This book explores the emergence of the first bible, with particular focus on second-century Scripture, the earliest New Testament, and the canon formation process. The fourth-century Codex Sinaiticus, which contains the earliest extant complete New Testament, is used as a template to detect textual features of second- to fourth-century scripturality. What does this luxury manuscript, kept at the British Library, reveal about Christianity’s literary journey from oral gospel message to canonical text? What does it tell us about nascent Christianity as a “bookish” religious movement? A wide range of textual-interpretative, ritual, and paratextual aspects of the Christian Scriptures are discussed throughout the book as well as their impact on the wider Roman and Medieval literary cultures, and beyond.
Introduction; From Gospel Message to Gospel Text; Second-Century Scripturality: Text, Ritual and Interpretation; Towards a Bookish Christian Culture; The New Book Format – Triggering a Media Revolution; Second-Century Scriptures among “Orthodox” and “Heterodox”; Regulating the Faith: Scripture and Rule of Faith; Emerging Christian Scriptoria – Five Features of Standardization; The New Testament Canon Formation: Three Classic Views; The Bible Canon and Its Significance; From Past to Present: Biblical Texts and their Significance
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