Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Pheme Perkins, the Joseph Professor of Catholic Spirituality at Boston College, is the author of over twenty-five books on the New Testament and early Christianity. She was the first woman president of the Catholic Biblical Association and served as chair of its executive board. Additionally, Perkins has served on many editorial boards and is an associate editor of the New Oxford Annotated Bible.

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Introduction to the Synoptic Gospels

William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company

Contents

ABBREVIATIONS......................................................ixGENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY...............................................xiINTRODUCTION.......................................................xiii1. What Is a Gospel?...............................................12. Books and Believers in Early Christianity.......................313. The Quest for Sources...........................................544. Reading Mark's Gospel...........................................1265. Reading Matthew's Gospel........................................1646. Reading Luke's Gospel...........................................2027. Gospels from the Second and Third Centuries.....................254INDEX OF MODERN AUTHORS............................................294INDEX OF SUBJECTS..................................................296INDEX OF ANCIENT SOURCES...........................................300

Chapter One

The Greek word translated "gospel," euangelion, did not refer to a type of literature or to a book in the first century. It had a more dynamic meaning, a proclamation of an event of major importance. For us that might resemble the breaking news headline that promises a story to follow. For the inhabitants of an ancient city, the word evoked the excitement of a messenger racing into town with news of the latest battle, or news that a new ruler had assumed the throne in a distant capital. The Jewish historian Josephus reports that when Vespasian became emperor of Rome "proclamations" (Greek euangelia) led to feasting and civic rejoicing (War 4.618). The Greek translators of the Hebrew Bible used the cognate verb, euangelizesthai, for the announcement of God's impending deliverance. A participle from this verb refers to the bearer of that message in Isaiah (40:9; 41:27; 52:7). Therefore "gospel" was a key term for Paul to speak of God's new, definitive deeds of salvation in Jesus Christ (Rom 1:1, 16).

As a designation for written works, the term "gospel" must be secondary to the accounts in which first-century Christian authors presented Jesus as the one who fulfilled such prophetic promises or as the "great king" in whom God's rule is embodied. Recognition that Gospels have been shaped by Christian faith in Jesus as God's Messiah continues to fuel debate over whether their authors had any interest in historical information about Jesus' life and teaching. Are we reading what is essentially a series of fictions about the founder of a new religious cult? Or do the Evangelists employ first-century ways of recounting the life and teaching of an important figure even as they make a case for believing Jesus to be the source of God's salvation? Comparing the Synoptic Gospels with other ancient "lives" makes a plausible case for regarding them as biographical rather than fictional in intent. That conclusion does not mean that they are investigative documentaries. Each author exercises considerable freedom in presenting the events of Jesus' life, his character, and his teaching. After presenting the case for the Gospels as ancient "lives," we will note two alternative views that consider Mark and Luke to have been shaped according to the model of ancient epics. A final note suggests that by the end of the second century most Christians accepted the four-Gospel canon as authoritative accounts of Jesus.

Ancient Biography

Mark 1:1 uses the word "gospel" in the Pauline sense of proclamation about Jesus. His Greek-speaking audience may have recognized christos as a translation for "Messiah" (= "anointed"). Or they may have considered "Christ" an additional name used to distinguish this Jesus from others called "Jesus." Some ancient manuscripts show that readers no longer recognized "Christ" as an indication of Jesus' dignity. Scribes add more familiar titles, "Son of God" or "Son of the Lord," to fill out the verse.

Mark's introduction could lead an ancient audience to expect a speech in praise of Jesus as Messiah or Son of God. Or they might expect an account of his great deeds such as one finds in inscriptions honoring the emperor. Neither a speech nor stories about deeds require a full biography, an account of the subject's ancestry, parents, education, and adult life. Whereas modern readers often look for problematic aspects of an individual's character in biographies, ancient readers anticipate idealized portraits of famous persons. Those familiar with Jewish Scriptures might compare this account of Jesus Messiah with depictions of famous figures like Abraham, Joseph, Moses, or Elijah. Some elements of ancient literary biography are not found in our Gospels. The author does not address the reader except in Luke's preface (Luke 1:1-4). Nor do the Evangelists defend evaluative judgments about their hero's deeds or teaching.

Should the Gospels be treated as a subcategory of the ancient literary genre "life"(Gk. bios)? Differences from other examples of the genre might be attributed to antecedents in oral proclamation or models in Jewish Scripture. Some scholars reject this solution. They either seek other examples in ancient narrative or treat the literary genre of the Gospels as sui generis. The pattern for subsequent Gospels was created by the first Evangelist who affixed a narrative containing deeds and sayings of Jesus to the passion account. Given the varied types of narrative in which lives of famous persons are recounted, it seems unnecessary to exclude the Gospels from the larger category of "life" or biography. Though modern readers value character development, the ancients assume that heroes exhibit a fixed character that embodies a philosopher's teaching or the values of a society.

Childhood stories demonstrate adult virtues. Jubilees, a second-century B.C.E. retelling of Genesis, has the teenage Abraham introduce an innovative plow design to save seed from being eaten by crows:

And the seed time arrived for sowing in the land. And they all went out together so that they might guard their seed from the crows. And Abram went out ... the lad was fourteen.... And he caused the cloud of crows to turn back seventy times in that day.... And his reputation was great in the land of Chaldea.... And they sowed their land and harvested in that year enough food.

And in the first year of the fifth week, Abram taught those who were making the implements for oxen, the skilled carpenters. And they made implements above the ground facing the handle of the plow so that they might place seed upon it. And the seed would go down within it to the point of the plow, and it would be hidden in the earth. And therefore they were not afraid of the crows. (Jubilees 11.18-24, trans. O. Wintermute in OTP 2: 79)

Abraham first excels in the ordinary method of preserving the seed. He then displays unusual wisdom in devising a way to avoid the problem altogether. The latter falls in the realm of fiction. Farmers continued to spread seed from a basket and then plow it under. Birds were an ever-present hazard, as Jesus' parable of the Sower indicates (Mark 4:3-8).

Philo (ca. 50 C.E.) describes the child Moses as more intelligent than teachers from both Egypt and the rest of the world:

He did not conduct himself as a young child ... but sought to hear and see whatever would benefit his soul. Teachers...