The First Biography of Jesus: Genre and Meaning in Mark's Gospel

What difference does it make to identify Mark's gospel as an ancient biography? Reading the gospels as ancient biographies makes a profound difference to the way that we interpret them. Biography immortalizes the memory of the subject, creating a literary monument to the person's life and teaching. Yet it is also a bid to legitimize a specific view of that figure and to position an author and his audience as appropriate "gatekeepers" of that memory. Biography was well suited to the articulation of shared values and commitments, the formation of group identity, and the binding together of a past story, present concerns, and future hopes. Helen Bond argues that Mark's author used the genre of biography to extend the gospel from an earlier narrow focus on the death and resurrection of Jesus so that it included the way of life of its founding figure. Situating Jesus at the heart of a biography was a bold step in outlining a radical form of Christian discipleship patterned on the life - and death - of Jesus. Table of Contents Introduction The Present Volume Time, Place and Author Overview Chapter 1 - Mark as a bios From the Ancients to Votaw The Eclipse of Biography A Jewish Background? The Return of Graeco-Roman Biography The Last 25 Years Chapter 2 - Ancient bioi The Emergence of Biography Biography and Morality Character Depictions of Death Biographical Fact and Fiction The Preserve of the Elite? Sub-Groups and Sub-Types? Chapter 3 - Mark the Biographer Profile of a Biographer Mark's Christian Readers Mark's Structure Pre-Markan Tradition Authorial Voice Chapter 4 - A Life of Jesus Mark's Opening Section (1:1-15) Temptation and Resolve Jesus in Galilee (1:16-8:21) Miracles Conflict Identity Teaching on Discipleship (8:22-10:52) Jerusalem (11:1-13:44) Imitation of Jesus Jesus' Appearance Chapter 5 - Other Characters Peripheral Characters Markan Intercalations - a form of synkrisis? "King Herod" The High Priest/Pilate The Twelve "Minor Characters" Chapter 6 - The Death of Jesus A Slave's Death Setting up an Ending Significance Imitation King of the Jews Events Around Jesus' Death The Disappearance of the Body Conclusion Final Reflections Automimesis

• | Author: Helen K. Bond
• | Publisher: Eerdmans
• | Publication Date: April 30, 2020
• | Number of Pages: 360 pages
• | Language: English
• | Binding: Hardcover
• | ISBN-10: 0802874606
• | ISBN-13: 9780802874603