However, the writings of the New Testament were only an insignificant part of the vast Christian literature that was created in the first and third centuries, i.e., before the recognition of Christianity as the official religion. Christian writers of the end of the second and fourth centuries mention, quote, and retell various Gospels: Peter, Andrew, Bartholomew, two Gospels of Thomas, completely different in content, the Gospel of Mary. In a fragment of a letter by the theologian Clement of Alexandria (c. 200 AD), it is said that three Gospels of Mark were also in circulation: the canonical (admitted), the "forged" (written by a certain preacher named Carpocrates) and the secret Gospel (allegedly written by Mark himself for the "elect") [2]. Some gospels are named after the Christian groups among which they were venerated (although it is possible that their true names also contained the name of an apostle), for example, the Gospel of the Hebrews, the Gospel of the Egyptians. Bishop Irenaeus of Lugudun (modern Lyon) (1st half. II–early III centuries) in his work "Against Heresies" he writes with indignation that the followers of Valentinus (the most prominent representative of the religious-philosophical trend in Christianity, Gnosticism) "reached such a degree of audacity that they called their recent work the Gospel of Truth" (III. 11) [3].

In addition to the Gospels, the works of Christian writers mention other books that were not included in the New Testament, which were revered by various Christian groups as sources of doctrine: the Apocalypse of Peter, the Apocalypse of Paul, the Acts of some of the Apostles (Paul, Philip, Andrew), the Epistles, the Shepherd of Hermas, etc. The largest among these discoveries was the library of the Christian Gnostics from Nag Hammadi (Egypt). In order to understand the long and complex process of dividing the sacred books of Christians into recognized and unrecognized (canonical and apocryphal), it is necessary first of all to imagine the features of the formation of early Christian literature as a whole.

The first Christian preachers thought least of all about writing down their teachings. It can be said that the doctrine in the exact sense of the word had not yet been formed until the end of the first century. The wandering prophets passed on what they knew about the savior crucified in Judea during the reign of the emperor Tiberius (14-37), the anointed of God Jesus Christ, in whose resurrection they believed. Christian preachers used as a model the parables, teachings, and stories about individual episodes from the lives of famous teachers (rabbis) that existed in the Jewish environment. This is how the oral Christian tradition was created.

The very word "gospel" (Greek for "good news") originally meant in the minds of Jesus' followers a sermon that revealed the meaning of the new faith. In Paul's epistles, particularly in Galatians, the writer opposes those preachers who, in his view, distort the meaning of the "good news" of Jesus. He anathematizes those who preach the gospel (in the Greek text the verb "evangelizo" is used) "not that which we have preached to you," and adds: "The gospel which I have preached is not of men" (1:8, 11). In the Second Epistle to the Corinthians there is a similar usage: "For if any man had come, and began to preach another Jesus, whom we have not preached... or any other gospel which we have not received, you would be very lenient to it. But I think that I lack nothing against the higher [4] Apostles" (11:4, 5). The Epistle to the Romans says: "In the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secret deeds of men..." (2. 16). From the above passages it is clear that for the author the Gospel was in no way scripture. The very word "gospel" in the pagan environment of Christians was associated with the cult of the emperor: in the inscriptions glorifying Augustus (27 BC – 14 AD), the day of his birth was called the beginning of "many gospels" [5]. Having adopted such terminology, Christians gave it a fundamentally different meaning: not the "good news" about the emperor's earthly affairs, but the only "good news" about Jesus, the savior and messiah, became the content of Christian preaching.

Preachers spoke primarily in the synagogues that existed in the cities of the eastern provinces, as well as in private homes, in the open air, in empty craft workshops. Such a picture emerges from the Acts of the Apostles and some other works, including anti-Christian ones [6]. In the work "Didache" (Teaching of the Twelve Apostles), written, in all likelihood, at the beginning of the second century, it is said about the wandering apostles: "Every apostle who comes to you, let him be received as Lord. Let him not stay more than one day; and if there is a need, then another (day); but if he stays three, then he is a false prophet... When leaving, let the Apostle take nothing but bread to the place of lodging for the night" [7].

The oral tradition continued to exist in the period when the first scriptures appeared. Eusebius of Caesarea (IV century) in his "Church History" quotes the words of the Christian writer Papias (1st half of the 1st half of the 1st century). II century) from Hierapolis (Asia Minor), who collected oral traditions: "... if I happened to meet someone who communicated with the elders, then I carefully asked about the teaching of the elders, for example, what Andrew said, what Peter said, what Philip said, what Thomas or James said... For I thought that book information would not so much benefit me as a living and more penetrating voice" (Eusebius, Church History (Historia ecclesiastica), III. 39.

The identification of the origins of the ancient Christian tradition was facilitated by the use of scientific methods known as "criticism of the text" and "criticism of form" [8]. They were developed in most detail on the analysis of the first three Gospels of the New Testament, which are usually called "synoptic" because of their similarity. The first method has existed since the end of the XIX century; Both of them aim to move from the teaching of Jesus set forth in the Gospels to the teaching itself, to its authentic core. The texts of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke (taking into account the manuscript versions) were compared, the grammar, vocabulary, and syntax of the Gospels were analyzed. Proponents of "textual criticism" proposed that the commonalities discovered as a result of such a comparison should be used as the basis for the reconstruction of the original text. However, no matter how important the observations of analogies and discrepancies in the Gospels were, it was still impossible to find an exhaustive explanation of them by breaking the text into phrases and words and constructing an archetype. Therefore, in order to confirm their hypotheses about the sources of the Synoptic Gospels, scientists turned to their general characteristics, to their connections with the ideological life of the era.

Turning to such parallels since the 20s of this century has become a principle of research, formed the basis of the method designated in German literature Formgeschichte. Proponents of this method looked for traces of the oral tradition to which the gospels originated. For this purpose, each of them was divided into separate subjects, their form was studied, and from there they proceeded to the restoration of the motives and character of those teachings, part of which was the plot included in the theological system of the evangelist. The Gospels sought to identify various stages in the formation of the Christian tradition. They were seen as a theologically motivated story, not a historical narrative, and they believed that they were based on a variety of sources, that the recording of the text was preceded by a live oral transmission. Different blocks of the tradition were singled out: sayings of Jesus, instructive stories (parables), stories about miracles performed by Jesus. Quotations from the Jewish holy books, primarily from the prophets, repeated from sermon to sermon, were also considered an integral part of the tradition.

The long dominance of oral tradition (several decades after the death of the preacher Jesus [9]) is explained by a number of reasons. The first "apostles and prophets", followers of his teaching, continued to consider themselves Jews by religion, for them the books included in the Old Testament were the holy scriptures. For Christians, the sacred text was the translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek, made in Alexandria of Egypt in the third century B.C.E., the so-called Septuagint. The Septuagint was recognized as divinely inspired by Jews living outside Palestine, many of whom no longer knew the ancient Hebrew language. The Septuagint was used in their works by Josephus Flavius and Philo of Alexandria. The sanctity of the "Law and the Prophets," as Christians usually referred to the Jewish religious books available through the Septuagint, did not allow for a long time the creation of new sacred books.

В науке существует точка зрения, правда необщепринятая, что первыми записями, сделанными христианами, были сборники цитат из Ветхого завета, прежде всего тех, где речь шла об ожидаемом мессии (так называемые свидетельства — тестимонии) [11]. Впрочем, цитаты могли проповедниками заучиваться: со времени появления клинописной и иероглифической письменности существовала практика передачи содержания письменного памятника вслух наизусть [12].

У первых христиан не было потребности в записи своих проповедей еще и потому, что они ждали скорого прихода воскресшего Иисуса «во время сие», как сказано в Евангелии от Марка (10. 30). Главным для них было проповедовать новое учение, готовясь к установлению царства божия на земле. В античном мире роль устного слова была исключительно велика: политические ораторы выступали на народных собраниях, поэты читали свои стихи на площадях, пророки и предсказатели произносили речи на ступенях храмов. Устное слово оказывало большее воздействие на верующих, чем писаное, недаром первые христианские тексты были предназначены для чтения вслух в собрании верующих. Как отмечает С. С. Аверинцев, «литературное слово евангельских текстов, тоже очень простое и необработанное, есть по своей внутренней установке обрядовое слово, словесное «действо», «таинство». Оно предполагает скорее заучивание наизусть, ритмическое и распевное произнесение и замедленное вникание в отдельные единицы текста, чем обычное для нас читательское восприятие» [13].

Между устными проповедями различных проповедников существовали расхождения. Как пишет английский исследователь П. Джонсон, раннее христианство с самого начала представляло собой множество вариантов, часто имевших мало общего, хотя все они концентрировались вокруг веры в воскресение спасителя; каждая группа имела свою «историю Иисуса» [14]. Наиболее явным и резким стало расхождение между палестинскими христианами, а также теми христианами вне Палестины, которые соблюдали иудейскую обрядность, и христианами из язычников, против этой обрядности выступавших.

В условиях, когда пророчества о конце этого мира и наступлении царства божия на земле оказывали на верующих огромное эмоциональное воздействие, когда все надежды на спасение, на уничтожение зла и несправедливости были связаны именно со вторым пришествием, кажется естественным появление так называемых откровений, т. е. описаний видений, возвещающих конец мира, действующих на воображение причудливыми образами и символами, ставших одним из первых жанров христианской литературы. Вероятно, самым ранним из записанных пророчеств явилось Откровение Иоанна. Оно начинается как наставление, в котором порицаются одни христиане, одобряются другие, но затем автор переходит к описанию видений Страшного суда, переполненному символами, аллегориями, устрашающими образами того, «чему надлежит быть после сего» (4. 1). Автор Откровения Иоанна широко использует образы пророчеств, знакомые христианам из иудеев (а именно им адресовано это писание). Так, в книге пророка Даниила сказано: «И слышал я, как муж в льняной одежде, находившийся над водами реки, подняв правую и левую руку к небу, клялся Живущим во веки, что к концу времени и времен и полувремени и по совершенном низложении силы народа святого все это совершится» (12. 7); а в Апокалипсисе: «И Ангел, которого я видел стоящим на море и на земле, поднял руку свою к небу И клялся Живущим во веки веков… что времени уже не будет» (10. 5–6). Подобные примеры можно привести и из других пророческих книг [15].

Откровение Иоанна написано в 68–69 гг. [16] Возможно, что оно было отредактировано переписчиками в середине 90–х годов, уже после падения Иерусалима в 70 г. в результате поражения I иудейского восстания против римлян. Эта дата приведена у Евсевия Кесарийского со ссылкой на Иринея (НЕ. III. 18).