Full Description
By the late second century, early Christian gospels had been divided into two groups by a canonical boundary that assigned normative status to four of them while consigning their competitors to the margins. Connecting Gospels: Beyond the Canonical/Non-canonical Divide finds new ways to reconnect these divided texts. Starting from the assumption that, in spite of their differences, all early gospels express a common belief in the absolute significance of Jesus and his earthly career, this authoritative collection makes their interconnectedness fruitful for interpretation. The contributors have each selected a theme or topic and trace it across two or more gospels on either side of the canonical boundary, and the resulting convergences and divergences shed light not least on the canonical texts themselves as they are read from new and unfamiliar vantage points. This volume demonstrates that early gospel literature can be regarded as a single field of study, in contrast to the overwhelming predominance of the canonical four characteristic of traditional gospels scholarship.
Contents
Abbreviations
List of contributors
Francis Watson and Sarah Parkhouse: Introduction
Part I: Beginnings
1: Simon Gathercole: Praeparatio Evangelica in Early Christian Gospels
2: Dieter T. Roth: Prophets, Priests, and Kings: Old Testament Figures in Marcion's Gospel and Luke
3: Mark Goodacre: The Protevangelium of James and the Creative Rewriting of Matthew and Luke
4: Christine Jacobi: Jesus' Body: Christology and Soteriology in the Body-Metaphors of the Gospel of Philip
Part II: Ministry
5: Matthew R. Crawford: Rejection at Nazareth in the Gospels of Mark, Matthew, Luke--and Tatian
6: Tobias Nicklas: Jesus and Judaism: Inside or Outside? The Gospel of John, the Egerton Gospel, and the Spectrum of Ancient Christian Voices
7: Christopher Tuckett: Women in the Gospels of Mark and Mary
Part III: Passion and Aftermath
8: Heike Omerzu: 'My Power, Power, you have left me': Christology in and beyond the Gospel of Peter
9: Francis Watson: A Gospel of the Eleven: the Epistula Apostolorum and the Johannine Tradition
10: Sarah Parkhouse: Matter and the Soul: the Bipartite Eschatology of the Gospel of Mary
11: Jens Schröter: Jesus and Early Christian Identity Formation: Reflections on the Significance of the Jesus Figure in Early Christian Gospels
Bibliography
