Full Description
For the last two centuries biblical interpretation has been guided by perspectives that have largely ignored the oral context in which the gospels took shape. Only recently have scholars begun to explore how ancient media inform the interpretive process and an understanding of the Bible. This collection of essays, by authors who recognize that the Jesus tradition was a story heard and performed, seeks to reevaluate the constituent elements of narrative, including characters, structure, narrator, time, and intertextuality. In dialogue with traditional literary approaches, these essays demonstrate that an appreciation of performance yields fresh insights distinguishable in many respects from results of literary or narrative readings of the gospels.
Contents
Preface
Abbreviations
Contributors
1 Performance Criticism: A Paradigm Shift in New Testament Studies
David Rhoads and Joanna Dewey
2 Those Sitting around Jesus: Situating the Storyteller within Mark's Gospel
Philip Ruge-Jones
3 Characters in Text and Performance: The Gospel of John
Holly E. Hearon
4 Audience Asides and the Audiences of Mark: The Difference Performance Makes
Thomas E. Boomershine
5 Sound and Structure in the Gospel of Matthew
Margaret E. Lee
6 The Present Tense of Performance: Immediacy and Transformative Power in Luke's Passion
Kelly R. Iverson
7 From Performance to Text to Performance: The New Testament's Use of the Hebrew Bible in a Rhetorical Culture
Kathy Maxwell
8 "This Is My . . . ": Toward a Thick Performance of the Gospel of Mark
Richard W. Swanson
Bibliography
Author Index
