Abstract

Modern Christians tend to read the gospels as if they were outlines for historical novels or movie scripts presenting Jesus “as he really wasµ. But how much does our reading of the gospels depend on the environment in which we encounter them, whether in digital format, in print or manuscript, heard orally or read in writing, by oil lamp or electric light? This article compares two of the most prolific scriptural commentators in the Catholic tradition, the Benedictine Rupert of Deutz and the Jesuit Cornelius a Lapide, for an insight into the way the media affect our access to the gospels.