Jesus and Gospel /

This short, readable book by Stanton (Univ. of Cambridge) makes an important contribution to the study of Christian origins. The essays collected here all combine rigorous pursuit of historical questions with an indication of theological implications. The heart of the study is a long chapter on the development of the word for "gospel" from the teaching of Jesus and the proclamation of his death and resurrection, to the titles of four related books from the end of the second century, combining both earlier meanings. Three chapters amplify the discussion of certain aspects of the key thesis, and two additional chapters discuss important new evidence. The latter deal with early Christian addiction to the codex format for emergent scriptures and recent early papyri manuscripts as evidence for that addiction and its significance. Two chapters seem to discuss unrelated topics on the historical Jesus, but they share a similar method with the rest, moving from second-century polemics against Christianity back to Jesus' lifetime. Though only three essays in this collection have never been published before, the others have been revised from publications perhaps hard to find, and the long key chapter is virtually completely new. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. Lower-level undergraduates through faculty/researchers. L. Gaston emeritus, Vancouver School of Theology