The problematic literary relationship among the Synoptic Gospels has given rise to numerous theories of authorship and priority. The primary objective of Rethinking the Synoptic Problem is to familiarize students with the main positions held by New Testament scholars in this much-debated area of research.

The contributors to this volume, all leading biblical scholars, highlight current academic trends within New Testament scholarship and updates evangelical understandings of the Synoptic Problem.

This volume examines the Fourth Gospel narrative in terms of its character portrayal, especially the portrayal of anonymous characters. It focuses on how characterization impacts readers, eliciting their involvement in the narrative, particularly the recognition of and response to Jesus' identity, and how anonymity facilitates that participation.
The first chapters examine the understanding of characterization in contemporary literary theory, then the author explores other contemporaneous narratives for the function of anonymous characters in those narratives. The final chapters examine...

Jesus' parting words to his followers was for them to ""Go therefore and make disciples of all nations"" (Matt 28:19). This being the case, shouldn't we be concerned with gaining a full understanding of discipleship from the entire New Testament corpus? Many scholars recognize that the theme of discipleship is found throughout the New Testament, even in Revelation, with all of its symbolism and bizarre imagery. But how does it do this? The focus of this study, through the use of content analysis methodology, is to demonstrate that the theme of discipleship is not only found in the Apocalypse,...