Significant Books On the Message of the Gospels

Abstract

E ACH of the Gospels was written to meet the needs of the Primitive Church, and reflects to some degree the situation in which it was written. This insight, which has been stressed by form criticism, need not lead to skepticism. But it does emphasize the fact that we must make a distinction between the message of Jesus and that of the Gospels. If we make this distinction, the first thing to do is to lay hold of the message of the Gospels, and then, when we have taken into account the special interests of each Gospel, seek to state the message of Jesus. In other words, we must go through, and not around, the critical studies of the Gospels, if we wish to get at the teaching of Jesus. Therefore this article takes a broad survey and asks what books published since the first world war are significant for the teacher of the Gospels. I. Background Studies. A compact general survey of New Testament background is given by G. H. C. Macgregor and A. C. Purdy in Jew and Greek: Tutors Unto Christ.' Acquaintance with Hellenistic background, particularly valuable for study of the Fourth Gospel, will grow by use of Harold H. Willoughby's Pagan Regeneration2 and S. Angus' The Religious Quests of the Graeco-Roman World.3 Both books provide bibliographical help. Erwin R. Goodenough has provided excellent aid for study of the leading figure of Hellenistic Judaism in An Introduction to Philo Judaeus.'