Jesus and the Gospel: Tradition, Scripture, and Canon

This book provides a credible account of the essential development of the tradition concerning Jesus from his own time to that of Constantine. The author, an internationally known and highly original scholar, situates the beginnings of the Jesus tradition with special reference to the Roman-Jewish War of AD 66-70. Attention is given to Paul in relation to the developing Jesus tradition, and to the normative importance of the historical and theological solidarity of Peter and Paul in the face of Judaizers on the one hand, and Gnostics who questioned the normativity of the imitatio Christi ideal on the other. With an account of the relationships between Jewish and Hellenistic literature and the literary and theological form of the Gospels, Prof. Farmer dwells especially on the incorporation of the Jesus tradition into that form. There is a new treatment of the sequence of the Gospels, a full discussion of the external evidence for any treatment of that sequence, and a comprehensive documentation of the secondary character of Mark. The author, who has long been associated with Matthean priority, here lays out his views on that position.