This study is a revised version of my doctoral thesis which was submitted to the University of Melbourne in February 1993, a week before I took up my lecturing responsibilities at Parkin-Wesley College, South Australia, and some eight weeks before the birth of my second child. I wish to acknowledge my gratitude to my supervisors, examiners, colleagues and, not least, to my family for enabling both the study itself to come to fruition, and the present revision to be undertaken.

It was with the encouragement of my supervisors Professor Frank Moloney and Dr Geoff Jenkins that I embarked on this project after the completion of my honours degrees in Arts and Theology. I am most grateful for their guidance, insightful criticisms and confidence in me. The choice of this area of studies came about through my fascination with the Gospels and a sense that the shape of the earliest Christianities was much more diverse than meets the eye. My studies took me to Göttingen, Germany, where I particularly appreciated the stimulation of the 1987 SNTS Conference. In 1987/88 I spent five months in Jerusalem, studying in the fine library of the Ecole Biblique et Archéologique Française, supported by a Robert Maddox Award. My thanks in this period are due particularly to the late Revd Dr Gilbert Sinden SSM and Revd Tom Brown SSM who welcomed my husband and me into their home for the duration of our stay in Jerusalem and offered us insight into the Holy Land.