Hypertextuality and Historicity in the Gospels

This book demonstrates that the Gospels originated from a sequential hypertextual reworking of the contents of Pauls letters and, in the case of Matthew and John, of the Acts of the Apostles. Consequently, the new quest for the historical Jesus, which takes this discovery into serious consideration, results in a rather limited reconstruction of Jesus life. However, since such a reconstruction includes, among others, Jesus messiahship, behaving in a way which was later interpreted as pointing to him as the Son of God, instituting the Lords Supper, being conscious of the religious significance of his imminent death, dying on the cross, and appearing as risen from the dead to Cephas and numerous other Jewish believers, it can be reconciled with the principles of the Christian faith.