andrew of caesarea and the apocalypse in the ancient church of the ...

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tradition remained even well after written gospels existed and the présence of floating
logia in the second century Fathers confirais the continuing rich oral tradition of the "words
of the Lord."
Until the end of the second century, the term "Scriptures," referred exclusively to the
Jewish scriptures. Just as they had been the sole Scriptures for Christ and the apostles they
remained the only Holy Scripture of the Church for many décades. Christ himself had quoted
them, appealed to them, interpreted them and, most of ail, fulfilled them. The Law and the
Prophets had been normative for so long that it was difficult to conceive of any other writings
achieving such high status. Although it appears that Christian documents were read within
the context of Christian worship services by the early second century, another hundred years
passed before they were recognized as possessing a level of authority that placed them on par
with the Old Testament.
Christian writings were clearly subordinate to the revered Jewish Scriptures, writings
which the Church had appropriated as its own. Scripture was sacrosanct. Scripture was
unalterable. Scripture was holy. Even the four gospels — while respected as "the memoirs of
the apostles" 99 were not truly considered Holy Scripture in this highest and most définitive
sensé until the end of the second century. 100 The earliest évidence supporting this conclusion
can be found within the gospels themselves. The evangelists themselves and their disciples
never thought of either their own writings or the earlier sources they relied upon for their
gospels as Scripture. Our présent gospels are the products of a certain amount of editorial
Eusebius records Papias as writing in Papias' no longer extant work Exposition of Dominical Oracles: "I do
not suppose that information from books would help me so much as the word of a living and surviving voice."
E.H. 3.39.3-4. Eusebius, The Ecclesiastical History (2 vols.), trans. Kirsopp Lake (vol. 1) and J.E.L. Oulton
(vol. 2), Loeb Classical Library séries, vols. 153 and 265 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1926, 1932,
reprint 1998, 1994), 1:293. See Harry Gamble who comments that the same sentiments were also found in
pagan literature and cites L. Alexander "The Living Voice: Skepticism towards the Written Word in early
Christian and in Graeco-Roman Texts," in The Bible in Three Dimensions, éd. D.J.A. Clines (Sheffield: JSOT
Press, 1990), 221-247. Harry Gamble, Books and Readers in the Early Church: A History of Early Christian
Texts, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995), 31-32. Gamble believes that Papias seems to be stating a
préférence for first-hand information and personal instruction, and was not necessarily disparaging the written
word.
19 Justin Martyr, First Apology 67.3. Justin Martyr, The First Apology, trans. M. Dods and G. Reith, The
Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus, eds. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson. Ante-Nicene
Fathers séries, vol. I (Grand Rapids: Wm B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, reprinted 1989), 186.
100
One hint of this fact is that the term "New Testament" first appears around this time, placing Christian
writings on par with the Jewish Scriptures. The term was coined by an unknown author writing against the
Montanists in 192 CE. He was quoted by Eusebius Ecclesiastical History 5.16.3.