This section deals with the earliest Christian writings which originated in the period after the crucifixion of Jesus up to the Roman war (a major event in Jewish history). As was the case with the Jews after they had lost the war, the survival of the new religion depended very much on the traditions (oral and literary) whose function it was to ensure that the contents of the religion would be handed down from generation to generation. As far as the Jews were concerned, they had lost their land and independence, making it possible for their literature to occupy a more prominent place in their religious life. As far as the first Christians were concerned, they had expected the imminent return of Jesus Christ. When this did not occur, it was also experienced as a kind of (albeit gradual) ‘loss’, and the production of literature filled the gap. The function of their literature was to remind the congregations of the contents of Jesus's teaching (Q and Thomas), but also to look for a Christian identity in the ongoing life in this world (the letters).

What emerges from a consideration of these writings is that there were, from almost the very beginning, different factions and different viewpoints within the early Christian movement. One can safely say that for the first Christians the person of Jesus was central to their faith. However, how he as person was interpreted, gave rise to different views. On the one hand, there were Christians who wanted to preserve Jesus's own religion, his attitude and teaching. In the Sayings Gospels Q and Thomas one clearly detects an attempt to preserve Jesus's views.

Paul, on the other hand, was a great intellectual thinker who developed a doctrine that would address the existential needs of Gentile Christians, especially with regard to the question of eternal life after death. Salvation for him meant salvation into eternal life, whereas for Jesus of Nazareth it meant (although he probably did believe in life after death) primarily salvation from an egocentric lifestyle to a life of altruism and love. Paul's connection with Jesus was that he took the notions of the latter's death and resurrection as the building blocks for his gospel of justification by faith which leads to salvation after death.