This study is a revised version of my Ph.D. thesis, submitted to the University of Kent in 2003. The thesis was the result of three years' research funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Board of the British Academy; I am grateful to the Research Board for the opportunity and the financial support.

Its origins may be located in the inspirational and passionate teaching of the Revd Dr Eric Franklin and Dr Brian Capper, who opened up the New Testament world for me and set me on my course. I am particularly grateful for the occasion on which Brian passed me a battered copy of Michael Hill's The Religious Order: A Study of Virtuoso Religion, and started me thinking about ‘a sect within the church’.

The process of developing the ideas contained in this study has been greatly assisted by a number of opportunities to present and discuss seminar papers: at the British New Testament Conference, in the Johannine Literature Seminar (2000), the Hermeneutics Seminar (2001), and the Synoptics Seminar (2002); also, at a Symposium hosted by St Andrews University on Anthropology and Biblical Studies (2004). I am grateful to all those who contributed to these discussions.

The revision of the thesis for publication has also been assisted by the comments and criticisms of my examiners, Professor Chris Rowland and the Revd Dr Jeremy Law, and by Dr John Court, the chair of my panel. The shortfalls in the work naturally remain my own.