Matthew's Christology is theocentric, presenting God's rule as manifest in the life of Jesus as an alternative to the sovereignty and power of this-worldly rulers. This Christology is expressed in the narrative mode. It can be appreciated and appropriated better in the context of the narratives in which contemporary interpreters are embedded.

The representative summary of John's theology is the hymnic word drawn from the heavenly worship in which the church of that day—and ours—is invited to join: “Alleluiah! The Lord our God the Almighty reigns.”.

Whether or not one is justified in speaking of a “third quest of the historical Jesus” is open to debate. Any historical quest for Jesus, however, involves three stages of research: (a) establishing a data base of authentic materials; (b) reconstructing a plausible picture of Jesus; and (c) assessing the significance of one's reconstructed Jesus for later history.