Paolo e le parole di Gesù. Frammenti di un insegnamento orale

Paul's authentic letters are deemed to be the earliest surviving 'Christian' writings of any kind. Also for this reason, scholars still debate about the extent and form in which the early Jesus tradition may have been known to Paul. How much did the apostle know about Jesus's words and deeds? Was the apostle totally uninterested in the life and teaching of the 'earthly' Jesus, as is often assumed by a good many scholars? And what can be said about the role played by Paul in the development of the later gospel tradition? After placing Paul's letters within the framework of ancient oral-scribal communication practices, this book seeks to provide an answer to all these questions, offering a systematic exploration of ninety selected passages from the Pauline corpus that contain or may contain allusions to Jesus's sayings. The result is a fresh picture of the oral gospel preached by Paul, as well as an overall reappraisal of the apostle's 'unthought debt' to the Jesus tradition.