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The Rapid Transmission and Dissemination of Christian Texts
© VincentSapone.Com f.2007
Much of the material here is indebted Harry Y. Gamble's Books and Readers in the Early Church A History of Early Christian Texts. In arguing for a rapid dissemination of early Christian texts the following items of interest should be noted:
[I] Fragments of Irenaeus's Against Heresies, written about 180 C.E. have been found in Egypt during the twentieth century. Gamble writes, "The fragments are paleographically dated to the late years of the second century. Thus, within 20 years of its composition, this work traversed the Mediterranean world to be read in Provincial Egypt." p. 82[II] The Shepherd of Hermas, composed in Rome near the middle of the second century, was also available in a late 2d century manuscript from Egypt. Thus, this work rapidly traveled from Rome to Egypt.
[III] The Gospel of John was written towards the end of the first century. Wherever it was written, it certainly was not in Egypt. But we have an early papyrus fragment of John found in Egypt that dates to ca. 125 c.e. This is the earliest known New Testament fragment.
[IV] The Gospel of Thomas is also attested early in Egypt, a place that certainly does not seem to be where it was written. Though its provenance cannot be ascertained with complete confidence, most scholars place its origin in Syria. The oldest manuscript evidence for Thomas is POxy 1 and Greenfell and Hunt assigned it an approximate date of 200 AD on the basis of its script and the level it was discovered at Oxryhynchus. Stephen Patterson wrote, we may allow a generation for the growth in popularity of the book, such as would result in its wider dissemination, and yet another for the popularity to reach Egypt. This brings us to the middle of the second century. Grenfell and Hunt themselves placed the terminus ad quem at 140 C.E." The Gospel of Thomas and Jesus
The Gospel of Thomas was very popular in the second century as evidenced by the three Oxyrhynchus Papyri (Pap. Oxy. 1, Pap. Oxy. 654, Pap. Oxy. 655) that were found separately (1897, 1903, 1904) and date to ca. 200 A.D. On these Oxyrhynchus Papyri, Helmut Koester offers the following information:
"These papyri are actually portions of the Greek original of the Coptic Gospel of Thomas. Pap. Oxy. 1 preserves the Greek original of Gos. Thom. 28-33, Pap. Oxy. 654 the first seven sayings, and Pap. Oxy. 655 sayings 37-40 of this gospel. The discovery of the full Coptic text made it possible to reconstruct the entire Greek text of these fragmentary papyri. The definitive publication of the Coptic text and the reconstructed Greek fragments, together with translations and introductions, are now available in a volume of Nag Hammadi Studies edited by Bentley Layton.
The three Oxyrhynchus papyri had been widely discussed in the first decades of this century and valued highly by some scholars as possibly original sayings of Jesus; but it was not clear whether these three papyri belonged to any particular gospel. No doubt all three Oxyrhynchus fragments are part of the Greek text of the Gospel of Thomas. Yet they are not portions of one single manuscript and they do not necessarily represent the Greek text from which the Coptic translation was made. Yet they do not derive from the Coptic text, but are independent developments of the Greek original underlying the Coptic translation. Thus the Gospel of Thomas is well attested as a Greek gospel writing that circulated widely during the 2d century. The attestation is just as strong as that for the canonical gospels."
Granted the private means of copying works by hand in antiquity these finds show how rapid and wide the circulation of Christian works actually was. The appearance of these texts, chronologically close to their date of writing but far removed from their original provenance, "poses interesting questions about the publication, circulation and transmission of early Christian books".[1 see note for important precautions on dating] Also demonstrating rapid and wide dissemination are the following items:
[V] Some of Paul's letters have specific aims in mind where he is dealing with specific problems, but Paul addresses communities (e.g. 1 Thess 5:27) rather than individuals--whom he instructs, admonishes and advises on important matters of their corporate life. His letters have an official character that distinguishes them from private letters. He writes authoritatively throughout and makes mention of his apostolic status. Gamble writes, "Furthermore, in their length, their argumentive and expository development, and their rhetorical features, these letters more closely resemble the literary and philosophical letters of antiquity than any merely private correspondence." (p. 95). This is evident in 2 Corinthians 10:10 where people suggest Paul's letters are "weighty and strong". Many of the letters of the genuine Pauline corpus may have been occasional, but they are certainly not casual.
At the very least Paul envisioned the circulation of some of his letters. Galatians is addressed to the churches of Galatia. How Paul intended his letter to be circulated in several churches is not known for certain. He could have sent copies to each, he could have had the letter carrier proceed from one congregation to the next with the letter or have each congregation make their own copy. That the congregations made copies seems likely, since like us modern exegetes, they were probably not capable of digesting it all in one reading and would wish to retain a copy for further study and aid.
The Letter to the Romans is addressed to "all God's beloved in Rome" (1:7). The letter was addressed to different house churches in the city (see 16:5, 10, 11, 14, 15). Paul expected it to be circulated at least on a locale scale.
[VI] Similarly, Colossians 4:16 urges a letter exchange between the Laodiceans, whereby, each group reads one another's letter. Colossians is widely thought to not be a genuine Pauline epistle so we cannot use it as direct evidence for Paul expecting his letter to be circulated. However, this does show that either the author knew Paul's letters were circulating or wanted them to encourage this practice by offering a Pauline warrant. Gamble writes, "An exchange of letters between the neighboring churches of Colossae and Laodicia would be only a short step beyond the circumstances that obtained for the Roman letter and the Galatian letter. The author of Colossians obviously did not think that such an exchange would be considered extraordinary." p. 97
[VII] There is even compelling evidence some of Paul's letters circulated to communities other than they were intended very early. Gamble writes, "The textual tradition of Romans and 1 Corinthians preserve clear indications that these letters circulated at one time in generalized or catholicized forms from which their local address (Rom. 1:7, 15; 1 Cor. 1:2), and perhaps other particulars (ROM 16), had been eliminated in favor of broad designations of their recipients ("Those who are beloved by God" [ROM 1:7]; and "those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus" [1 Cor. 1:2b])." p. 98
These editorial revisions must have been made very early and they presuppose the spread of these letters to communities other than the original recipients. This shows that Paul's letters enjoyed circulation individually before they were collected.
[VIII] Ephesians presents us with a related case. The oldest and best manuscripts lack the address "in Ephesius" (1:1), but contain only the general and grammatically peculiar "to the saints who are also faithful." Ephesians is widely thought to be pseudonymous and addressed to specific historical, but not a local situation. Gamble writes, "The textual variants in 1:1 make sense only if originally there was no single address but different addresses inserted in different copies. If this is so, Ephesians was intended for broad dissemination from the outset and, like Colossians, offers indirect early evidence that other (authentic) letters of Paul were circulating outside the communities to which they were first addressed." p. 98
[IX] The Gospel of Mark, under the two-document hypothesis, was copied within a decade or two of its composition by two evangelists independently, and quite possibly, all three stemming from a different provenance.
[X] The hypothetical source Q is another example. Under the 2 Document Hypothesis two gospel writing evangelists, in a very short time period, independently absorbed the Q sayings material into their works. Q is dated from anywhere from 40-80 with the more likely dates ranging from 50-70 grated the development of certain tradition and its use by two other sources just after this upper limit. Also, for those who date Q to 50 A.D., often enough this is for the first layer of Q only whereas the final version stems from the same time period as Mark. [2]
[XI] Another potential example lies in the Gospel of John. Scholarship is divided on the issue of Johannine independence from Mark. If John is dependent upon Mark, we have a third author within a few decades using it as a springboard for his or her gospel.
[XII] There is significant evidence of three separate collections of Paul's letters by the mid second century and one of them can be dated to the first century.
- Marcion's edition in the mid second century contained ten letters of Paul arranged in this order: Galatians, 1-2 Corinthians, Romans, 1-2 Thessalonians, Ephesians (Loadiceans), Colossians, Philippians and Philemon. - from Gamble, p. 59
- The P46 edition lies behind most extant Greek manuscripts. Dated to ca. 200 A.D., it lists the letters in a different order that goes by decreasing length. Romans, Corinthians (1-2), Ephesians, Galatians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians (1-2).
- The Seven-Letters of Seven Churches addition of Paul can be adduced by a number of indirect evidences. There is an old theory which suggests that Paul wrote to seven churches, seven being the number symbolic of totality or universality, meaning that Paul wrote to the entire Christian church. The following considerations lead us to this conclusion, despite the fact that no seven-church version of the Pauline corpus has been preserved:
1) We find evidence of this whenever the Pauline corpus is enumerated by decreasing length. Under this model, letters to the same community count as one unit.: 1 Corinthians, 2) Romans, 3) Ephesians 4) Thessalonians, 5) Galatians, 6) Philippians, 7) Colossians. If Philemon was included it would have been taken together with Colossians. The order here is one of decreasing length with the doublets being taken as one unit. Thus, the emphasis here is not placed on the number of letters Paul wrote, but upon the number of churches Paul wrote to. The number seven is symbolic of completion and would show that far from being particular, Paul addressed the church at large. (The particularity of some Pauline works was problematic in the early church).
2) The notion of a seven-letters version from Paul is closely related to the problems posed by Paul's particularity. Paul wrote to specific congregations sometimes on immediate and pressing local matters. "The textual tradition of Paul's letters preserves indications of an early, certainly first-century, effort to overcome the problem by deleting or generalizing the addresses of some of the letters and sometimes by omitting other locally specific matter as well." Gamble, p. 60 The seven letters addition attempts to overcome a known and amply documented problem with these letters.
3) There is some evidence of a genetic relation between the seven-churches and Marcion's edition. In Marcion's version the letters are not arranged by decreasing length. This is their order compared to the Seven-Churches version.
Key to the Chart: First two columns compare the two lists and the second two do the same minus Galatans & Ephesians.
red text = common ordering,
the purple text shows minor differences but overall commonality
the blue text shows very significant disorder.Marcion does not follow decreasing length because of two exceptions: Galatians is in the first position and Ephesians follows Thessalonians. The first of these considerations is more poignant as Ephesians is very close in length to Thessalonians (1 and 2) and differs only by about 80 words (hence its purple rating). But if the two Thessalonians and two Corinthian letters are taken together, and minus the two previous exceptions, the vestiges of a list with decreasing order can be seen in Marcion's version. The question of whether Colossians and Philemon are to be included as one work remains open in both Marcion and the Seven-Churches versions. Colossians and Philippians are just about the same size but if Philemon is included with Colossians, a reasonable assumption granted its nature, it puts Colossians-Philemon ahead of Philippians in word count. Though the list has commonality here as well since the last two works (three total books) is the same, but the order is simply reversed. Since the word count s very close in addition to this, I gave it a purple rating. Galatians is the real oddball of the group. The possible vestiges of decreasing length are interesting in Marcion's edition because this method has no significance to Marcion granted the position of Galatians and this would reveal his indebtedness to an earlier addition of Paul's letters. This edition that Marcion's arrangement (not necessarily his own, but possibly inherited) is based upon might be a variation of the original seven-Churches version. Gamble p. 61
4) Another indirect evidence of such a collection is ascertained through two collections stemming from the late first//early second centuries also addressed to seven churches. The letters at the beginning of the Apocalypse (2.1 - 3.22) are addressed to seven churches are commonly thought to be the literary creation of its author. There is also the seven letters of Ignatius of Antioch which many scholars view as a creation of Polycarp. But neither group of letters appears to be an imitation of the other. As Gamble writes, "but if their appearance in the same general area and period is not a mighty coincidence, each may well reflect an early edition of the Pauline letters presented as a collection of letters to seven churches." (ibid, p. 61).
5) This would also explain why the Codex came to be the dominant form of early Christian writing. No gospel or any other work ever gained early enough dominical authority to produce such a trend. But collections of the letters of Paul are the perfect explanation. Not only are they are earliest known Christian writings, they are the earliest known writings to be valued and transmitted beyond their intended region. Also, a Gospel can be read from start to finish, in order. Thus, why a codex is necessarily preferred over a roll is unknown. But a collection of Paul's letters would preferably come in Codex form as they would be searched through and used locally throughout, as opposed to being read in order such as a Gospel. The Codex also would allow for an entire, ordered collection of Paul's letters (the 10 letters addressed to seven churches). On a scroll over 80 feet would be required to fit such a collection (compared to the sizing of P46 and minus Hebrews), and this is twice the Greek maximum and about three times "typical Greek length".
If there was a seven-Churches edition of Paul's letters then the best way to preserve their order would be to include all ten letters in the same work addressed to seven churches. This corrects against individual rolls becoming disordered, or the decreasing length scheme from being offset. Such a collection of ten letters addressed to seven-Churches in order of decreasing length best fits as a single work. Presumably such a work would have been found in Codex form and the early esteem for and authority granted to Paul's letters make such an edition the perfect candidate for the early Christian preference of the codex.
Paul's letters were given special status early and show how fast and wide the dissemination of early Christian works could be. Before the end of the first century they had become mighty popular and enjoyed a broad geographical distribution. This means they were valued and imitated beyond their original recipients as attested as shown by their early use by Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch and Polycarp of Smyrna.
[Conclusion] The value of this information is four-fold: 1) If for no other reason, historically it at least helps us in our reconstruction of ancient Christianity. 2) It has text-critical value to the student of the Bible wishing to defend the overall accuracy of the current edition of the New Testament. 3) Apologetically, it can be argued that some of these texts were meant to be circulated and compete against other texts and ideology and this would cause their respective authors to take greater care in what they wrote. Alternatively, this same pheonomenon could have lead to creation and redaction. But if informaton was transmitted far and fast, then the self-correcting notion of tradition (oral and written) would be the better off. 4) Theologically, it offers a springboard for viewing the "canonization process" of a very significant chunk (A third) of the New Testament as beginning in the later first century, namely, the Pauline corpus and this too helps in understanding the historical development of Christianity.
[Notes]
[1] The information on the Gospel of Thomas is only applicable if Thomas is dated to the mid-second century. Also, paleographic dating is not an exact science. The Rylands fragment is often dated between 100-150 but there are some issues with using paleographic methods alone to date a text. There is always a degree of uncertainty. It is entirely possbile that John was written in 90 A.D. an the Rylands fragment dates to 175 A.D. This can be said for virtually any text that is paleographically dated. But a plethora of examples eliminates this difficulty for the purposes of this article here. For if we were to assume all texts are early and that the upper limit of their paelographic dating is correct, we are stacking the dack. Rather, if paleographic dating has any degree of accuracy behind it, the law of averages will eventually work out and with a number of examples, the probability of them all being extremes is very small. Wiki has a decent article on the Rylands fragment for those interested in finding further information. The issue of dating all three Thomas papyrus to ca. 200 should not be hastily granted. Scholars think some date slightly later but in this instance we also have an early third century reference from Hippolytus (ca. 225) in Heresies 5.7.20-21, It should also be noted that the Generation rule is surmised by scholars but difficullt to demonstrate in most cases. We allow a generation for popularity but a work could be written, copied immediately and brought 1,000 miles. This could take a week, a month or ten years. Thus, the first four references allow for a significant amount of conjecture.
[2] A more detailed treatment of this would require discussing the most likely location each of these works was written from. Also, most scholars accept the 2DH today but certainly not all. Maintaining Marcan priority an exegete could still support a Mark without Q hypothesis.