Review by Danny Yencich of
Scott D. Charlesworth,
Early Christian Gospels: Their Production and Transmission
(Gonnelli, 2016)
From the review:
In this clear, engagingly written,meticulously researched work of comparative codicology, textual criticism,and historiography of early Christianity, Scott D. Charlesworth presents a compelling account of the crucial differences governing the production and transmission of early Christian gospels, both canonical and noncanonical. The thesis forwarded herein holds that canonical gospels and noncanonical gospels (identifiedas cgospels and ngospels, respectively) were produced and transmitted for different purposes, under the aegis of different norms.
Yencich concludes:
In all, Early Christian Gospels is a worthy contribution to the ongoing debates surrounding the emergence of gospel traditions, both canonical and noncanonical. Its price and availability (limited to only 300 hand-numbered copies) limit the scope of its audience in some ways, as does the technical nature of the work. Yet the book also opens up new and potentially fruitful avenues for future research; it is not difficult to imagine the usefulness of applying the comparative program here to other early Christian texts. Shepherd of Hermas and various apocryphal traditions would lend themselves to such a project; a comparison between canonical Acts and noncanonical Acts literature would also be a logical step forward for future research. For these reasons and the others discussed above, I commend the volume to research libraries and scholars working on the early transmission of Christian textual traditions.
Read the full review atSBL Central: https://www.sblcentral.org/home/bookDetails/11668