"Luke, in that double infancy story, sends two powerful messages to hearer or reader: John is the condensation and consummation of his people's past, but Jesus is far, far greater than John" (pg. 10.)

"Moses would 'save [his] people' from Egypt, but Jesus would 'save [his] people from their sins.'...Matthew, like Luke, sends a strong and powerful message ... Jesus is the new and greater Moses" (pg. 15.)

"Clearly, somebody went seeking in the Old Testament for a text that could be interpreted as prophesying a virginal conception, even if such was never its original meaning. Somebody had already decided on the transcendental importance of the Adult Jesus and sought to retroject that significance onto [Old Testament teachings]" (pg. 18.)

"...any decision on Jesus' socioeconomic class must be made not in terms of Christian theology but of cross-cultural anthropology, not in terms of those interested in exalting Jesus but in...