It might well be claimed that there was more development in christology during the period from the crucifixion of Jesus to the writing of St Paul's letter to the Philippians than in the following seven centuries of the development of patristic dogma. This survey traces what happened, in connection with the title 'Son of God'.With his encyclopaedic knowledge of the period, Professor Hengel examines the concept of Son of God in the milieu of the-New Testament, in Judaism and the Hellenistic world and their antecedents and then shows how it began to be used in earliest Christianity, in so doing shedding a new light on many classic problems of New Testament interpretation.Martin Hengel was Professor of New Testament and Early Judaism in the University of Tubingen. Translated by John Bowden.