First-Century Gospel Storytellers and Audiences
The Gospels as Performance Literature
Thomas E. Boomershine
FIRST-CENTURY GOSPEL STORYTELLERS AND AUDIENCES
The Gospels as Performance Literature
Biblical Performance Criticism Series
Copyright 2022 Thomas E. Boomershine. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, W. th Ave., Suite , Eugene, OR 97401 .
Cascade Books
An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers
W. th Ave., Suite
Eugene, OR 97401
www.wipfandstock.com
paperback isbn: 978-1-6667-3382-2
hardcover isbn: 978-1-6667-2878-1
ebook isbn: 978-1-6667-2879-8
Cataloguing-in-Publication data:
N ames: Boomershine, Thomas E., author.
Title: First-century gospel storytellers and audiences : the gospels as performance literature / Thomas E. Boomershine.
Description: Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2022 . | Biblical Performance Criticism Series . | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: isbn 978-1-6667-3382-2 (paperback). | isbn 978-1-6667-2878-1 (hardcover). | isbn 978-1-6667-2879-8 (ebook).
Subjects: LSCH: Bible.GospelsCriticism, interpretation, etc. | Bible.MarkCriticism, interpretation, etc. | Bible.JohnCriticism, interpretation, etc. | StorytellingReligious aspectsChristianity. | Performance Criticism. | Oral tradition.
Classification: BS2555.55 B66 2022 (print). | BS2555.55 (ebook).
Biblical Performance Criticism Series
Orality, Memory, Translation, Rhetoric, Discourse
David Rhoads, Kelly R. Iverson, and Peter S. Perry Series Editors
The ancient societies of the Bible were overwhelmingly oral. People originally experienced the traditions now in the Bible as oral performances. Focusing on the ancient performance of biblical traditions enables us to shift academic work on the Bible from the mentality of a modern print culture to that of an oral/scribal culture. Conceived broadly, biblical performance criticism embraces many methods as means to reframe the biblical materials in the context of traditional oral cultures, construct scenarios of ancient performances, learn from contemporary performances of these materials, and reinterpret biblical writings accordingly. The result is a foundational paradigm shift that reconfigures traditional disciplines and employs fresh biblical methodologies such as theater studies, speech-act theory, and performance studies. The emerging research of many scholars in this field of study, the development of working groups in scholarly societies, and the appearance of conferences on orality and literacy make it timely to inaugurate this series. For further information on biblical performance criticism, go to www.biblicalperformancecriticism.org.
Books in the Series
Holly E. Hearon & Philip Ruge-Jones, editors
The Bible in Ancient and Modern Media
James A. Maxey
From Orality to Orality:
A New Paradigm for Contextual Translation of the Bible
Antoinette Clark Wire
The Case for Mark Composed in Performance
Robert D. Miller II, SFO
Oral Tradition in Ancient Israel
Pieter J. J. Botha
Orality and Literacy in Early Christianity
James A. Maxey & Ernst R. Wendland, editors
Translating Scripture for Sound and Performance
J. A. (Bobby) Loubser
Oral and Manuscript Culture in the Bible
Joanna Dewey
The Oral Ethos of the Early Church
Richard A. Horsley
Text and Tradition in Performance and Writing
Kelly R. Iverson, editor
From Text to Performance:
Narrative and Performance Criticisms in Dialogue and Debate
Annette Weissenrieder & Robert B. Coote, editors
The Interface of Orality and Writing:
Speaking, Seeing, Writing in the Shaping of New Genres
Thomas E. Boomershine
The Messiah of Peace:
A Performance-Criticism Commentary on Marks Passion-Resurrection Narrative
Terry Giles & William J. Doan
The Naomi StoryThe Book of Ruth
From Gender to Politics
Bernhard Oestreich
Performance Criticism of the Pauline Letters
Marcel Jousse Edgard Sienaert, editor
Memory, Memorization, and Memorizers
The Galilean Oral-Style Tradition and Its Traditionists
Margaret E. Lee, editor
Sound Matters
New Testament Studies in Sound Mapping
Acknowledgments
The author and the publisher gratefully acknowledge the permission to publish the following articles and essays in revised form.
Jesus of Nazareth and the Watershed of Ancient Orality and Literacy. Semeia ( 1994 ) .
The Narrative Technique of Mark : JBL ( 1981 ) .
Mark : and the Apostolic Commission. JBL ( 1981 ) .
Peters Denial as Polemic or Confession: The Implications of Media Criticism. Semeia ( 1987 ) .
The New Testament Soundscape and the Puzzle of Mark :. In Sound Matters: New Testament Studies in Sound Mapping , edited by Margaret E. Lee, . BPCS . Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2018 .
Teaching Mark as Performance Literature: Early Literate and Post-Literate Pedagogies. In Communication, Pedagogy and the Gospel of Mark , edited by Elizabeth E. Shively and Geert van Oyen, . SBL Resources for Biblical Studies . Atlanta: SBL Press, 2016 .
Audience Address and Purpose in the Performance of Mark. In Mark as Story: Retrospect and Prospect , edited by Kelly R. Iverson and Christopher W. Skinner, . SBL Resources for Biblical Studies . Atlanta: SBL Press, 2011 .
Audience Asides and Marks Audience: The Difference Performance Makes. In From Text to Performance: Narrative and Performance Criticisms in Dialogue and Debate , edited by Kelly R. Iverson, . BPCS . Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2014 .
The Medium and Message of John: Audience Address and Audience Identity in the Fourth Gospel. In The Fourth Gospel in First-Century Media Culture , edited by Anthony Le Donne and Tom Thatcher, . LNTS . London: T. & T. Clark, 2011 .
Abbreviations
ABAnchor Bible
ABDThe Anchor Bible Dictionary . Edited by David Noel Freedman. vols. New York: Doubleday, 1992
BAMM The Bible in Ancient and Modern Media
BDAGWalter Bauer, Frederick W. Danker, W. F. Arndt, and F. W. Gingrich. A GreekEnglish Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature . rd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000
BJS Brown Judaic Studies
BDFF. Blass, A. Debrunner, and Robert W. Funk, Greek Grammar of the New Testament . Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961
BPCSBiblical Performance Criticism Series
CEVContemporary English Version
ETEnglish translation
JBJerusalem Bible
JBLJournal of Biblical Literature
JTSJournal of Theological Studies
LNTSLibrary of New Testament Studies
NABNew American Bible
NEBNew English Bible
NA Novum Testamentum Graece (NestleAland). th ed. Edited by Holger Strutwolf. Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2012
NIVNew International Version
NRSVNew Revised Standard Version
NTNew Testament
NTSNew Testament Studies
RSVRevised Standard Version
SBLSociety of Biblical Literature
TEVTodays English Version
UBS The Greek New Testament . th rev. ed. Edited by Holger Strutwolf. Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, American Bible Society, United Bible Societies, 2014
WHWestcottHort Greek New Testament
ZNWZeitschrift fr die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft und die Kunde des lteren Kirche