The suggestion that a selection of my published essays be collected into a single volume came from a friend, who must remain anonymous, for he must not be implicated in their imperfections; but I offer him my thanks for his encouraging estimate of them. It was on his initiative that the Cambridge University Press, to whom also I owe thanks, approached me with the proposal – a proposal too flattering to be easily resisted. The choice of papers for the collection is largely that of the same friend. A writer is in a bad position to judge of the respective merits of his own pieces so I have accepted his guidance. At the Press, I owe special thanks to my friend Dr R. L. Williams for devoting much precious time to checking references and supervising the preparation of materials for printing, and to Mrs A. W. Field, to whom fell the exacting task of bringing some sort of consistency into articles printed in a wide diversity of styles.

Especially in New Testament scholarship work moves fast and fashions change still faster. Is it desirable to reprint studies related to the debates of former years? Ought they not at least to be revised and redirected? That is a fair question.