That John Robinson argued for a very early dating of all the books of the New Testament is well known. In this work, he holds to early dating, continuing to see this Gospel as completed before A.D. 70. Priority, however as he uses it in this book is not synonymous with first". He believes that all the Gospels were coming into being over a period more or less simultaneously and at different stages their traditions and their redactions could well shows signs of mutual influence. But the priority of John does not depend on which Gospel was begun or finished first. The priority of John means that we begin with what he has to tell us on its own merits and ask how the others fit historically and theologically into that are illumined by it and in turn illuminate it.