implicit and explicit qualifications.6 The basic thrust of the response is that, while the Gospels are substantially historical, they are not literally historical in every word and detail. Before being written down, the gospel material passed through three stages of development which thoroughly modified it: (1) Jesus did and said things (2) which eyewitness disciples later incorporated into their preaching, and (3) still later this preaching became the source of the writers who gave us the Gospels.