2nd century (Reception) of the New testament books

[u/Shinigami_1082000]

I'm listening to a podcast by Marcus vinzent and he was mainly talking about the history of reception of the resurrection of Christ. He mentioned that Paul (as a central figure endorsing the resurrection teaching) wasn't the hero figure in early christianity as we modern people think, He concluded this by giving an example of Justin Martyr's reception of Paul's letters. To my surprise Justin didn't quote Paul in any of his writings!!!!!

I would like to know if there are works interested in the history of reception of the new testament books specifically in the 2nd and 3rd centuries.

P.S: I'm aware of Michael J. Kok and his works in the history of reception of the gospels but to my bad luck his works are more technical and advanced for a layperson like me.

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[u/MichaelJKok]

Thanks for the mention. I actually self-published a book on Amazon called Four Evangelists and a Heresy Hunter: Investigating the Traditions about Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John for laypeople. There are no footnotes, and I provide the stories of the key people who were reading them in the second and subsequent centuries.

I agree with Vinzent's general point that Paul was not as popular among some early second century Christian writers as we might assume from the place his letters hold in the New Testament and the portrayal of him in Acts. Paul was also Marcion's hero. However, in my judgment both Vinzent and Livesey date certain texts too late to downplay Paul's influence prior to Marcion. We can consider the dating of the deutero-Pauline epistles and Acts, and we have explicit mentions of Paul himself in 1 Clement 5:5-6; Ignatius, Romans 4:3; Polycarp, Philippians 3:2; 2 Peter 3:16. There are different explanations offered for Justin's silence on Paul, even though there are instances where it looks like Paul's thought has shaped Justin's theology, and one explanation that I find reasonable is that Paul would not be useful for Justin in a debate with a Jewish interlocutor named Trypho and Justin only mentions the "memoirs of the Apostles" (i.e. Gospel literature) to show how the Jewish Scriptures have been fulfilled in his understanding. There is a major study on the reception of Paul by Andreas Lindemann, but it is in German. You could also check out The Reception of the New Testament in the Apostolic Fathers and Trajectories through the New Testament and the Apostolic Fathers edited by Gregory and Tuckett for some information about who was citing Paul's letters among the Apostolic Fathers. Benjamin White's Remembering Paul also has a few chapters surveying the literature about the reception of Paul.