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 an understanding of the Bible. This collection of essays, by authors who recognize that the Jesus tradition was a story heard and performed, seeks to reevaluate the constituent elements of narrative, including characters, structure, narrator, time, and intertextuality. 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. ""From Text to Performance presents a set of suggestive new essays on various key issues in performance of texts, including how a text-in-performance can have a powerfully moving impact on a community of listeners. The essays offer several sensitive insights into the significant differences between literary criticism deeply rooted in print culture and the emerging performance criticism that considers the effects of performed texts on the audience."" --Richard Horsley, University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, MA Kelly R. Iverson is Associate Professor of New Testament at Baylor University. He is the author of Gentiles in the Gospel of Mark (2007), and coeditor of Mark as Story (2011) and Unity and Diversity in the Gospels and Paul (2012).