Customer Reviews

Memory and Manuscript with Tradition and Transmission in Early Christianity (Biblical Resource)

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Academia is ruled by fads. This handsomely presented republication (with new material) of one of the most important and least known books relating to the history of early Judaism and of very early Christianity was savagely attacked by one of the leading Biblical scholars of the 1950's and 1960's and a group of his associates and students. One of those students--the prolific Jewish scholar Jacob Neusner--now repents from his unfair attack and adds his own lengthy preface to a book he, in effect, helped to suppress three decades ago. The Scandinavian author, Birger Gerharddson, offered a detailed and very scholarly argument in favor of the "stability" of the process by which trained scribes and religious teachers in the first century C.E. were concerned with the accurate preservation and transmission of important religious traditions in both early rabbinic Judaism and, by analogy, in early Christianity. Since it is a foundational belief of much of contemporary "New Testament scholarship" that the canonical gospels are NOT the product of a conscious process of careful preservation and transmission, this book and its author have been largely ignored for a third of a century. Ignored, but not refuted. This is a densely argued book, drawing heavily on early Mishnaic sources (quoted in the Hebrew), and is not for casual students. For serious students of the origins of the gospels and for those exploring the historical background to the development of early Christianity, this is one of the most important studies to have been written in the past half century.

I wholeheartedly agree with my fellow reviewer Cato and his praise for this book. I only wanted to add that it's my opinion that the importance of this book will not be fully realized for many years, as this study - along with the work being done re ancient Hebraic literary structures (especially as it pertains to meaning) - will combine to unlock the secrets of the earliest Christianity. Birger's incredible work is a must for those who are interested in seminal Christianity. I recommend this book without reservation.