"Today, before we Christians begin to read a gospel, we already know the lines of the story. It was the same at the start. The first readers or hearers of each gospel knew the story as well as the evangelist. Each evangelist put a 'spin' on a familiar story. The reader will ask: why is he telling the story like this? One of the joys of studying the gospels is a growing appreciation of the literary sophistication of the evangelists." --From the introduction...