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(More customer reviews)The stage needs to be set. Hurtado argues that it is hard to identify any art, architecture, epigraphical evidence or whatever before 200 CE/AD. The earliest building dates to the middle of the third century. Manuscripts that can be dated with any confidence are dated to the third century. However there are some 400 papyri that can be dated to the time before the official recognition of Christianity by the Emperor Constantine. A growing number can be dated to the second century. Hurtado claims it is these which are the earliest Christian artifacts, and he focuses not on textual criticism but what can be found in the texts.
It is a fluke of history that most of the earliest Christian manuscripts come from Egypt due to the weather. Of these it appears that many came from a refuse dump of an ancient city called Oxyrhynchus. Thousands of manuscripts have been found there deposited over six centuries. Do these reflect broader Christian use? Hurtado does not intend to treat early Christian preferences monolithically, but he does argue that there are sufficient reasons for treating the manuscript evidence from Egypt as being practiced widely. For example, Christian networking brought a copy of Iranaeus' Against Heresies from Lyon to Oxyrhynchus within a few years.
The most outstanding feature of Christian manuscripts is that they are codex in form. A codex is unlike a rolled scroll. A codex is folded leaves attached by binding materials much like modern books. Christians did not invent the codex but by the second century, over 70 per cent of Christian writings were codices compared to only 5 per cent of the total number of manuscripts. It has been argued that Christians preferred the codex for such reasons as the expense of writing. However large margins do not indicate a writer concerned about saving costs. Hurtado argues that the Christian preference for the codex was heavy and early and reflected a belief that the text had "scriptural status."
In addition to a codex format, early Christians added other characteristics to their manuscripts, nomina sacra and the staurogram. Nomina sacra are typically abbreviations composed of the first and last letter of a word. Those used with far greater regularity are God, Lord, Christ, and Jesus. This early practice is connected to the Jewish practice of treating the divine name in a special way. Hurtado notes that at an early stage Christ and Jesus were put on the same plane as God and Lord. The staurogram is a compendium formed by superimposing a Greek rho over a Greek tau. In later Christianity the chi-rho became better known. Hurtado believes that the cross over the T formation was a visual reference for the early Christian to the crucifixion of Jesus.
Very early Christians chose a particular format for their sacred writings and implanted into them code devices of their own faith.
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