Map of the ancient Near East, first centuries bce/ce, with places featured in this book x Acknowledgements xi Introduction xiii Timeline of the most important events mentioned in this book xix 1 Mark – ‘Good News’: Inner Catharsis as the Third Way Between Religion and Politics 1 ‘Good news’ 1 Mark in time and place 5 A new understanding of religion and politics 21 A new understanding of purity and purification: An inner catharsis 48 Jesus as innovator 57 The death of an innovator: The end, or a whisper of divinity? 59 An open ending: ‘And they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid’ 70 The figure of Mark, according to Papias, bishop of Hierapolis (c. 101–110 ce) 74 Postlude – A poetic reverberation: W. H. Auden’s ‘Kairos and Logos’ (1941) 79 2 Matthew – Beyond the Roman West and the Parthian East: The ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ and its Constitution 96 The antithesis between West and East: The Magi from the East 97 The constitution of an alternative kingdom between West and East: The Sermon on the Mount 108 The return to the mountain of the Sermon on the Mount 119 Readership and place of writing 121 The destruction of Jerusalem 123 The quest for the kingdom 124 The figure of Matthew, also according to Papias of Hierapolis 126 Postlude – A poetic reverberation: T. S. Eliot’s ‘Journey of the Magi’ (1927) 127 3 Luke – ‘The Way of Peace’: The Gospel as Journey Through the World 135 The Gospel of Luke, the last of the Synoptics 135 The location where Luke’s Gospel was written, Part I: Rome 140 The location where Luke’s Gospel was written, Part II: The Library of Peace 144 The relationship between the Gospels of Luke and Matthew 153 A SWOT analysis of Luke’s Gospel 168 Writing for a Roman Readership: Luke’s Romanization, Stoicization, and juridicization 202 Luke: Paul’s co-worker? 208 Postlude – A reverberation in prose: Maurice Laurentin’s Notebooks of an Infantryman (1914) 210 Postlude – A poetic reverberation: W. H. Auden’s ‘For the Time Being’ (1941–1942) 21 4 John – Spectators of the Truth: The Incarnation of the Logos on the Stage of Life 228 The Gospel engages its readers: Prologue, literary turning point, and direct second-person address 228 The date, location, and author of John’s Gospel 249 The Gospel’s themes 260 The purpose of John’s Gospel 273 Postlude – A poetic reverberation: Goethe’s Faust: A Tragedy (1808/1832) 275 5 Conclusion: The Circular Ripples of Jesus’ Historical Impact 286 The first ripple effect of Jesus’ impact: The Gospels of John and Mark 287 Abolishing the nineteenth-century distinction between John’s Gospel and the ‘historical’ Gospels 294 The second ripple effect of Jesus’ impact: The Gospel of Matthew 298 Placing Papias and Paul in the concentric circles 303 The third ripple effect of Jesus’ impact: The Gospel of Luke 305 After Luke: Various possible responses to the four Gospels 308 The various degrees of relationship between the Gospel authors and Jesus 309 The Jewish, Roman, and Greek identities of the Gospel authors and their distinctive emphases 313 Postlude – A poetic reverberation: Edward Shillito’s ‘Jesus of the Scars’ (1919) 314 List of Illustrations 321 Index of Names and Subjects 329 Index of Biblical References 355