The speech embodied the message of the gospel, while its form, as clarified in the present study, is due to the efforts of prominent speakers to make the gospel of grace and truth accepted by multiple recipients, within a literary context dominated by the imitation of ancient Attic dialect and the poetic effect created by rhetorical figures of speech.

The speech took its final form in the 4th century and sealed a continuous speaking activity during the first three Christian centuries, mostly unknown due to the priority of oral tradition and the general lack of written means.

The integration of the preaching of Jesus, the apostles, and their disciples into the Hellenistic and Jewish literary context of their time, as well as the role of the recipients in shaping it, are the two main axes on which this volume revolves.