Im allgemeinen wird eine genealogische Gesamtdarstellung der neutestamentlichen Überlieferung (natürlich jeweils für eine Schrift oder Schriftengruppe) wegen ihrer hochgradigen Kontamination und der groβen Anzahl der Zeugen für unmöglich gehalten. Ich möchte hier einige Überlegungen anstellen, in welchem Sinne und unter welchen Bedingungen eine Genealogie und eine entsprechende stemmatische Darstellung möglich ist. Dazu kann ich hier nur in Grundzügen und in vereinfachter Form eine neue Methode vorstellen.

As a supplement to the careful analysis of early Christian texts, anyone studying the historical Jesus of Nazareth is inevitably drawn to make comparisons between him and other figures from the ancient world in general, and first-century Palestine in particular. Just what type of figure was he? For example, in his book, Jesus the Jew, Geza Vermes emphasizes Jesus' compatibility with the category of Jewish charismatic figures like Honi the Circle-drawer (perhaps a Galilean) and Hanina Ben-Dosa (definitely a Galilean). Morton Smith compares the actions and words of Jesus to the magical papyri and finds remarkable similarities to ancient magicians, thus the title of his book, Jesus the Magician. Smith, like Celsus 1800 years earlier, delights in showing how Jesus was just one of the many fakers and charlatans practising the magical arts in the first-century Mediterranean world. More recently, Burton Mack has argued that Jesus was a cynic sage like those found in Diogenes Laertius' Lives of Eminent Philosophers. In Mack's reconstruction, Jesus' thought was not eschatological, nor did Jesus intend to found a movement or movements devoted to himself; rather, he preached the flaunting of social conventions and criticized his culture in general terms, like other cynic philosophers.

The death of Colin Hemer in 1987 has deprived the fellowship of New Testament scholars of one who, like his late mentor F. F. Bruce, was able to bring to bear on the study of the text of the New Testament the insights and discipline of one trained in the Classics. Hemer's posthumously published The Book of Acts in the Setting of Hellenistic History is an attempt on a large scale to argue the case for the historicity of Acts with respect to attention to matters of detail, and, as a consequence, the trustworthiness of its author. Luke the historian, contends Hemer, deserves to be judged according to the historiographical conventions of his day, the conventions of a venerable historiographical heritage whose great exemplar in the Hellenistic era was Polybius. Hemer's bringing of a vast collection of epigraphical and archaeological evidence to bear on the question of Lukan historicity should shake the presuppositions and conclusions of the sceptical and help NT scholars to appreciate both Lukan accuracy and Acts' ‘topicality’.

There has been in recent years an upsurge of interest in the social description of early Christianity, particularly in the reconstruction of its ‘social world’. Any valid sociological analysis of early Christianity of necessity depends upon the exacting interpretation of the NT texts, since these constitute the necessary data for such studies. In many cases such exegetical ground-work has been done thoroughly and well, so that fruitful social studies can be conducted on the basis of the resulting data. Unfortunately, in the case of early Christian disciplinary practices, relatively little careful research has been done, and much of what has been done is, in the opinion of the present writer, seriously flawed. Social descriptions based upon this data are inevitably likewise flawed, and a distorted picture of early Christian communal life is the unfortunate result. The nature of early Christian discipline is obviously a problem of a social nature, but before serious sociological studies can be done, there must be a correction of the distortions which are currently prevalent in the scholarly consensus regarding this subject.

Compared with that of classic Pauline texts, the history of exegesis of 1 Cor 6.1–11 is modest. Still, the fact that this text has not been studied much does not render it problem-free. On the contrary, it continues to elude an easy interpretation. The standard treatment discusses the integrity of these eleven verses, looks at their placement within the context of chapters 5 and 6, and attempts to explain whether and how Paul envisioned Christians settling their legal disputes. Little attention, however, has been given to the social situation of the community that may have occasioned Paul's remarks about lawsuits in Corinth. This study examines that social situation on the premise that Paul sees the problem of lawsuits on two levels. One looks to the community's relationship to the outside world. The other looks to the community's internal life, where Paul understands the litigiousness of some Christians to be part of the larger problem of social division in the Corinthian churches.

In the latter half of the nineteenth century no New Testament scholar in the English speaking world was more respected than J. B. Lightfoot. His New Testament commentaries and his magisterial five volume work on the Apostolic Fathers were models of the scholarly thoroughness of British erudition coupled with the humility of Anglican piety. Their influence would reach well into the twentieth century.

The Letters to the Seven Churches (Rev 2–3) have been the subject of extensive study by modern scholars, partly because of the feeling that they may provide a convenient point of entry and even a key to the understanding of some of the complexities and mysteries of the Book of Revelation as a whole. There is a broad consensus today that the letters were not written separately, sent to each church and later collected (the older view championed by Spitta), but were published as a block along with the rest of the book. Each church would thus receive not only the letter addressed to it, but also the letters addressed to the other six churches.