HE TERM Formgeschichte as applied to the New Testament has been in use for only a few years. Martin Dibelius' is responsible for originating the term; Erich Fascher2 has sketched its history; and I myself have attempted its critical evaluation.3 At present I shall endeavor to show what it aims to accomplish and to estimate its possibilities. Since the term has arisen in connection with the critical study of the Gospels, and its application has for the most part been restricted to them, therefore for the sake of clearness it will be best for us to confine our attention to the Gospels, and, indeed, owing to the distinctive character of the Fourth Gospel, we shall give attention chiefly to the Synoptics. During a century and a half the study of the Synoptics, as the first three Gospels were called by Griesbach in 177I, made remarkable progress, and by about the year 19oo a substantial body of conclusions was available.! In the field of literary criticism one investigated the mutual relation of the Gospels to one another and to their sources, that is, to the written or the oral tradition which antedated the Synoptics. At the same time, and more especially in dependence upon the results of literary criticism, one investigated the trustworthiness of the contents of the Gospels. This study is known as historical criticism. In