I plunged back into study of the Biblical writings. Four hints helped me both then and

in later studies:

1. By studying Gottfried Schille in Leipzig, widely known for his commentary on the Acts of the Apostles, I had learnt that the underlying tone in stories passed down and reworked for inclusion in the Gospels and the Acts is often quite different to the final Biblical version.

 

If these stories in the Gospels and the Acts are examined “against the grain”, then quite new layers of tradition emerge.