The Origins of Early Christian Literature: Contextualizing the New Testament within Greco-Roman Literary Culture

Robyn Faith Walsh, The Origins of Early Christian Literature: Contextualizing the New Testament within Greco-Roman Literary Culture (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021).

From the early days of Christianity, gospel authorship has been a question of fundamental importance. While the names donning the four canonical gospels of the New Testament have long held their place, critical scholars recognize that the original authors of these texts are unknown. Thus, the question of gospel authorship remains a vibrant conversation, one into which Robyn Faith Walsh has entered with The Origins of Early Christian Literature: Contextualizing the New Testament Within Greco-Roman Literary Culture. Offering a tantalizing possibility, Walsh argues that the Synoptic Gospels are not primarily religious texts, but literary works created by “elite cultural producers” (p. 110), Greco-Roman authors who had an interest in Judaean culture and religious motifs, but who may not have understood themselves as belonging to a Christian community.

In addition to the introduction and conclusion, this book is divided into five chapters, each with titled subsections that create a straightforward framework for the reader to follow. Its relatively short length betrays the amount of information that is packed within its pages, and yet it is written in a style fit for a broad range of readers, from undergraduates to fellow scholars in the field.

In the Introduction, “Diamonds in a Dunghill: Seeking New Approaches to Early Christian Studies,” Walsh lays the groundwork for her argument, suggesting that the scholarly efforts to reclaim definitive communities behind the Synoptic Gospels have been filled with trouble. New Testament scholarship has often ignored knowledge of ancient writing practices in favor of oral traditions and imagined literate spokespersons for early Christian groups. It is here that she first describes the Gospel authors as “creative writers” but not “biographers or historians” (p. 16) as we might understand those terms today. Furthermore, Walsh uses this introduction to dispel the notion that the Gospels were exceptional, asserting instead their proper place within Greco-Roman literary culture.  

In Chapter 1, “The Myth of Christian Origins,” Walsh seeks to reframe some of the perceptions of early Christianity as presented in the Gospels and the Book of Acts. Christianity did not have a rapid, explosive beginning but one which was slow and meandering. Nor were its early days comprised of overarching institutions or unambiguous communities. Its separation from Judaism, furthermore, was an ill-defined divergence which calls into question the early existence of a distinct Christian religion. Texts which became part of the New Testament functioned to reinforce notions of “Big Bang” (p. 8) Christian origins, especially as second century Christians began assembling and codifying material they found important. But Walsh cautions that scholars must be careful not to reinforce the mythic origins of the Christian movement as pure history.   

Chapter 2, “The Romantic Big Bang: German Romanticism and Inherited Methodology,” demonstrates the influence of German Romanticism on modern New Testament scholarship. This intellectual movement had wide-ranging impacts, influencing politics, philosophy, and religion, and adhered to the belief that humanity could not “exist outside a community or state” (p. 52). Critical New Testament scholarship emerged alongside and within these Romantic Era notions and was infused with the idea that the Gospel authors represented communities of early Christians. Textual studies of New Testament literature sought to recapture the spirit of the early Christian Volk, as the Brothers Grimm, Richard Wagner, Friedrich Nietzsche and others attempted to do for the German people. The Brothers Grimm, Walsh argues, were especially influential in their persistent belief that it was possible to reclaim the essence of communities through literature, and that the proper scrutiny of texts could reveal its oral roots. The Gospel authors came to be viewed as the “representative author-geniuses of their age” (p. 78) standing in for an otherwise amorphous community. Walsh dedicates ample time to this subject (over one quarter of the book) but feels greater reflection on the roots of modern New Testament methodology is needed and calls for a revision of some long-held practices.     

Chapter 3, “Authorship in Antiquity: Specialization and Social Formations,” analyzes the Greco-Roman world of literary education and production. It highlights the literary reality of the ancient Mediterranean world, one in which the vast majority of individuals could not read or write. Those who could read and write were set apart in their skillsets and their ability to produce and influence aspects of culture. The authors of the Gospels, therefore, should be recognized as writers engaging in the same categories of influence as other figures from this epoch of history such as Homer, Plato, and Virgil. It should be noted that these elite skillsets did not necessarily equate to elite socioeconomic status, as slaves were frequently deployed in the production of written texts. Writers would often share and adapt common subjects and motifs, crafting their own versions of stories which were already in circulation.[1] Walsh offers Philo of Alexandria as an example of an author who is interested in religious subjects but is not necessarily writing for religious communities.

In Chapter 4, “Redescribing Early Christian Literature: The Gospels, the Satyrica, and Anonymous Sources,” Walsh engages with the literary uses of eyewitnesses, anonymity, and shared motifs. She brings the Synoptic Gospels into conversation with these literary devices and offers the Satyrica as a valuable text for understanding common motifs in the Greco-Roman world. The reader is here exposed to a Greco-Roman work of fiction generally attributed to Gaius Petronius and dated sometime between the middle of the first century and the early second century of the Common Era. A character in the Satyrica is anointed at a meal with close friends in the face of impending death. Later, the crowing of a rooster is taken as a bad omen, and a series of wild events leads to an empty tomb following the crucifixion of several robbers. These motifs draw striking comparisons to Jesus’ anointing by a woman in Bethany, Peter’s denial of Jesus marked by a crowing rooster, and the empty tomb discovered by Jesus’ followers after his crucifixion. Earlier dates for the Satyrica may imply that the gospel authors borrowed these elements and incorporated them into narratives about Jesus, but what becomes abundantly clear, regardless of when one may date the Satyrica, is that the gospel authors were part of a literary world that shared similar thematic elements. Walsh uses these correlations to further espouse that the communities percolating behind the gospel texts, if any, were not religious groups circulating oral traditions about Jesus. Instead, authors in community with other literary minds adapted these texts as a way to flex their creative muscles.  

Lastly, Chapter 5, “The Gospels as Subversive Biography,” examines the Gospels as texts with rebellious themes, positioning them within the broader range of biographical material produced in the Greco-Roman world. In certain respects, the Gospels share similarities with other ancient biographies, although Walsh admits that “biography” is a term which could encompass several different types of ancient literature. Generally speaking, these biographies focus on an important figure, such as Alexander the Great, and seek to elevate them by highlighting their accomplishments and virtuous character. Sometimes the subjects of these texts possess magical powers and superior intellect and may even be portrayed as a social outsider. Authors of biographies sought to retell the story of an individual’s life, but embellished or outright created some stories if they felt it was necessary. The biography was not so much about telling an exact history, but explaining what type of person the subject was. Not all biographies were subversive, but Walsh claims that the Gospels’ portrayal of Jesus is best defined using such a term. Jesus is said to have taught in parables, belonged to a lower-class sector of society, and been a “social underdog” (p. 173). The main figure of the Gospels is on the fringes of society, and the Gospel narratives gave a voice to those on the margins.    

The conclusion, “‘Lions mate with lions’: Creative License and Future Directions,” is a short valediction filled with a challenge. The Gospels are literature. They are art. They may be something more, but critical engagement requires theoretical work be done on how to understand the authors, audiences, and literary cultures of the ancient world. Walsh poses a legitimate question regarding the scholarly attempts to “read between the lines” (p. 198) of ancient texts in order to gain access to a true, unadulterated version of the past: can one rely on the author of an ancient text to “truthfully communicate anything about real life?” (p. 198).   

A critique may be offered concerning a few of Walsh’s perspectives on early Christian communities. While her arguments regarding the Gospels’ relationship, or lack thereof, to religious communities is compelling, it is probable that some communities of early Jesus’ followers existed by the middle of the first century. Paul of Tarsus, author of at least seven New Testament texts, gives evidence of this in the various letters he wrote to Jesus followers. To be sure, attempts to define these communities encounter some the same problems Walsh describes concerning the Gospels, and accounts of Paul and Christian conversions in the Book of Acts are undoubtedly exaggerated. But Walsh claims that the scholarly acceptance of Paul’s “rhetoric about communities” (p. 41) reinforces the myths of Christian origins, a claim which requires greater explanation. Walsh’s strict understanding of a community may be to blame here, as she feels greater evidence for the “cohesion of the participants” (p. 42) in these groups needs to be demonstrated.    

Determining who wrote the Gospels will continue to be an endeavor of the scholarly community. Regardless of who the original authors were, the truth remains that these texts are products of the Greco-Roman literary world, and as such, they should be understood within that context, not as exceptional artifacts of an isolated time and place. Walsh succeeds at bringing this literary world to the forefront and her knowledge of the Classical world is on full display. This book challenges the longstanding perceptions of Gospel origins, as well as the established paradigms of New Testament scholarship, while reminding us that biblical scholarship must remain open to adaptation and introspection.

Tyler Blaine Wilson is a graduate student at the University of Denver. His research interests include the Gospel of Mark, the historical Jesus, and Christian origins.

[1] This is something which the author of the Gospel of Luke attests to.