Includes bibliographical references and index

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."