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156 pages

English

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Popular writer and teacher Jeannine Brown shows how a narrative approach illuminates each of the Gospels, helping readers see the overarching stories. This book offers a corrective to tendencies to read the Gospels piecemeal, one story at a time. It is filled with numerous examples and visual aids that show how narrative criticism brings the text to life, making it an ideal supplementary textbook for courses on the Gospels. Readers will gain hands-on tools and perspectives to interpret the Gospels as whole stories.

Sujets

Lettres et linguistique

Informations

Publié par	Baker Publishing Group
Date de parution	16 juin 2020
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781493423552
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	2 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0528€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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Cover
Half Title Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
© 2020 by Jeannine K. Brown
Published by Baker Academic
a division of Baker Publishing Group
PO Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.bakeracademic.com
Ebook edition created 2020
Ebook corrections 02.10.2021
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
ISBN 978-1-4934-2355-2
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Scripture quotations labeled CEB are from the Common English Bible. © Copyright 2011 by the Common English Bible. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Unless otherwise indicated, Septuagint translations are the author’s own.
Dedication
To Kate and Libby: You are indispensable to my narrative
Contents
Cover i
Half Title Page ii
Title Page iii
Copyright Page iv
Dedication v
Figures ix
Preface xi
Abbreviations xiii
Part 1: Introduction 1
1. The Turn to Gospels as Stories: Narrative Criticism in Gospel Studies 3
Part 2: Plot and Plotting 21
2. The Selection, Sequence, and Shape of the Story 23
3. Narrative Plotting in the Gospel of Luke 43
Part 3: Character and Characterization 63
4. The People in the Story 65
5. Matthew’s Characterization of the Disciples 85
Part 4: Intertextuality 105
6. The Stories behind the Story 107
7. Intertextuality in John: Passover Lamb and Creation’s Renewal 127
Part 5: Narrative Theology 145
8. How a Story Theologizes 147
9. The God of Mark’s Gospel 165
Part 6: Conclusion 181
10. The Ongoing Power of the Gospels as Stories 183
Recommended Resources 187
Glossary 191
Scripture Index 197
Subject Index 205
Back Cover 211
Figures
1.1. A Narrative’s Story Level: The “What” of the Story 12
1.2. A Narrative’s Discourse Level: The “How” of the Story 13
2.1. Unique Episodes and Teachings in the Gospels: A Selection 30
2.2. The Pacing of Matthew’s Gospel: Alternation of Narrative (N) and Discourse (D) 41
3.1. Parallel Accounts in the Lukan Birth Narrative (Luke 1–2) 46
3.2. Sequencing of Vignettes in Luke 1–2 47
3.3. Diagram of Plot and Themes for Luke 4:14–9:50 53
3.4. Meal Scenes in the Travel Narrative 57
3.5. Unique Lukan Parables in the Travel Narrative 58
4.1. Key Christology Emphases in the Gospels 66
4.2. Comparison between Episodes of John 3 and 4 81
5.1. Peter and the Disciples: Distinctive or Similar Portraits? 89
5.2. Disciples’ Words Showing Their Inadequate Understanding 92
6.1. Matthew’s Gentile Inclusion Theme 116
6.2. Intertextual Definitions 117
7.1. The Timing of Jesus’ Crucifixion in John 132
7.2. John 19:36 Allusion 133
7.3. The Seven Signs in John (Chaps. 1–12) 141
8.1. Interpretive Questions from Story to Theology 156
8.2. Festival Settings in John 5–10 160
9.1. The “Good News” according to Isaiah 169
9.2. Hearing from God in Mark 177
10.1. Starting with the Story 184
Preface
The Gospels as Stories has been a long time in the making. Although I did my doctoral work on a narrative-critical reading of the disciples in the Gospel of Matthew, 1 it took a while for the narrative method I had learned and was honing in my own work to filter into the courses I regularly taught on the Gospels. For example, I continued to follow the traditional route of assigning students a single passage (eight to ten verses) to test their abilities to interpret a Gospel. But each year I taught the Gospels, it seemed less and less helpful to focus students’ attention on such a small bit of the text when whole vistas of a Gospel remained potentially unexplored. Coupled with my own desire to grasp the whole of a Gospel—to hear its “narrative logic”—I began assigning students and myself bigger and bigger projects.
Early on I developed a Gospel “plot/theme diagram” as an attempt to visualize a wider segment of the text. My first attempt at this kind of narrative diagramming focused on John 1–12, as I tried to get a sense of the flow of the first half of that Gospel through John’s use of settings, discourses, controversies, the seven “signs,” and Jesus’ seven “I am” statements. From there I moved to Matthew, Mark, and Luke (for an example, see fig. 3.3: Diagram of Plot and Themes for Luke 4:14–9:50). And I began to press my students in similar ways to grapple with the Gospels as whole stories. A favorite assignment (at least for me, if not for them) is a plot/theme diagram of the Lukan travel narrative (9:51–19:27). Given that this section of Luke is notoriously difficult to outline, I thought a different approach for grasping the whole might be helpful. Students have tended to find it so, and they certainly have a better grasp of Luke when they are done.
By teaching the Gospels differently, I learned to apply narrative criticism more consistently (in a form that made particular sense to me) to my own interpretation of the Gospels. Early work in my dissertation on characterization has been augmented by work on plotting (attending to the shaping of each Gospel) and on intertextuality, with the conviction that the Gospel writers use the Old Testament in careful and storied ways for narrating their own stories of Jesus. 2 I’ve also become increasingly interested in the theology of the Gospels, so much so that narrative theology has become a keen interest of mine. 3 The Gospels as Stories is the result of these various engagements with plotting (chaps. 2–3), characterization (chaps. 4–5), intertextuality (chaps. 6–7), and narrative theology (chaps. 8–9).
I am grateful for two very capable research assistants, Jenelle Lemons and Ali Tonnesen, who read and interacted with the book in its various stages. They helped me stay focused on real and thoughtful readers throughout the process of writing. I’d also like to thank Jim Kinney at Baker, who gave me my first opportunity to have a book published (beyond my dissertation) and continues to be a valued conversation partner about the direction of my scholarship and writing.
I dedicate this book to my daughters, Kate and Libby. They are lovers of story. Kate, when she was a preschooler, would command during car rides, “Tell me another story about Jesus.” When I finally ran out of discrete stories, I began sharing with her how Matthew, for example, told a whole string of stories about Jesus healing people (Matt. 8–9). Her love of story pressed me to communicate more holistically about the Gospels. Libby, as a language arts teacher to seventh and eighth graders, shares her own love of story with her students. Her passion for literature—for story—is contagious.

1 . Jeannine K. Brown, The Disciples in Narrative Perspective: The Portrayal and Function of the Matthean Disciples , SBLAB 9 (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2002).

2 . E.g., Jeannine K. Brown, “Genesis in Matthew’s Gospel,” in Genesis in the New Testament , ed. Maarten J. J. Menken and Steve Moyise (New York: T&T Clark, 2012), 42–59.

3 . E.g., Jeannine K. Brown and Kyle Roberts, Matthew , THNTC (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2018).
Abbreviations AB Anchor Bible AsTJ Asbury Theological Journal AT author’s translation BDAG Danker, Frederick W., Walter Bauer, William F. Arndt, and F. Wilbur Gingrich. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. 3rd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000. BibInt Biblical Interpretation BLS Bible and Literature Series BNTC Black’s New Testament Commentaries CBQ Catholic Biblical Quarterly CEB Common English Bible (translation) CH Church History CSB Christian Standard Bible DJG Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels . Edited by Joel B. Green, Jeannine K. Brown, and Nicholas Perrin. 2nd ed. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2013. GBS Guides to Biblical Scholarship GR Greece and Rome GW God’s Word (translation) HBT Horizons in Biblical Theology Int Interpretation JBL Journal of Biblical Literature JETS Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society JSNT Journal for the Study of the New Testament JSNTSup Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement Series JSOT Journal for the Study of the Old Testament JTS Journal of Theological Studies LNTS The Library of New Testament Studies LXX Septuagint NC narrative criticism Neot Neotestamentica NETS A New English Translation of the Septuagint NICNT New International Commentary on the New Testament NIV New International Version NovTSup Supplements to Novum Testamentum NTE New Testament for Everyone (translation) NTS New Testament Studies RevExp Review and Expositor SBLAB Society of Biblical Literature Academia Biblica SBLSymS Society of Biblical Literature Symposium Series SNTSMS Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series THNTC Two Horizons New Testament Commentary TN travel narrative ZECNT Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament ZNW Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft und die Kunde der älteren Kirche
Part One Introduction
All narrative begins for me with listening. When I read, I listen. When I write, I listen—for silence, inflection, rhythm, rest.
Toni Morrison, The Measure of Our Lives
For me the Gospel of Mark is not a resource to be mined for historical nuggets or Christological jewels; it is the ground on which we walk.
Elizabeth Struthers Malbon, Mark’s Jesus
1 The Turn to Gospels as Stories
Narrative Criticism in Gospel Studies
We “get” stories. We are drawn into their plotlines. We identify deeply with their characters. We are captivated by their settings. And we intuitively understand what a story is “doing”—what themes it communicates, what morals it highlights,