The primary form of the Gospels is story, or narrative. We immediately need to make the concession that approximately half of the Gospels is discourse material (some of which takes the form of dialogues between Jesus and others, to which must be added the parables of Jesus). But the context within which the discourses exist is the overall story of Jesus’ life during his public years. We experience even the discourses as contributions to the overall story of Jesus. The Gospels do not follow a strict