Publisher's Synopsis
From the end of the first century, and all throughout the second, there emerges a notion of Christian origins as a separate period, comprising Jesus' earthly life and the work of the Apostles and their disciples. The writers, working with the material they dispose, construct the memory of this ensemble, aiming either to justif'y its connection to their own time, or to relate their proble1ns to origins, the words and acts of Jesus of Nazareth. Several Christi an communities affirm their unbroken continuity with these origins, and claim to be the only who are faithful to the Gospel and Jesus Christ. Referring to the acts, deeds and words of Jesus, found in the Memoirs of the Apostles and their disciples as already announced in the Scriptures, Justin Marlyr succeeds in defining the Christian identity as being distinct from that of heretics and the Jews, and proposes it as an alternative for the Greco-Roman world. This research concentrates therefore on the memoirs of Jesus and the Apostles found in the authentic writings of Justin Martyr, the Apology and the Dialogue with Trypho, and on their affiliation with the Holy Scriptures, especially the Law and the Prophets.
