Are the Synoptic Gospels at odds with Early Christian art and
archaeology? Art and archaeology cannot provide the material basis 'to
secure the irrefutable inner continuity' of the Christian beginnings
(Erich Dinkler); can the Synoptic Gospels step in? Their narratives,
however, are as absent from the first hundred and fourty years of early
Christianity as are their visual imageries. 'Many of the dates
confidently assigned by modern experts to the New Testament documents',
especially the Gospels, rest 'on presuppositions rather than facts'
(J.A.T. Robinson). The present volume is the first systematic study of
all available early evidence that we have about the first witness to our
Gospel narratives, Marcion of Sinope. It evaluates our commonly known
arguments for dating the Synoptic Gospels, elaborates on Marcion's
crucial role in the Gospel making and argues for a re-dating of the
Gospels to the years between 138 and 144 AD.