The Gospels were not thought of as works of literature. People were not concerned with the literary reputation … - Frederic G. Kenyon

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My mother's influence in molding my character was conspicuous. She forced me to learn daily long chapters of the Bible by heart. To that discipline and patient, accurate resolve I owe not only much of my general power of taking pains, but of the best part of my taste for literature.

Frederic G. Kenyon

The Gospels were not thought of as works of literature. People were not concerned with the literary reputation of Matthew or Mark, but with the substance of their records of our Lord's life. They did not have to respect their actual words, as they would if they were transcribing the works of Thucydides or Plato.

Concerned, Literature, People, Plato, Substance, Words

Same Author Quotes

The last foundation for any doubt that the Scriptures have come down to us substantially as they were written has now been removed.

Come, Doubt, Foundation, Lasts

The aim of the scholarly editor is not to produce the the easiest text for the reader, but to get as near as he can to the text of the author.

Aim, Author, Editors, Produce, Scholarly

It is indeed a striking proof of the essential soundness of the tradition that with which all these thousands of copies, tracing their ancestry back to so many different parts of the earth and to conditions of such diverse kinds, the variations of text are so entirely questions of detail, not of essential substance.

Ancestry, Details, Essential, Essentials, Tracing, Variations

The apostles were scattered, and even the leaders of the Church in Jerusalem had neither the power nor the means to impose uniformity. In these circumstances, we must imagine the literature of Christianity as spreading gradually, irregularly, and in a manner which variations inevitable.

Church, Inevitable, Jerusalem, Leader, Mean, Power

The New Testament was not produced as a single work issued by an authoritative Church for the instruction of its members. The four Gospels were composed in different times and places over perhaps a third of a century, and for a time circulated separately among a number of other narratives of our Lord's life (of which the newly discovered fragment of an unknown gospel may have been one).

Among, Church, Different, Numbers, Separately, Single