Be in depth and provide various explanations and sources

1) Which of the representations of Jesus in the Gospels would have been the most appealing to people during the Early Church period (~100 C.E.)? Make an argument that connects to a specific community (Jews, Gentiles, Romans, Palestinians, etc.) How does their context impact their connection to one of these representations over another? Choose one of the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, or one of the Other Gospels). 

2) What is Q? How does this fit into the Synoptic Problem surrounding some of the Gospels? Do you agree with the four-source theory? Why or why not? 

3) What is pseudepigrapha? Choose one of the letters that scholars believe is a pseudepigrapha and briefly summarize its content, who scholars believe actually wrote the text, and their reasonings for declaring it a pseudepigrapha. Why is pseudepigrapha so popular during the classical ages? In your opinion, does it matter if a document is a pseudepigrapha or not? Why? Does this change your opinion of the New Testament or not?

1) Early Christianity, early Church or early Christianity is the period in the history of Christianity prior to the First Council of Nicaea (325). It is usually divided into two phases: the apostolic period (1st century) and the prenicus period (2nd, 3rd and early 4th centuries). For the later period, when Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, denominations such as Low Imperial Christianity were used; and, later, medieval Christianity.

The early Christians, as described in the New Testament (especially in the Acts of the Apostles), were Jews, either by birth or by conversion, for whom the biblical term "proselyte" was used, and named by historians like Judeo-Christians. Acts of the Apostles and the Epistle to the Galatians record that the first Christian community was centered in Jerusalem and among its leaders were Peter, James and John.

Paul of Tarsus, after his conversion to Christianity, claimed for himself the title of "Apostle of the Gentiles". Paul's influence on Christian thought is recognized as more significant than that of any other New Testament writer. Towards the end of the first century, Christianity began to be recognized internally and externally as a religion different from rabbinical Judaism , which was refined and developed after the destruction of the second temple in Jerusalem.

As it appears collected in numerous quotations of the New Testament, as well as in other Christian texts of the first century of our era, the first Christians generally used and revered the Jewish Bible as their sacred book, fundamentally through the Greek translations (Septuagint) or Aramaeans (Targum), many of which are written in narrative form where "in biblical history God is the protagonist, Satan (or evil people or powers) are the antagonist, and God's people are the agonist."

As the New Testament canon developed, the Letters of Saint Paul, the canonical Gospels, and various other texts were also recognized as scriptures and sacred texts to be read in the church. Paul's letters, especially the Epistle to the Romans, established a Christ-based theology rather than the Mosaic Law, but most Christian denominations still consider the "moral prescriptions" of the Mosaic Law, such as the Ten Commandments, the Great Commandment and the Golden Rule as relevant. Early Christians demonstrated a wide catalog of beliefs and practices, many of which were later rejected as heretical.

Various stories originating between the years 28-30 and the 70s, are transmitted orally or in writing. They are compiled and reworked by the evangelists, who insert them into a geographical framework with historical bases, giving rise to the Gospels.

The critical study of the Gospel according to Mark has provided in recent years data about the characteristics of the early Christian communities.

80s: Gospels of Matthew and Luke Edit

The Gospel according to Matthew shows the conflictive relationship of the early Christian community with the Pharisees who had escaped the destruction of Jerusalem. The Gospel according to Luke shows certain characteristics of the Christian communities coming from paganism.

2) The great literary similarity between the Synoptic Gospels (Luke, Mark, and Matthew) leads to the need for in-depth investigation of their editorial interrelation, common words, and literary or oral sources in a quest to determine the dependence or independence of texts on each other.

Source Q (also known as Document Q, Gospel Q, Gospel of Q sayings or simply Q, derived from German, Quelle, 'source') is a hypothetical collection of sayings of Jesus, accepted as one of two written sources behind the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke. Q is defined as the "common" material that can be found in Matthew and Luke and cannot be found in their other written source, the Gospel of Mark. This ancient text is supposed to be based on the oral tradition of the early Church and contains the lodge or "sayings" of Jesus.

Along with Mark's priority, Hypothesis Q was formulated in 1900, and is one of the foundations of the modern school of the Gospel.BH Streeter formulated Q's most widely accepted vision: that it was a written document (not a oral tradition) written in Greek, that practically all its content appears in Matthew, in Luke or both, and that Luke preserves the original order of the text more frequently than Matthew. In the two-source hypothesis, both Matthew and Luke would have used Mark and Q as sources. Some scholars have postulated that Q is actually a plurality of sources, some written and some oral. Others have attempted to determine the phases in which Q was composed.

Some scholars explain this point by noting that copying Q would not have been necessary, since it was inserted in other texts, mainly two non-canonical gospels that achieved great preeminence.

3. Pseudepigrapha (also anglicism like "pseudepigraph" or "pseudepigraphs") are falsely attributed works, texts whose author affirmed that he is not the true author, or of a work whose true author attributed to a figure of the past. Pseudoepigraphy covers the false attribution of the names of the authors of the works, even to authentic works that do not have such a claim in their text. Thus, a widely accepted but incorrect attribution of authorship can make a completely authentic pseudepigraphical text. Evaluating the actual writer of a text locates issues of pseudepigraphical attribution within the discipline of literary criticism.

In biblical studies, the term pseudoepigraphs typically refers to a varied collection of Jewish religious works intended to be written c. 300 BC to 300 AD. They are distinguished by Protestants from deuterocanonical (Catholic and Orthodox) or apocrypha (Protestant) books, books that appear in existing copies of the Septuagint from the fourth century onward, and the Vulgate, but not in the Hebrew Bible or in Protestant Bibles. The Catholic Church only distinguishes between the deuterocanonical and all the other books, which is called Apocrypha, a name that is also used for pseudoepigraphs in Catholic usage. In addition, two books considered canonical in the Tewahedo Orthodox churches, viz. Book of Enoch and the Book of Jubilees, are classified as pseudoepigraphs from the point of view of Chalcedony Christianity.

The Gospel of Peter and the attribution to Paul of the letter to the Laodiceans are two examples of pseudoepigraphers that were not included in the New Testament canon. They are often referred to as New Testament apocrypha. Other examples of New Testament pseudoepigraphers include the Gospel of Barnabas and the Gospel of Judas, which begins by presenting himself as "the secret account of the revelation that Jesus in conversation with Judas Iscariot."

Authorship and pseudoepigraphy: levels of authenticity

Scholars have identified seven levels of authenticity that have been organized into a hierarchy that ranges from literal authorship, which means handwritten writing of the author, to pure and simple forgery:

-Literal Authorship: A church leader writes a letter.

-Dicted: A church leader dictates a letter almost word for word to a scribe.

-Delegated Authoring: A church leader describes the basic content of a letter intended for a disciple or a scribe.

- Posthumous authorship: A church leader dies, and his disciples finish a letter he intended to write, to send it posthumously on his behalf.

-Author apprentice: A church leader dies, and disciples who had been empowered to speak for him while he was alive continue to do so by writing lyrics in his name years or decades after his death.

Honorable pseudoepigraphy. A church leader dies, and admirers seek to honor him by writing letters of his name as a tribute to his influence and in a sincere belief that they are responsible bearers of his tradition.

-Falsification: A church leader gains enough prominence that, either before or after his death, people seek to exploit his legacy by creating letters of his name, presenting him as an advocate of their own ideas.