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The Structure and Literary Character of the Gospels

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 October 2011

Martin Dibelius
Affiliation:
University of Heidelberg

Extract

The gospels are alike evidences for our faith and documents of a crisis in human history. They claim not only the interest of believers but also the most serious attention of the historical inquirer. No wonder, then, that the methods employed to throw light upon them show an ever increasing refinement, and that in the course of time every canon of criticism which can be utilized in the interpretation of ancient texts has come to be applied to the gospels. In dealing with the problem of the gospels we have to do something more than explain them bit by bit; we have also to answer the question how they came to exist at all.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1927

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References

1 I have borrowed these examples from an essay by Karl Ludwig Schmidt, ‘Die Stellung der Evangelien in der allgemeinen Literaturgeschichte,’ in Εὐχαριστήριoν for Hermann Gunkel, II, pp. 50 ff., Göttingen, 1923.

2 Die Formgeschichte des Evangeliums, p. 74.

3 Die Geschichte der synoptischen Tradition, p. 4.

4 Cf. Erich Fascher, Die formgeschichtliche Methode, Giessen, 1924.

5 J. A. Bengel, Novum Testamentum Graecum manuale, 1734.