Summary: Fr Gabriel turns to his great love, Biblical studies, and discusses two books from the mid-20th Century that were and continue to be deeply influential in his life. These were written by the British scholar C. H. Dodd, who was called the greatest New Testament scholar of his era. Dodd's books were small—Fr. Gabriel calls his writing "concise, clear, and succinct"—but they were of great importance to many Bible students. These two books are The Apostolic Preaching and Its Development (1936) and According to the Scriptures (1952). In the first of these, Dodd traced the roots of New Testament documents, not through theology primarily but through the need for preaching texts. In the second, Dodd gives a thorough presentation of major Old Testament passages shared by early writers to substantiate Jesus as Messiah.
