Understanding the origins and beginnings of Christianity in a historical context and placing it within the framework of historical development is one of the greatest tasks facing historians. However, all historians have approached this with anxious reluctance: they treat Christianity as a given entity, tracing its further development, the influences of general cultural currents, and the conflicts it encounters with world powers; yet they seem to regard its beginnings as outside their scope. Nevertheless, there is a wealth of highly significant material here that awaits historical treatment; on the other hand, conventional accounts lack substance when they begin, for instance, with the Neronian persecution or the development of church doctrine, excluding what precedes as inaccessible to historical investigation.

Historian Eduard Meyer describes the origins and beginnings of Christianity in his three-volume series. In this first volume, Meyer provides a thorough and detailed examination of the Gospels.

The Verlag der Wissenschaften publishes historical literature by both well-known and lesser-known scholarly authors. This makes works that have long been out of print accessible again to interested readers. This book is an unaltered reprint of the original edition from 1921, which is no longer available.