CHAPTER I<br > The Birth of the Gospels<br >Anyone today who wants to know more about the life and<br >times of prominent historical figures--let us say， men like<br >Napoleon Bonaparte， Mahatma Ghandi， or one of our dis-<br >tinguished American presidents like Abraham Lincoln--has<br >access to a vast amount of resource material: histories， biog-<br >raphies， memoirs， documentaries， newspaper clippings and<br >sometimes even photographs. There is no end to the quality<br >and amount of information available about such men. The<br >problem， if any， is one of abundance. A reader would have<br >to be selective and discriminate so as to choose wisely from<br >among the various resources， because not all of them would<br >suit his purposes.<br > But what sources are available for researching the life<br >of Jesus of Nazareth? Unfortunately， the ample documentary<br >material readily obtainable for a Napoleon， Ghandi or Lincoln<br >is not as abundant or available for Jesus. It is not that re-<br >sources are lacking; but that they are qualitatively different.<br >Our main sources are the New Testament Scriptures: docu-<br >ments of faith， written testimonies to the Lordship of Jesus，<br >accounts recorded "to help you believe that Jesus is the Mes-<br >siah， the Son of God， so that through this faith you may have<br >life in his name" (Jn 21:31). Both in form and content the<br >New Testament Scriptures are ，an inspiring body of religious<br >literature about a truly unique historical person， but they are<br >hardly adequate materials for a detailed biography of Jesus.<br > What about extra-biblical sources? Do they offer any<br >evidence for the life and times of Jesus ? Pagan histories of the<br ><br >