Jesus Tradition, Early Christian Memory, and Gospel Writing

Jesus Tradition, Early Christian Memory, and Gospel Writing PDF Author: Alan Kirk
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN: 1467466220
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 508

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Book Description
Breaking a 200-year impasse on the origins of the gospels Biblical scholars want to get to the roots of the gospels—the very earliest memories of Jesus and his world. Though scholars know about all the major concepts at work—Q, the Urgospel, priority—it seems like a definitive solution to the Synoptic problem is hopelessly unattainable. Why the impasse? And where do we go from here? In Jesus Tradition, Early Christian Memory, and Gospel Writing, Alan Kirk guides us through the history of biblical scholars’ quest for the authentic source. Kirk reveals that outdated assumptions about ancient media realities have caused the past two centuries of academic deadlock. Using cutting-edge scholarship on orality, memory, and tradition formation, he shows how the origins of the gospels may be found in the memory practices of the earliest Jesus communities. Jesus Tradition, Early Christian Memory, and Gospel Writing is an essential resource for scholars and students looking to better understand this complex and rapidly changing field.

Jesus Tradition, Early Christian Memory, and Gospel Writing

Jesus Tradition, Early Christian Memory, and Gospel Writing PDF Author: Alan Kirk
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN: 1467466220
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 508

Get Book Here

Book Description
Breaking a 200-year impasse on the origins of the gospels Biblical scholars want to get to the roots of the gospels—the very earliest memories of Jesus and his world. Though scholars know about all the major concepts at work—Q, the Urgospel, priority—it seems like a definitive solution to the Synoptic problem is hopelessly unattainable. Why the impasse? And where do we go from here? In Jesus Tradition, Early Christian Memory, and Gospel Writing, Alan Kirk guides us through the history of biblical scholars’ quest for the authentic source. Kirk reveals that outdated assumptions about ancient media realities have caused the past two centuries of academic deadlock. Using cutting-edge scholarship on orality, memory, and tradition formation, he shows how the origins of the gospels may be found in the memory practices of the earliest Jesus communities. Jesus Tradition, Early Christian Memory, and Gospel Writing is an essential resource for scholars and students looking to better understand this complex and rapidly changing field.

Memory and the Jesus Tradition

Memory and the Jesus Tradition PDF Author: Alan Kirk
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0567663485
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
Alan Kirk argues that memory theory, in its social, cultural, and cognitive dimensions, is able to provide a comprehensive account of the origins and history of the Jesus tradition, one capable of displacing the moribund form-critical model. He shows that memory research gives new leverage on a range of classic problems in gospels, historical Jesus, and Christian origins scholarship. This volume brings together 12 essays published between 2001 and 2016, newly revised for this edition and organized under the rubrics of: 'Memory and the Formation of the Jesus Tradition'; 'Memory and Manuscript'; 'Memory and Historical Jesus Research'; and 'Memory in 2nd Century Gospel Writing'. The introductory essay, written for this volume, argues that the old form critical model, in marginalizing memory, abandoned the one factor actually capable of accounting for the origins of the gospel tradition, its manifestation in oral and written media, and its historical trajectory.

The Gospel of the Lord

The Gospel of the Lord PDF Author: Michael F. Bird
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN: 0802867766
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 408

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Book Description
In this book, through a distinctive evangelical and critical approach, Michael Bird explores the historical development of the four canonical Gospels. He shows how the memories and faith of the earliest believers formed the Gospel accounts of Jesus that got written and, in turn, how these accounts further shaped the early church. Bird's study clarifies the often confusing debates over the origins of the canonical Gospels. Bird navigates recent concerns and research as he builds an informed case for how the early Christ followers wrote and spread the story of Jesus -- the story by which they believed they were called to live. The Gospel of the Lord is ideal for students or anyone who wants to know the story behind the four Gospels. Watch an interview with Michael Bird from our Eerdmans Author Interview Series:

The Gospel as Manuscript

The Gospel as Manuscript PDF Author: Chris Keith
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019938438X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
"But the Bible says" is a common enough refrain in many conversations about Christianity. The written verses of the four canonical Gospels are sometimes volleyed back and forth and taken as fact while the apocryphal and oral accounts of the life of Jesus are taken as mere oddities. Early thinkers inside and outside the community of Jesus-followers similarly described a contentious relationship between the oral and the written, though they often focused on the challenges of trusting the written word over the spoken-Socrates described the written word an illegitimate "bastard" compared to the spoken word of a teacher. Nevertheless, the written accounts of the Jesus tradition in the Gospels have taken a far superior position in the Christian faith to any oral tradition. In The Gospel as Manuscript, Chris Keith offers a new material history of the Jesus tradition's journey from voice to page, showing that the introduction of manuscripts played an underappreciated, but crucial, role in the reception history of the gospel. From the textualization of Mark in the first century CE until the eventual usage of liturgical readings as a marker of authoritative status in the second and third centuries, early followers of Jesus placed the gospel-as-manuscript on display by drawing attention to the written nature of their tradition. Many authors of Gospels saw themselves in competition with other evangelists, working to establish their texts as the quintessential Gospel. Reading the texts aloud in liturgical settings and further establishedthe literary tradition in material culture. Revealing a vibrant period of competitive development of the Jesus tradition, wherein the material status of the tradition frequently played as important a role as the ideas that it contained, Keith offers a thorough consideratios of the competitive textualization and public reading of the Gospels.

Memory and the Jesus Tradition

Memory and the Jesus Tradition PDF Author: Alan K. Kirk
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780567663474
Category : Bible
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description


Why John Wrote a Gospel

Why John Wrote a Gospel PDF Author: Tom Thatcher
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1725232375
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 212

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Book Description
Nineteen hundred years ago, someone called the Beloved Disciple told stories about Jesus and his days on earth, including reports of what Jesus did and said. These stories had been todl for decades, but then someone took the stories and wrote them down, turning them from oral tradition into the book we know as the Gospel of John. Scholars have long concentrated on the content of this Fourth Gospel, analyzing how it differs from the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke and wondering how the different Gospels relate to the Jesus of history. Thatcher builds on all this previous scholarship to as new and exciting questions: Why was this Gospel written? Why would these followers of Jesus turn the oral stories into written Gospel? In exploring the reason for writing the Fourth Gospel, Thatcher focuses on how stories and written texts operate to reflect and to create memory with in groups of people. He uncovers how early Christians strove to remember Jesus in the decades after his ministry and how Christians came into conflict with one another about which memories were best. With this interest in the social memory of early Christians, Thatcher provides original insights into the Gospel of John and shows new answers to old questions. Writing in an engaging and accessible style, Thatcher uses numerous diagrams and modern parallels to show how Gospel texts shape the memory and identity of Christian communities, not only in the ancient world bu today as well.

The Gospel Tradition

The Gospel Tradition PDF Author: Birger Gerhardsson
Publisher: Coronet Books
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 72

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Book Description


The Reliability of the Gospel Tradition

The Reliability of the Gospel Tradition PDF Author: Birger Gerhardsson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 180

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Book Description
The historical reliability of the Gospels has been discussed from the Enlightenment onwards. At present, many scholars assume that the canonical Gospels as we have them are essentially fictions constructed near the end of the first century to meet the needs of the Christian movement of that time and that they give us very little reliable information regarding the life and teachings of Jesus. But have these scholars really understood the nature of the written Gospels? Birger Gerhardsson has devoted almost the whole of his academic career to the study of the oral tradition that is the basis of our canonical Gospels. His groundbreaking doctoral dissertation, "Memory and Manuscript," drew a parallel between the way in which the rabbis taught their disciples and the way Jesus taught his disciples: both required memorization of the master s teaching. Rabbinic disciples handed on their masters tradition with great care, and we can be sure that the disciples of Jesus would have been no less careful with what he taught them! "The Reliability of the Gospel Tradition" presents three studies that illuminate how the early Christians passed on tradition. The Origins of the Gospel Tradition gives an accessible review of the debate regarding the extent to which the New Testament evangelists enable us to hear the voice of Jesus. The Path of the Gospel Tradition contains a critical discussion of the approach of the form-critical school to the problem of the early Christian tradition, ending with an alternative sketch of the path of the tradition. The Gospel Tradition offers a rather detailed picture of various aspects of the content and method of early Christian tradition and assesses thereliability of the four oldest of the extant written records. In the current climate of skepticism I know of nothing more helpful than Birger Gerhardsson s writings, and that is why I am particularly delighted that the pieces that compose the present volume are again available in print. New generations of students deserve to have them, not merely because they ultimately vindicate the church s estimate of Jesus, but because they are true to the nature of the Gospels themselves and to the purpose of those who wrote them." Donald A. Hagner (from the Foreword)

Jesus in Memory

Jesus in Memory PDF Author: Werner H. Kelber
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Bibles
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
Few scholars have influenced New Testament scholarship in the areas of orality, memory, and tradition more profoundly than Birger Gerhardsson. Today, as these topics have again become important in biblical scholarship, his pioneering work takes on a new light. Though the esteemed contributors may differ on issues in the burgeoning study, they have all enthusiastically taken on the dual task of evaluating Gerhardsson's contribution anew and bringing his insights up to date within the current debate. Additional contributors are Loveday Alexander (University of Sheffield), David E. Aune (University of Notre Dame), Martin S. Jaffee (University of Washington), Alan Kirk (James Madison University), Terence Mournet (North American Baptist Seminary), and Christopher Tuckett (University of Oxford/Pembroke College). --Ritva H. Williams "Restoration Quarterly"

Q in Matthew

Q in Matthew PDF Author: Alan Kirk
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0567667731
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 369

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Book Description
Advocates of the established hypotheses on the origins of the Synoptic gospels and their interrelationships (the Synoptic Problem), and especially those defending or contesting the existence of the "source" (Q), are increasingly being called upon to justify their position with reference to ancient media practices. Still others go so far as to claim that ancient media realities force a radical rethinking of the whole project of Synoptic source criticism, and they question whether traditional documentary approaches remain valid at all. This debate has been hampered to date by the patchy reception of research on ancient media in Synoptic scholarship. Seeking to rectify this problem, Alan Kirk here mounts a defense, grounded in the practices of memory and manuscript transmission in the Roman world, of the Two Document Hypothesis. He shows how ancient media/memory approaches in fact offer new leverage on classic research problems in scholarship on the Synoptic Gospels, and that they have the potential to break the current impasse in the Synoptic Problem. The results of his analysis open up new insights to the early reception and scribal transmission of the Jesus tradition and cast new light on some long-conflicted questions in Christian origins.