Includes bibliographical references and indexes

1. The inadequacies of the Marcan hypothesis -- Mark's selection of items in relation to Matthew and Luke -- The order and chronology of Mark's gospel -- The relationship of Matthew and Luke -- The testimony of external evidence -- The testimony of history -- 2. Matthew and the Bible -- The shape of Matthew -- The challenge of Hellenism -- The challenge of Marcion -- The shape of the Bible -- Conclusion -- 3. The public career of Jesus -- Categories of evidence -- Preliminary methodological considerations -- Part I: The origin and development of the gospel tradition -- 4. The historical setting of Jesus' public ministry -- 5. Jesus and the gospel tradition -- 6. Paul and the Jesus tradition -- 7. Peter and Paul -- 8. Modification and creation of tradition -- 9. Chreiai -- 10. Legends and myths -- 11. The War of A.D. 66-70 and the development of the gospel tradition -- Part II: From the gospel tradition to the gospel genre -- 12. The sequence of the gospels -- 13. Renewal and postwar Syrian churches -- 14. Literary method of Matthew (Matt. 4:12-25) -- 15. Hellenistic rhetoric -- 16. Isaiah and the healing motif in Matthew -- 17. The wisdom motif -- 18. The motif of martyrdom and the passion of Jesus -- 19. Son of God Christology and the Passion of Jesus -- 20. Canon criticism of Mark -- Part III: The development of the New Testament canon -- 21. The final phase: The closing of the canon -- Alexander the Great -- Constantine the Great -- Eusebius's witness on the canon -- Summary statement -- 22. The classical phase: the forming of the canon -- The Alexandrian school -- Irenaeus and the church of Gaul -- 23. The archaic phase: the beginnings of the canon -- The protology of the Christian canon -- The conceptual importance of Luke-Acts -- Marcion -- Justin Martyr and Tatian -- Polycarp, Bishop and Martyr of Smyrna -- Basilides and Valentinus -- Irenaeus -- The collection of Paul's letters -- Hippolytus -- Summary conclusions

"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."