ABSTRACT: During the time that elapsed between Jesus’s ascension and the writing of the Gospels, the apostles faithfully taught the early churches all that Jesus had commanded. A careful reading of the Epistles reveals that Jesus’s teaching was not ignored but shaped the life and doctrine of the spreading church, such that when penning letters the apostles could frequently assume familiarity with Jesus’s words. Examining select texts from 1 Corinthians, James, and 1 Peter demonstrates the fundamental unity between the teaching in the apostolic letters and the teaching of the Lord Jesus.
For our ongoing series of feature articles for pastors and Christian leaders, we asked Dirk Jongkind (PhD, University of Cambridge), academic vice principal and senior research fellow in New Testament text and language at Tyndale House, Cambridge, to explain how the Epistles relate to Jesus’s teaching in the Gospels.
