Armin D. Baum, Professor of New Testament at the Free Theological University of Giessen, develops alternative answers to the classical questions of New Testament introduction in his extensive historical and literary introduction to the New Testament, of which the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles are included in this volume. The New Testament letters and the Revelation will follow in a second volume. In addition to language, narrative style, authorship, genres, the synoptic problem, and the time of origin, text-critical peculiarities and canonical-theological issues are also analyzed. In doing so, Armin D. Baum presents innovative models of thought and solutions as an alternative to the mainstream of German introductory science: The New Testament narrative books belong to ancient historiography and exhibit a predominant.