Why did the early church finally decide to write the scriptures?

Answer 1

The early Church decided to write the scriptures because the Church realized that Jesus' second coming was not going to occur during their lifetime so they needed to have the teachings written down to pass on to future generations as a basis for teaching.

Answer 2

AnswerFirst of all we need to know who actually wrote the scriptures, and when. Although the four New Testament gospels are now attributed to the disciples Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, scholars say that they were written anonymously and only attributed to the disciples whose names they bear, later in the second century when the Church Fathers were trying to establish who probably wrote each of the gospel accounts. The first gospel was Mark's Gospel, and internal evidence shows that it was written approximately 70 CE. Matthew's Gospel is generally accepted as having been written in the 80s of the first century, followed by Luke around the end of the century or early in the second century. John's Gospel was written after Luke's Gospel, early in the second century.

Even traditionalist accept that Mark was not an eye-witness to the events that the Gospel portrays, and the unknown author of Mark's Gospel clearly was not. Raymond E. Brown (An Introduction to the New Testament) says that Mark seems to depend on traditions (and perhaps already shaped sources) received in Greek. Some parallels between Mark and Paul's Epistle to the Romans and his First Epistle to the Corinthians suggest that the author might have used material from Paul's letters as source material around which to write the story of Jesus. If so, the author could not have written his gospel until the epistles were written and had become widely circulated. The traumatic events leading up to 70 CE might have also led to the authorship of Mark's Gospel.

As a parallel reading in the Greek language shows, Matthew's Gospel and Luke's Gospel were actually based in large part on Mark's Gospel. They could not have been written before Mark's Gospel had become widely circulated. Similarly, John's Gospel was inspired by Luke's Gospel and necessarily post-dates it.

Answer 3

The early church decided to write the scriptures to preserve and pass down the teachings, stories, and messages of Jesus and the apostles for future generations. They wanted to ensure the accurate transmission of the faith and provide a foundation for Christian belief and practice.