ORDERING GOSPEL TEXTUALITY IN THE SECOND CENTURY

Abstract

This article interrogates how several second-century figures ordered a pluriform Gospel corpus. Focusing on approaches to Gospel plurality visible in the Epistula apostolorum, Tatian the Syrian, Irenaeus of Lyons, and Ammonius of Alexandria, we argue that a number of Christian readers-across the Roman Mediterranean, from Alexandria to Gaul and from Syria to Rome-employed similar approaches. Drawing on evidence for second-century reading practices, we demonstrate continuities in both textual practices and conceptual frameworks that illuminate Gospel reading and writing. These figures engaged Gospels in multiple dimensions-horizontal juxtaposition of parallel material and vertical coordination of narrative sequence-in order to map relationships between imperfectly parallel texts. These spatial textual practices enabled synthetic reading of an emergent pluriform Gospel corpus.