Everyone loves a good story, and this collection of ancient parables, allegories and other tales from around the time of Jesus is inspiring as well as entertaining. Few have been previously published in a form accessible to the general reader. Two of them, which almost certainly originated with Jesus, are not found in the canonical gospels.John Davidson shows how a universal spirituality is depicted in these ancient tales. As in The Gospel of Jesus, part of his purpose is to present the ancient teachings of early Christianity, previously inaccess-ible to all but a few specialists, in a form which is both clear and enjoyable.