Publisher's Synopsis
This work addresses itself to four interrelated questions: 1) What was the primary source of power that generated the Gospels? 2) To what extent do the Gospels represent a unique literary genre? 3) Does the Gospel genre permit us to talk seriously about the historical Jesus? 4) How do the Synoptic Gospels relate to the large body of literature describing the lives and teachings of the many highly revered, phrase-making itinerant teachers, healers and doers of miracles in the ancient world? The book's chief contribution is its application of some novel methodology called "Content Analysis" which produces an entirely new dimension of primary evidence for the examination of the problem of Synoptic origins. This throws a fresh light upon the entire discussion, and produces some new insights.
