Preliminary Material /A.J. Mattill and Mary Bedford Mattill -- Bibliographical Studies /A.J. Mattill and Mary Bedford Mattill -- General Studies /A.J. Mattill and Mary Bedford Mattill -- Textual Studies /A.J. Mattill and Mary Bedford Mattill -- Philological Studies /A.J. Mattill and Mary Bedford Mattill -- Literary Studies /A.J. Mattill and Mary Bedford Mattill -- Form-critical Studies /A.J. Mattill and Mary Bedford Mattill -- Historical Studies /A.J. Mattill and Mary Bedford Mattill -- Theological Studies /A.J. Mattill and Mary Bedford Mattill -- Exegetical Studies of Individual Passages /A.J. Mattill and Mary Bedford Mattill -- Index of Authors /A.J. Mattill and Mary Bedford Mattill -- New Testament Tools and Studies /Bruce M. Metzger.

This book uncovers an early collection of sayings, called N, that are ascribed to Jesus and are similar to those found in the Gospel of Thomas and in Q, a document believed to be a common source, with Mark, for Matthew and Luke. In the process, the book sheds light on the literary methods of Mark and Thomas. A literary comparison of the texts of the sayings of Jesus that appear in both Mark and Thomas shows that each adapted an earlier collection for his own purpose. Neither Mark nor Thomas consistently gives the original or earliest form of the shared sayings; hence, Horman states, each used and adapted an earlier source. Close verbal parallels between the versions in Mark and Thomas show that the source was written in Greek. Horman’s conclusion is that this common source is N. This proposal is new, and has implications for life of Jesus research. Previous research on sayings attributed to Jesus has treated Thomas in one of two ways: either as an independent stream of Jesus sayings written without knowledge of the New Testament Gospels and or as a later piece of pseudo-Scripture that uses the New Testament as source. This book rejects both views.

Leading scholars in early Christianity, Judaic studies, classics, history and archaeology explore the ways that memories were retrieved, reconstituted and put to use by Jews, Christians and their pagan neighbours in late antiquity, from the third century B.C.E. to the seventh century C.E.