by K. L. Schmidt, Martin Dibelius and Rudolf Bultmann, launched New Testament form-critical studies. Of these, Bultmann’s The History of the Synoptic Tradition quickly became the classic statement of this approach for years to come.42 While form criticism focuses on the question of the pre-Gospel oral Jesus tradition, it brought with it (particularly in Bultmann’s influential version) several methodological assumptions that served to further amplify skeptical attitudes toward the Gospels as historical