In their search for the historical Jesus, scholars have rightly focused their attention on the evidence of the four canonical gospels, but they have often given insufficient attention to the importance of other early Christian writings. This volume by an international team of authors, writing under the auspices of the Tyndale House Gospels Research Project, seeks to shed light on the gospels from outside the gospels. It includes essays on Paul's use of the Jesus tradition, the evidence of other New Testament writers, the Gospel of Thomas, the apocryphal gospels, the apostolic fathers, and on Jewish and classical traditions. The essays break new ground in various respects; and the volume as a whole, which is concluded by Dr. Richard Bauckham with an article on the problems and prospects of studying non-canonical gospel traditions, should prove a significant stimulus to ongoing research in this neglected area.
