these four Gospels were received in a context in which their contents had been taught and handed down for decades already and in which authoritative revelation from God was known in written form already, both in the shape of apostolic letters and in the Scriptures of the Old Testament. The first contrast between the old and new covenant is that the old started with the giving of the written word so that it could be taught, obeyed, and believed, while the new covenant started with the teaching of