Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

FROM THE GOSPELS TO JESUS §8.6
Richard Bauckham has recently challenged this assumption with regard to
the written Gospels. His counter-thesis is that 'the Gospels were written for general
circulation around the churches and so envisaged a very general Christian
audience. Their implied readership is not specific but indefinite: any and every
Christian community in the late first-century Roman Empire' . 309 The claim may
be stated in an exaggerated form (for all Christians?), but we should not discount
the likelihood that Evangelists wrote out of their more local experience primarily
with a view to a much larger circle of churches, in Syria-Cilicia, for example.
And Bauckham needs to give more weight to the likelihood that particular communities
were the Evangelist's source for Jesus tradition, as distinct from communities
as the Evangelist's target in writing his Gospel. But he is justified in
dismissing the idea that the Evangelist would have written his Gospel for the
community in which he lived. 310 And he rightly challenges any suggestion that
the tradition-stock available to any one Evangelist was limited to his own community
or circle of churches. 311
The point here is that Bauckham is certainly correct to highlight the evidence
that the first churches were by no means as isolated from one another and
at odds with one another as has been so often assumed. If Paul's letters (and
Acts) are any guide, the first churches consisted rather of 'a network of communities
in constant communication', linked by messengers, letters, and visits by
leading figures in the new movement. 312 This ties in with what was noted above:
that church founding included the initial communication of foundation tradition
and that Paul could assume common tradition, including knowledge of Jesus tradition,
even in a church which he had never previously visited (Rome). And
though there were indeed severe tensions between Paul and the Jerusalem leadership,
Paul still regarded the lines of continuity between the churches in Judea and
those of the Gentile mission as a matter of first importance. 313 In short, the suggestion
that there were churches who knew only one stream of tradition — Jesus
only as a miracle worker, or only as a wisdom teacher, etc. — has been given far
309. Bauckham, 'For Whom?' 1.
310. Bauckham, 'For Whom?' 28-30; 'Why should he go to the considerable trouble of
writing a Gospel for a community to which he was regularly preaching?' (29).
311. In private correspondence.
312. Bauckham, 'For Whom?' 30-44; also M. B. Thompson, 'The Holy Internet: Communication
between Churches in the First Christian Generation', in Bauckham, ed., Gospels
49-70. Bauckham justifiably asks, 'Why do scholars so readily assume that the author of a Gospel
would be someone who had spent all his Christian life attached to the same Christian community?'
(36). Bauckham's thesis has now been criticized by D. C. Sim, "The Gospels for All
Christians? A Response to Richard Bauckham', JSNT 84 (2001) 3-27.1 will address this debate
in volume 2.
313. Gal. 1.22; 1 Thess. 2.14; 2 Cor. 1.16.
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