The Origins of Early Christian Literature

'This breathtakingly original excavation of the hidden ideological commitments of New Testament scholarship challenges many of the dominant assumptions about how and for whom early Christian texts were written. Walsh's lucid prose and polymathic command of classics, literary theory, and modern history is not only essential reading for students of the Gospels, but a field-shaking intervention in how we think about the production of early Christian literature in general.' Candida Moss, Edward Cadbury Professor of Theology, University of Birmingham 'The Origins of Early Christian Literature turns a century of New Testament scholarship on its head. Setting the gospels in their proper literary context, Robyn Walsh calmly dismantles naive, romantic notions that are immersed in an anachronistic 'oral tradition' paradigm. Lucid, provocative, and compelling, this book is essential reading for anyone interested in Christian origins.' Marc Goodacre, Frances Hill Fox Professor of Religious Studies, Duke University 'Scholars of New Testament and early Christianity usually assume unidirectional influence: the writers of the New Testament borrow from their cultural context, but do not really impact it. Walsh's analysis instead opens up the question of whether stories about Jesus were productive in a competitive market of story-telling, inspiring others to interlard resurrections and miracles into their own writing. She brings an impressively broad bibliography of ancient materials and contemporary conversations to her project. The book is interesting, rich with details from the texts of antiquity, and rich with knowledge of scholarship on them.' Laura Nasrallah, Yale University