writing a theological portrait, not a true historical narrative—theology, not history. The Fourth Gospel presents an “idea” of Jesus (a “myth,” Strauss called it) and cannot be seen as a historical account. Second, the cultural setting of John is Hellenistic rather than Jewish, as it was penned by a second-century Christian community far removed from the Jesus of ancient Judea. It is, quite simply, an attempt to express the gospel in the terms of Greek philosophy. In 1905 William Sanday of Oxford