From Text to Performance

For the last two centuries, biblical interpretation has been guided by perspectives that have largely ignored the oral context in which the gospels took shape. Only recently have scholars begun to explore how ancient media inform the interpretive process and offer an understanding of the Bible. The contributors to From Text to Performance recognise that the Jesus tradition was a story heard and performed, and seek to re-evaluate the constituent elements of narrative, including characters, structure, narrator, time, and intertextuality, within this performative context. In dialogue with traditional literary approaches, these essays demonstrate that an appreciation of performance yields fresh insights distinguishable in many respects from results of literary or narrative readings of the gospels.