Saint Mark's Gospel is generally agreed to be the primary source for the life of Jesus - both Matthew and Luke drew on his account when they were writing their own. None of them, stresses the author of this book, was attempting to create a modern-style biography. But although Mark lays his own individual emphasis on the perennial struggle between the forces of good and evil, the suffering and secret Messiahship of Christ, he seems largely to be handing on, unmodified, the traditions of the early Christian Church.