The Sources of the Synoptic Gospels: Volume 2, St Luke and St Matthew

The gospels were written to preach Christ and not to satisfy the curiosities of the modern scholar, but they do contain important historical material of the first importance. That is Dr Knox's contention, and this book, which was originally published in 1957, seeks to take Gospel criticism a stage beyond Form-criticism. By acute detective work Dr Knox traces the use of primitive tracts incorporated by the Synoptic evangelists, delicately disentangling the virtually intact. The study of the Lucan material in this second volume carries much of the argument of the entire work, which attempts to show that the Synoptic gospels are compilations of sources first written down some thirty years closer to the time of the events than is commonly supposed. If this is established, the historical reliability of the account is correspondingly increased.