent, which was much later. (Before the Council of Trent, the Magisterium took it for granted that these 27 books belonged in the N. T., but then Martin Luther wanted to throw out the Letter of James. To stop this, the Magisterium declared the Letter of James an official part of the N. T.)