Editors Mark Harding and Alanna Nobbs have here brought together the internationally recognized scholarly excellence of Macquarie University faculty and associates to provide a major contribution to the study of the content and environment of the New Testament Gospels. Few books in current New Testament scholarship seriously tackle its social setting and textual tradition beyond a chapter or two. The Content and Setting of the Gospel Tradition integrates the texts with the literary, social, and historical context in which they were written.

The publication of the King James version of the Bible, translated between 1603 and 1611, coincided with an extraordinary flowering of English literature and is universally acknowledged as the greatest influence on English-language literature in history. Now, world-class literary writers introduce the book of the King James Bible in a series of beautifully designed, small-format volumes. The introducers' passionate, provocative, and personal engagements with the spirituality and the language of the text make the Bible come alive as a stunning work of literature and remind us of its overwhelming contemporary relevance.

The historical reliability of the Gospels has been discussed from the Enlightenment onwards. At present, many scholars assume that the canonical Gospels as we have them are essentially fictions constructed near the end of the first century to meet the needs of the Christian movement of that time and that they give us very little reliable information regarding the life and teachings of Jesus. But have these scholars really understood the nature of the written Gospels? Birger Gerhardsson has devoted almost the whole of his academic career to the study of the oral tradition that is the basis of our canonical Gospels. His groundbreaking doctoral dissertation, "Memory and Manuscript," drew a parallel between the way in which the rabbis taught their disciples and the way Jesus taught his disciples: both required memorization of the master s teaching. Rabbinic disciples handed on their masters tradition with great care, and we can be sure that the disciples of Jesus would have been no less careful with what he taught them! "The Reliability of the Gospel Tradition" presents three studies that illuminate how the early Christians passed on tradition. The Origins of the Gospel Tradition gives an accessible review of the debate regarding the extent to which the New Testament evangelists enable us to hear the voice of Jesus. The Path of the Gospel Tradition contains a critical discussion of the approach of the form-critical school to the problem of the early Christian tradition, ending with an alternative sketch of the path of the tradition. The Gospel Tradition offers a rather detailed picture of various aspects of the content and method of early Christian tradition and assesses thereliability of the four oldest of the extant written records. In the current climate of skepticism I know of nothing more helpful than Birger Gerhardsson s writings, and that is why I am particularly delighted that the pieces that compose the present volume are again available in print. New generations of students deserve to have them, not merely because they ultimately vindicate the church s estimate of Jesus, but because they are true to the nature of the Gospels themselves and to the purpose of those who wrote them." Donald A. Hagner (from the Foreword)

The earliest of the four Gospels, the book portrays Jesus as an enigmatic figure, struggling with enemies, his inner and external demons, and with his devoted but disconcerted disciples. Unlike other gospels, his parables are obscure, to be explained secretly to his followers. With an introduction by Nick Cave

The traditions about Jesus and his teaching circulated in oral form for many years, continuing to do so for decades following the writing of the New Testament Gospels. James Dunn is one of the major voices urging that more consideration needs to be given to the oral use and transmission of the Jesus tradition as a major factor in giving the Synoptic tradition its enduring character.