Actually, during the time of the disciples they did have the Greek Old Testament (the “Septuagint”), and Liturgies which preserved the heart of the gospel. In fact, many surmise that the difficulty in the flow of the timeline of the gospel of St John stems from the supposed fact that the gospel of pastiche of older passages used in liturgies, finally written as a single work as St. John felt his death was becoming imminent.
Yes. I’m just referring to the idea that some of Paul’s letters had not even been written yet, likewise, Revelation.
Not every Christian has had a complete bible and many (think Gentile converts) never saw any “old testament” writings. The bible is a powerful tool, but a person can be a Christian without having ever seen a bible or read a word of its content.
I’ve been reading Kostenberger’s “The Lion and the Lamb” which is an introduction to the New Testament. I just finished the section on John yesterday.
There is quite a bit of structure in each of the Gospel accounts. Conservative scholars attribute differences in the flow of the timeline to differences in emphasis for each of the Gospel writers.
Culturally, telling “linear” stories was not high on the list of important things in the mind of the writer.