Nooj

I'm an atheist to get that out of the way. Is there any scholarly (read: no loony stuff) discussion on possible Christian writings between the period of Jesus' death and the writing of the first Gospel? Do scholars think that the first Gospel to be written was the first biographical attempt at Jesus ever? It can't all have been oral tradition until the Gospel according to Mark could it?

And yes, I'm aware of Paul. But he doesn't seem to go in depth about Jesus' life.

spin

We don't know of any other biographical attempts, though

1. Mark does evince signs of manipulation of earlier written material, construction of sequences of scenes.
2. the fragments attributed to Papias deal with the formation of the gospels, one of which alludes to a Hebrew work by Matthew, which certainly doesn't reflect the text we have called Matthew. (It could be confusion in the tradition.)

spin

judge

The most touted idea is that there was something known as Q which existed before the gospels which are alleged to have been based on it.

If you find yourself getting confused when you read about Q, then you are probably following fairly well.

Huon

http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/

Early Christian Writings, developed by Peter Kirby, give possible dating ranges for many texts, and various comments about the texts.

Nooj

Thank you very much all!