I cannot publish a self-review of this book in Die Christliche Welt in a way that it would be homogeneous with the ways of thinking that are predominant in this magazine. This, however, is also not, after all, the expectation for the self-reviews published here. The only requirement is that the book discussed have “some sort of interest” for the circle of readers (vol. 1899, col. 957). This I may believe to be the case for my book. To be sure, it is aimed not at the general public but rather at scholarly circles. However, its arguments touch upon such important questions of New Testament research and distance themselves so strongly from the dominant views that I may nevertheless count on interest from the theologically engaged readers of this journal. Under these circumstances, I gladly take the opportunity to indicate what my writing aims to accomplish. … Download PDF to read more