Part 5

Jesus Followers included people who likely used writing in their everyday work.

These accounts suggest that the apostles and diciples must have applied themselves diligently to searching and studying the _script_ures so that they could fully understand the meaning of what they saw and heard with regard to their Lord, Jesus Christ. (Luke 1:14; Acts 17:11) On this, Harry Y.Gamble, professor of religious studies at the University of Virginia, write: "It can hardly be doubted that from the beginning there were Christians, probably groups of them, who devoted themselves to the close study and interpretation of Jewish _script_ure, constructing from it the textual warrants (proofs) of Christian convictions and making those texts seviceable for Christian preaching.

All of this indicates that rather than depending solely on oral transmission, Jesus' early diciples were very much involved in studying, reading, and writing. They were students, teachers. and writers.
Above all, they were spiritual men who relied on the holy spirit to guide them, Jesus assured them that " the spirit of the truth" would 'bring back to their minds and all the things he had told them.'
(John 14:17,26) God's holy spirit helped them both to remember and to put into writing what Jesus did and said, even lengthy quotations, such as the sermon on the Mount. ( Matthew, chapters 5-7)
The spirit also guided the Gospel writers in recording what Jesus at times felt and what he said in prayer. ( Matthew 4:2, 9:36; John 17:1-26)

So while the Gospel writers doubtless made use of both oral and written sources, the things they recorded had a far more reliable and supremely elevated source- God the father himself. Hence, we may have absolute confidence that " all _script_ures is inspired of God" and can teach and guide us in doing the things pleasing to him.(2 Timothy 3:16)