Yes. ALL of the early first century Christians obtained knowledge of God and grew spiritually outside of the Bible, which didn’t even exist yet. Christianity spread like an airborne disease during its extreme persecution years before the Bible ever existed. These people were not motivated by, guided by, nor comforted by the Bible which didn’t even exist yet.
The first century Christians did have the bible. The same one that Jesus used when he opened the scroll. Jesus testified to the veracity of the prophets and the law. The first century Christians surely knew Jesus' teachings. I believe a Christian could do just fine today with only the Old Testament and Matthew's account of Jesus.
The Law and the Prophets that the Hebrews had is not the Bible as we know it today, and it is not the Bible that is being referred to in these discussions. The Law and the Prophets is not the Christian Bible that we have today (chaptered, versed, mapped, and wrapped). The Christian Bible that we have today is the one that is being referred to in these discussions. But, those first century Jewish Christians didn’t have their lives changed by the Law and the Prophets that they’d been reading and studying and living by for their entire lives. The Apostles didn’t become emboldened and stand up to the very power structure that had Jesus crucified because they were motivated by the Law and the Prophets that they’d been reading and studying and living by for their entire lives.
