might want to begin “New Testament theology” with Galatians or 1 Thessalonians. My point, however, is that one cannot understand Galatians or Thessalonians or any of the apostolic witness without recognizing that they come to us in the historical and theological context of the Jesus traditions, which were already disseminated throughout the church. It is the teaching and life of Jesus as recorded in the Gospels that formed the entire mind-set and framework for what the New Testament authors preached