It will be important to bear in mind the several contexts of the writers. Most important, the early Christians were the heirs of the Jewish religion and took over the Jewish Bible as their Scriptures. An essential inquiry, therefore, is to ask how the Scriptures affected their thought and, conversely, how their Christian beliefs affected their understanding of these Scriptures. Naturally they understood the Scriptures in the manner of contemporary Judaism, but what difference did their Christianity
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