Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T05:36:40.342Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

1 - What Is a Gospel?

from Part I - Approaching the Gospels

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 August 2021

By
Loveday Alexander
Edited by
Stephen C. Barton  and
Todd Brewer
Stephen C. Barton
Affiliation:
University of Durham
Get access

Summary

Identifies some of the defining characteristics of the gospel genre by comparing them with other genres such as folk tales, memoirs, biographies, scriptural narratives and martyrologies. The analysis leads to the significant conclusion that the gospels are in some sense sui generis – written versions of early Christian teaching and preaching about Jesus.

Keywords

gospel genrefolk talesmemoirsbiographiesmartyrologies
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Companion to the Gospels , pp. 9 - 28
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Further Reading

Bauckham, Richard, ed., The Gospels for All Christians: Rethinking the Gospel Audiences (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1998)Google Scholar
Bauckham, Richard, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels As Eyewitness Testimony, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2017)Google Scholar
Bockmuehl, Markus, and Hagner, Donald A., eds., The Written Gospel (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burridge, Richard A., What Are the Gospels? A Comparison with Graeco-Roman Biography, 3rd ed. (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2018)Google Scholar
Edwards, M. J., and Swain, Simon, eds., Portraits: Biographical Representation in the Greek and Latin Literature of the Roman Empire (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997)Google Scholar
Eve, Eric, Behind the Gospels: Understanding the Oral Tradition (London: SPCK, 2013)Google Scholar
Horsley, Richard A., Draper, Jonathan A. and Foley, John Miles, eds., Performing the Gospel: Orality, Memory, and Mark (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 2006)Google Scholar
Jaffee, Martin S., Torah in the Mouth: Writing and Oral Tradition in Palestinian Judaism, 200 BCE–400 CE (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001)Google Scholar
Kelber, Werner H., The Oral and the Written Gospel: The Hermeneutics of Speaking and Writing in the Synoptic Tradition, Mark, Paul and Q (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1983)Google Scholar
Kelber, Werner, and Byrskog, Samuel, eds., Jesus in Memory: Traditions in Oral and Scribal Perspective (Waco, TX: Baylor, 2009)Google Scholar
Stanton, Graham N., Jesus and Gospel (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2004)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yassif, Eli, The Hebrew Folktale: History, Genre, Meaning (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999)Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×