The Birth of the Gospels as Biographies: With Analyses of Two Challenging Pericopae

by Jean-Noel Aletti

Overview

In the cultural context of the 1st century of our era, to write a life of Jesus—what we call a Gospel—constituted an apparently impossible challenge to overcome. For it was not simply a matter of being inspired by the biblical precedent, the lives of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Samson, Samuel and David from sacred writers. It was also necessary to confront the Greco-Roman genre of the biography, whose protagonists were exclusively great men, who enjoyed an excellent societal recognition. Yet, Jesus, rejected by his coreligionists because of his death on the cross as a blasphemer and seducer of the people, could not a priori expect a biography of this genre. The synoptic Gospels have, as a consequence, reconfigured the biographical genre of the era by originally using the phenomenon of the recognition. Behind the birth of the Gospel genre, there is thus the invention of a narrative model, whose focal point is the recognition of Christ in his Easter paradox. This model is the raison detre of the narratives attributed to Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9788876537028
Publisher:	Gregorian & Biblical Press
Publication date:	12/15/2017
Series:	Analecta Biblica Studia , #10
Pages:	162
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Jean-Noël Aletti, Jesuit, teaches at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome. He is known for his works on the letters of Paul as well as on the two narratives attributes to Luke, the third Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles.

Table of Contents

Foreword ix

Foreword to the English Edition xi

Abbreviations xiii

Part 1 The Decisive Role of the Anagnôrisis

Introduction 3

Chapter I Biographies at the Time of the Gospels 7

I Towards an Understanding of the Genre 7

In Search of a Literary Genre 7

Some Characteristics 8

Biographies and Their Sub-Genres 11

Literary Biographies and Popular Biographies 12

II A Few Biographies from the Era 14

Philo and His Heroes 14

The Illustrious Men of Ancient Biographies 17

Plutarch and the Technique of the synkrisis 17

Suetonius and His Idea of the Biography 20

Chapter II How Did the Lives of Jesus Come to be Written 25

I Mark as Biography 25

Mark A Biography 25

Mark A Popular Biography 28

II The Conditions of a Biography of Jesus 30

The Necessity of a Final Recognition 30

The Final Recognition in Mark 31

The Markan Paradox 33

The Model of the Supplications in Mark 14-15 35

The Psalmic Model and Its Effects on the anagnôrisis in Mark 37

The Passion Narrative and Mark as Biography 38

III For Which Readers was Mark Written? 40

IV Conclusions 42

Chapter III The Gospel of Matthew 45

I Introduction 45

II The Birth and Infancy Narrative. Matthew 1-2 47

Matthew 1:1-17 The Literary Genre 47

Matthew 1-2 and Ancient Greek Biographies 49

III The Model of the Matthean Passion Narrative 52

Recognition and Rejection in Matthew 52

The Matthean Model of the Passion/Death of Jesus 55

The Psalmic Model and the Question of the anagnôrisis 57

The Particularities of the Matthean Narrative 58

The Why of the Allusions to the Psalms 60

IV The Resurrection and the Final "Anagnôrisis" 62

V Conclusions 63

Chapter IV The Narrative of Luke 65

I Introduction 65

II The Preface and its Raison D'être. Luke 1:1-4 65

What Type of Preface? 65

The Narrator's Project 66

III The Introduction of Luke. Luke 1-2 68

IV The Final Recognition of Jesus in Luke 22-24 70

Jesus Proposes the Key to Reading His Passion/Death 72

An Initial, Official Recognition. Luke 23:2-25 74

Recognition and Characterization in Luke 22-23 81

Rejection and Final Recognition 84

The Final anagnôrisis. Luke 24 86

V Conclusions 88

Chapter V The Genre and Typology in the III^rd Gospel 89

I Introduction 89

II Typology and Recognition 90

III Prophetic Typology Before Luke 4 91

IV The Typology in Luke 4:16-30 93

V The Typology of Jesus After Luke 4 and its Reasons 95

Recognition and Prophetic Typology 96

Rejection and Prophetic Typology 99

The raison d'être of the Lucan Typology 103

VI The Typology of the Narratives of the Passion 103

VII Conclusion 105

Chapter VI Overture 107

I Introduction 107

II Literary Genre and Historical Research 108

The Biographical Model 108

Implications for Interpretation 108

III Jesus and the Greek and Roman Heroes 111

Jesus and the Heroes of Biographies 109

Jesus and the Heroes of Greek Tragedies 110

Jesus and the Great Figures of the Holy Scriptures 111

IV Popular Narratives of Literature? 111

Part 2 The Narrative Analysis of Two Pericopae

Chapter I A Narrative Approach to Mark 7:24-30 117

I A Stage Preliminary to the Narrative 118

II Narrative Difficulties and Narrative Analysis 120

III A Refusal and a Putting to the Test 125

IV Jesus in Mark 7:24- 8:10 131

V Conclusion 134

Chapter II Narrative as Theology. Luke 15:11-32 135

I The Composition of the Passage 135

An Example: Luke 24 135

The Parable's Composition 137

II The Actors and their Relationships 139

The Name of the Actors 139

The Younger Son and His Itinerary 142

The Elder Son and His Reproaches 148

The Father and His Values 152

Character Types and Their Function 155

III The Parable in the Macro-Narrative 158

The Parables on Mercy in Luke 15 158

Luke 15, Its Antecedents and Its Impact 159

The Two Sons: Israel and the Nations? 163

IV Beyond the Concept, The Narrative 165

Bibliography 167

Index of Ancient Authors 173

Index of Modern Authors 173