A variety of noted scholars respond to Michael Goulder's reading of the Gospel as Midrash on the liturgies of the Jewish festivals and calendar.

Goulder and the Gospels is the first comprehensive response to the radical challenge Michael Goulder has posed for New Testament scholarship. Goulder dispenses with all hypothetical sources-Q, M and L and postulates highly creative evangelists who write in the light of the liturgy. In this penetrating critique, Goodacre provides a critical overview of Goulder's work, focusing on several key areas, the vocabulary of Q, the language of the Minor Agreements, the creativity of Luke and the lectionary theory. He does not simply assess the plausibility of Goulder's ideas but also develops new ways to test them. The theories are sometimes found to be wanting, but at the same time Goulder is reaffirmed as one of the most important and stimulating Biblical scholars of this generation.

Offers a fresh reading of the much-debated Synoptic Problem.

This volume contains a collection of twenty-one essays of John S. Kloppenborg, with four foci: conceptual and methodological issues in the Synoptic Problem; the Sayings Gospel Q; the Gospel of Mark; and the Parables of Jesus. Kloppenborg, a major contributor to the Synoptic Problem, is especially interested in how one constructs synoptic hypotheses, always aware of the many gaps in our knowledge, the presence of competing hypotheses, and the theological and historical entailments in any given hypothesis. Common to the essays in the remaining three sections is the insistence that the literature, thought and practices of the early Jesus movement must be treated with a deep awareness of their social, literary, and intellectual contexts. The context of the early Jesus movement is illumined not simply by resort to the literary and historical sources produced by Greek and Roman elites but, more importantly, by data gathered from documentary sources available in non-literary papyri.

Breaking a 200-year impasse on the origins of the gospels Biblical scholars want to get to the roots of the gospels—the very earliest memories of Jesus and his world. Though scholars know about all the major concepts at work—Q, the Urgospel, priority—it seems like a definitive solution to the Synoptic problem is hopelessly unattainable. Why the impasse? And where do we go from here? In Jesus Tradition, Early Christian Memory, and Gospel Writing, Alan Kirk guides us through the history of biblical scholars’ quest for the authentic source. Kirk reveals that outdated assumptions about ancient media realities have caused the past two centuries of academic deadlock. Using cutting-edge scholarship on orality, memory, and tradition formation, he shows how the origins of the gospels may be found in the memory practices of the earliest Jesus communities. Jesus Tradition, Early Christian Memory, and Gospel Writing is an essential resource for scholars and students looking to better understand this complex and rapidly changing field.

Burkett offers a new viewpoint on the much-debated Synoptic Problem. He contends that each theory regarding the Synoptic Problem is problematic. Each presents a case for the mutual dependence of one source upon another - for example, Matthew and Luke depend primarily on Mark, but use each other where they report the same story not contained already in Mark. Neither Mark nor Matthew nor Luke served as the source for the other two, but all depended on a set of earlier sources now lost. The relations between the Synoptic Gospels are more complex than the simpler theories have assumed.

Resourcing New Testament Studies includes fifteen essays, contributed by twenty, internationally known scholars, including representatives from North America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. These colleagues joined together to honor David Laird Dungan, Emeritus Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, whose impressive teaching, research, and publishing career has now spanned over four decades. Opening 'Part I. In Honor of David L. Dungan,' is a lively and revealing 'Cooperative Essay on a Collaborative Scholar,' composed by five of Dungan's colleagues; three, from the University of Tennessee; a fourth, from the editorial team with Dungan for The International Bible Commentary; and the fifth, Dungan's friend from childhood and co-author of their popular Sourcebook for the Study of the Gospels. Part I concludes with a full bibliography of Dungan's published work. Subsequent Parts of the volume focus on three themes, each reflecting some aspect of Dungan's own work, 'Part II. The Synoptic Problem;' 'Part III. Jesus, the Gospels and Acts' and 'Part IV. Canon, Theology and Ethics.' Contributors to this Festschrift include David R. Cartlidge, Robert A. Derrenbacker, Jr., William R. Farmer, David Noel Freedman with Henry Innes MacAdam, Albert Fuchs, Birger Gerhardsson, Jan Lambrecht, Adrian Leske, David E. Linge, Sean McEvenue, Ralph V. Norman, Samuel Oyin Obogunrin, Charles H. Reynolds, Hans-Hartmut Schroeder, Joseph B. Tyson, William O. Walker, Jr., and the three co-editors, Allan J. McNicol, David B. Peabody and J. Samuel Subramanian.