A STATEMENT

The results of study here set forth were presented first, in their main features, at a joint meeting of the New Testament and Systematic Theology Clubs of the University of Chicago on February 23, 1904.

The fashioning of the material into a form suitable for the compositor's hands was completed first on September 24, 1904. In that copy there was no committal to any proposed solution of the Synoptic Problem other than the recognition of the Gospel of Mark as one of the main documents used in the production of the First and Third Gospels. On December 15, 1904, there appeared Some Principles of Literary Criticism and Their Application to the Synoptic Problem, by Ernest DeWitt Burton. After a prolonged and thorough study of this work, it was decided to accept its results, in their larger outlines, as the critical basis for the present work. As a consequence, an almost entire rewriting of the material was made necessary, though the conclusions previously reached, both in general and in particular, were unaffected. This revision was concluded on June 13, 1905, and is herewith presented without any changes from the form given at that time. For various reasons, publication has been deferred until the present.

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

February 23, 1909

A DEFINITION

In definition of the scope of this study, it may be said that the word "Future," as used in the title, covers the time subsequent to the final severance of relations between Jesus and his disciples. There is excluded, therefore, the study of the reputed teaching of Jesus about his rejection, sufferings, death, resurrection, and appearances after the resurrection. There is included, however, a study of such teaching about the future as is reported to have been given in the post-resurrection period of Jesus' life.

It has been the purpose and endeavor to bring under examination every utterance credited to Jesus in the Synoptic Gospels which contains teaching about the "Future" as above defined. That the study might comprehensively cover all phases of the outlook of Jesus upon the future, it has been the choice to err on the side of inclusion rather than of exclusion of passages with doubtful time content.