Early Christian prophecy, a subject long neglected by New Testament scholarship, has recently become the focus of numerous articles and monographs. Though the literary sources for our knowledge of early Christian prophecy are, for the most part, fragmentary, scattered, difficult to correlate and enigmatic, progress in research can be made through the patient examination, comparison and interpretation of the relevant data. The major literary witnesses for the phenomenon of early Christian prophecy are Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, the Apocalypse of John, the Didache and the Shepherd of Hermas. These documents all diverge from one another in temporal, geographical as well as ideological ways; the portrait of Christian prophecy which they exhibit also diverges to such an extent that the phenomenon of Christian prophecy, or the Christian prophet, or the history of Christian prophecy cannot yet be synthesized.

1. What does Gal. 1–2 tell us about the relationship between Paul and the Jerusalem apostles during the ‘tunnel’ period between his conversion and his earliest correspondence? That is one of the key questions relating to the beginnings of Christianity which has never achieved a completely satisfactory resolution. It is clear enough that in Galatians itself Paul is striving to assert his independence from Jerusalem – that is hardly to be disputed. But that explanation has always left a number of puzzling loose ends. It is certainly a necessary explanation but has proved insufficient in itself to explain all that Paul says. We may think, for example, of the admission in 2. 2 that the decision of the Jerusalem apostles regarding Paul's gospel could have rendered his missionary work useless; and the awkward syntax of 2. 3–5 has given rise to various theses at odds with the clear overall thrust of these two chapters.

Die These, die hier erörtert werden soll, lautet: Die Versuchungsgeschichte Matt. 4. 1–11 stammt nicht aus der Redenquelle Q, sondern ist eine eigene Schöpfung des Evangelisten. Sie ist angeregt durch die Versuchungsge-schichte des Markus (1. 12 f.) und konzipiert als ein schriftgelehrtes Streitgespräch in Auseinandersetzung mit dem Judentum. Grundlage sind die Versuchungen Israels auf seinem Wüstenzug.

Röm 1. 18–32 bilden den ersten Abschnitt eines längeren Argumentationsgangs; er führt bis 3. 20, danach nimmt Paulus die These von der Rechtfertigung aus Glauben (1. 16 f.) wieder auf. In diesem Argumentationsgang (1. 18–3. 20) legt Paulus das Scheitern und die Erlösungsbedürftigkeit der Menschheit dar; er erläutert die negative Voraussetzung der Heilszuwendung, und zwar mit besonderer Blickrichtung auf den tora-frommen Juden. Die Argumentation berührt das Fundament sowohl der paulinischen Theologie (speziell seiner Soteriologie) als auch der gegnerischen Position. An der Stringenz der Gedankenführung hängt zwar nicht die Wahrheit des Evangeliums selbst, wohl aber die Einsicht in diese Wahrheit.