Proclaiming the Gospel: First-Century Performance of Mark [Paperback]

Whitney Shiner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 30, 2003

Scholars have long understood that the texts we now know as the Gospels were read aloud in the Greco-Roman world, but few have actually envisioned what a performance of the Gospel of Mark would have been like in the first century and how it would have shaped the experience of its audience. Proclaiming the Gospel shows us. Oral performances in the New Testament world were lively affairs. In the performance of Greco-Roman theater, readers lose their voices from the stress of emotional passages. Audiences cheer for philosophers as if at a rock concert, and in law courts, they are paid for their responses. Storytellers compete for attention with jugglers, and some speakers must fend off hostile crowds. Congregations at churches and synagogues cheer as if at the theater. Shiner reveals the ways that Mark wrote his Gospel to compete in this arena and how his audiences would have responded: applause for the miracles of Jesus, then an altogether different response at the cross. Whitney Shiner is Assistant Professor of Christian Origins at George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, and the author of Follow Me: Disciples in markan Rhetoric.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Proclaiming the Gospel represents a breakthrough in the emerging discipline of Performance Criticism. By drawing on evidence from a wide variety of ancient sources and correlating it with clues from the Gospel, Whitney Shiner constructs a plausible scenario for performances of Mark in antiquity. In so doing, he enlivens the sights and sounds of the Gospel and sheds considerable light on its meaning and power. Accessible to the general reader, this book should be of special interest to scholars, students, and preachers."--David Rhoads, Lutheran School of Theilogy at Chicago (David Rhoads )

"Having been part of the intrigued audience at professional presentations of Whitney Shiner on the oral presentation of the Gospel of Mark in the first century, I am delighted that a written version of his oral work on orality is now available to me, my students, and my colleagues—in biblical studies and in the humanities more broadly. Shiner's book combines a thorough presentation of rhetorical conventions in the ancient world— including not only citations of the ancient authors but also rich and well chosen quotations from their works—with a carefully researched and experienced understanding of the Gospel of Mark as presented orally. It is a powerful combination. Whether your interest is historical or literary, sociological or theological, you will find Proclaiming the Gospel: First-Century Performance of Mark informative—perhaps confirming a view you reached from another perspective, perhaps challenging a view held in ignorance of first-century rhetorical contexts. But you will not find this book boring or superfluous, and you will not find Mark's Gospel quite the same after your reading."--Elizabeth Struthers Malbon, Professor of Religious Studies, Department of Interdisciplinary Studies, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Elizabeth Struthers Malbon )

"Shiner's book combines a thorough presentation of rhetorical conventions in the ancient world—including not only citations of the ancient authors but also rich and well chosen quotations from their works—with a carefully researched and experienced understanding of the Gospel of Mark as presented orally. It is a powerful combination. Whether your interest is historical or literary, sociological or theological, you will find Proclaiming the Gospel: First-Century Performance of Mark informative—perhaps confirming a view you reached from another perspective, perhaps challenging a view held in ignorance of first-century rhetorical contexts. But you will not find this book boring or superfluous, and you will not find Mark's Gospel quite the same after your reading."--Elizabeth Struthers Malbon, Professor of Religious Studies, Department of Interdisciplinary Studies, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Elizabeth Struthers Malbon )

"Shiner's book combines a thorough presentation of rhetorical conventions in the ancient world with a carefully researched and experienced understanding of the Gospel of Mark as presented orally. It is a powerful combination. Whether your interest is historical or literary, sociological or theological, you will find Proclaiming the Gospel: First-Century Performance of Mark informative—perhaps confirming a view you reached from another perspective, perhaps challenging a view held in ignorance of first-century rhetorical contexts. But you will not find this book boring or superfluous, and you will not find Mark's Gospel quite the same after your reading."--Elizabeth Struthers Malbon, Professor of Religious Studies, Department of Interdisciplinary Studies, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Elizabeth Struthers Malbon )

“Students often ask how the Gospels were first presented. This fine book goes a long way to giving the answer. He [Shiner] amasses pertinent information about how literary text were composed and the variety of ways and settings in which they were presented to audiences mainly in oral form. New Testament scholars and student alike will find this a very interesting and helpful resource.” –The Bible Today, May / June 2004 (Bible Today, The )

“Shiner’s book serves as an eminently readable and informative introduction into ancient rhetorical culture, and it offers a genuinely original theory on Mark from the perspective of performance criticism.” -The Catholic Biblical Quarterly, 67, 2005

“Shiner’s many insights, drawn from his own performance of the gospel, will be most helpful to teachers and pastors who wish to perform Mark themselves.” –Religious Studies Review, April, July 2004 (Religious Studies Review )

”…this volume is a “must read” for scholars concerned with liturgy today”. – Stone-Campbell Journal, Spring 2005 (Stone-Campbell Journal )

“In his study, Shiner demonstrates an impressive mastery of the theory and practice of ancient rhetoric, and he uses this mastery to illustrate how scenes in Mark’s story could well have been performed…Shiner’s book becomes something more than just another bit of well-written scholarship. He treats the text of Mark as sheet music that needs to be played to be properly comprehended. Because he takes seriously the notion that the Gospel of Mark grew out of and preserves oral performance tradition, Shiner includes discoveries about Mark that grow out of his own performing of scenes from the story. This book will be useful to any biblical interpreter, especially pastors and teachers. In addition, it would be a good resource to use in an undergraduate or seminary classroom. This is a very good book.” –Interpretation, October 2005 (Interpretation )

'...this is a very readable, thought-provoking book.'

(Neil G. Richardson Methodist Recorder )

"For those who wished they knew more about Graeco-Roman rhetoric or wanted to see how rhetoric works in a Biblical setting, this book provides an ideal entry-point. In Proclaiming The Gospel Whitney Shiner has done us a great service both by opening up the ancient world of the rhetorician and demonstrating rhetoric at work in the narrative world of the NT within Mark's Gospel. Yet, Shiner has done all this for us in a very accessible manner -- in a lucid, lively style -- which carries the reader along effortlessly. From the beginning it is clear that Shiner has a firm grasp of his subject, yet he wears his scholarship lightly and never overloads us with information, though the chapter endnotes provide ample opportunities for more in-depth exploration...In this book Shiner restores that creative power to us. He enables us to encounter the NT as a script calling to be understood as something living, written dynamically for performing. It opens up exciting new possibilities and insights into how we read and understand the New Testament." -- Themelios, October 2005

(Themelios )

"Proclaiming the Gospel represents a breakthrough in the emerging discipline of Performance Criticism. By drawing on evidence from a wide variety of ancient sources and correlating it with clues from the Gospel, Whitney Shiner constructs a plausible scenario for performances of Mark in antiquity. In so doing, he enlivens the sights and sounds of the Gospel and sheds considerable light on its meaning and power. Accessible to the general reader, this book should be of special interest to scholars, students, and preachers."--David Rhoads, Lutheran School of Theilogy at Chicago (, )

"Having been part of the intrigued audience at professional presentations of Whitney Shiner on the oral presentation of the Gospel of Mark in the first century, I am delighted that a written version of his oral work on orality is now available to me, my students, and my colleagues—in biblical studies and in the humanities more broadly. Shiner's book combines a thorough presentation of rhetorical conventions in the ancient world— including not only citations of the ancient authors but also rich and well chosen quotations from their works—with a carefully researched and experienced understanding of the Gospel of Mark as presented orally. It is a powerful combination. Whether your interest is historical or literary, sociological or theological, you will find Proclaiming the Gospel: First-Century Performance of Mark informative—perhaps confirming a view you reached from another perspective, perhaps challenging a view held in ignorance of first-century rhetorical contexts. But you will not find this book boring or superfluous, and you will not find Mark's Gospel quite the same after your reading."--Elizabeth Struthers Malbon, Professor of Religious Studies, Department of Interdisciplinary Studies, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (, )

"Shiner's book combines a thorough presentation of rhetorical conventions in the ancient world—including not only citations of the ancient authors but also rich and well chosen quotations from their works—with a carefully researched and experienced understanding of the Gospel of Mark as presented orally. It is a powerful combination. Whether your interest is historical or literary, sociological or theological, you will find Proclaiming the Gospel: First-Century Performance of Mark informative—perhaps confirming a view you reached from another perspective, perhaps challenging a view held in ignorance of first-century rhetorical contexts. But you will not find this book boring or superfluous, and you will not find Mark's Gospel quite the same after your reading."--Elizabeth Struthers Malbon, Professor of Religious Studies, Department of Interdisciplinary Studies, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (, )

"Shiner's book combines a thorough presentation of rhetorical conventions in the ancient world with a carefully researched and experienced understanding of the Gospel of Mark as presented orally. It is a powerful combination. Whether your interest is historical or literary, sociological or theological, you will find Proclaiming the Gospel: First-Century Performance of Mark informative—perhaps confirming a view you reached from another perspective, perhaps challenging a view held in ignorance of first-century rhetorical contexts. But you will not find this book boring or superfluous, and you will not find Mark's Gospel quite the same after your reading."--Elizabeth Struthers Malbon, Professor of Religious Studies, Department of Interdisciplinary Studies, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (, )

'...this is a very readable, thought-provoking book.'

(, Methodist Recorder )

“For those who wished they knew more about Graeco-Roman rhetoric or wanted to see how rhetoric works in a Biblical setting, this book provides an ideal entry-point. In Proclaiming The Gospel Whitney Shiner has done us a great service both by opening up the ancient world of the rhetorician and demonstrating rhetoric at work in the narrative world of the NT within Mark’s Gospel. Yet, Shiner has done all this for us in a very accessible manner – in a lucid, lively style – which carries the reader along effortlessly. From the beginning it is clear that Shiner has a firm grasp of his subject, yet he wears his scholarship lightly and never overloads us with information, though the chapter endnotes provide ample opportunities for more in-depth exploration…In this book Shiner restores that creative power to us. He enables us to encounter the NT as a script calling to be understood as something living, written dynamically for performing. It opens up exciting new possibilities and insights into how we read and understand the New Testament.” – Themelios, October 2005

(Themelios )

About the Author

Whitney Shiner is Assistant Professor of Christian Origins at George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Trinity Press Int'l (October 30, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1563383969
• ISBN-13: 978-1563383960
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #781,294 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4.0 out of 5 stars Good thoughts, but needs more reflection., August 7, 2010

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This review is from: Proclaiming the Gospel: First-Century Performance of Mark (Paperback)

My handwritten assessment on the flyleaf of this book immediately upon completion is as follows: "This is more properly a magnum opus rather than a dissertation. It requires more interaction with the primary literature and mature reflection. [It has] too small a sample in the bibliography." [I noted this because the apparently substantial "advanced" bibliography (so labeled) amounts to several pages, but upon closer inspection is from the works of only four writers!]

I further noted that "though much is shown likely, the subtitle [First Century Performance of Mark] is inappropriate. [A performance version was] certainly not developed in the first century." Shiner's main thesis is that Mark developed as a performance piece in the mid-first century. However, neither the internal nor the external evidence are marshaled to demonstrate such a conclusion nor one even close --at least in the early years of Christianity. By definition all extant texts are not oral in form, however given the lack of universal literacy even today, all of the New Testament has some relationship to an oral culture. The degree to which it can be described at all must be buttressed by a careful methodological approach not evidenced here. At the same time I was reading this text, I was reading Emmanuel Tov's "The Text-critical Use of the Septuagint in Biblical Research." The subject of textual criticism as evidenced in translation texts is also fraught with methodological difficulties. However, Shiner takes on a nearly impossible task without Tov's lifetime of study and a carefully developed and practiced methodology. [I am assuming here that Shiner is a much younger scholar --or at least newer to this field.] One can also see a more precise methodological approach to a similar question in Havelock's "The Muse Learns to Write." 1986 (Who writes, "My methodology required sticking to the evidence of actual texts rather than loose speculation." p.4) Havelock's work evidences a lifetime of study of the texts themselves and also a careful and text based methodology. This is not in evidence in Shiner's work who does not even mention Havelock's 1986 study in his bibliography nor refer to him in his text! (Curiously, he does refer to Havelock's 1963 "Preface to Plato" rather than his more developed ideas specifically on this topic two decades later.) He also references Walter J. Ong's 1986 "Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word" which is heavily influenced by Havelock in the areas of classics.

While I would definitely recommend reading Shiner, I would caution students to do so with a critical eye. Although he shows ample evidence of oral text in performance in the ancient world, he fails to show credible evidence of it in the early church. When would such a performance take place? Where? What about the persecutions that began fairly early? (Probably even predating the writing of most of the New Testament!) One cannot imagine that a performance of Mark in the forum would be well attended if act two was, Lions vs. Christians!

I find this book to be difficult to assess. On the one hand, the author seems to be very well acquainted with the literature on the subject of orality in the Greco-Roman world. His brief chapters are heavily and copiously/carefully footnoted by about 100 citations each. On the other hand, his citations of the primary literature seemed to be almost exclusively culled from the secondary literature. Furthermore, upon closer inspection, his multiple page "advanced bibliography" represents just four separate authors. Almost all of the like-minded secondary literature is in English and written between 1980 and 2000 --which seems a very narrow and inbred group. His views seem to represent a very small subset of the field of scholarship. His work does not seem to be informed by work done on orality in the old testament world (E.g. Niditch ("Oral World and Written Word" Also methodologically inexact, though with a broader literary base and a better explication of the implications for the OT), Lemaire (Les Écoles et la Formation de la Bible dans l'Ancien Israel, 1981, etc.) nor work done by the "Scandinavian school" nor the extensive work done by Assyriologists which needs to be considered in this context [though carefully]. This book articulates well the whole concept of rethinking the Bible (In this case the gospel of Mark) in light of a non-literate society. It caused me to completely rethink my ideas on the development of the Gospels as written memorials at the end of the first century so for that I value it highly and recommend it wholeheartedly.

Several years ago, Dr. Stephan Kaufman stood after a student read a paper at an SBL meeting. Kaufman, who is not known for his gentleness, nearly shouted rather acerbically "This must have been written in a Dahoodian daze!" He was of course referring to Dr. Mitchell Dahood, who was known for attributing every slight anomaly of the OT Hebrew text to Ugaritic influence. Everyone in the field of OT studies, including Dahood himself, knew that finding Ugaritic influence behind every problem was certainly not a complete answer to questions. However, most would admit that even if Dahood was right only 10% of the time, he radically altered the field of OT studies. Shiner and those he cites also represent a radical departure from the norm for modern understanding of the gospel. Even if he is right only a small percentage of the time, this definitely deserves a place in any intermediate NT program as it will force students to rethink their modern assumptions about the ancient composition process.

I hope Dr. Shiner will continue on with this field of study. I would like to read a similar work by him after he has read the Greek texts of the gospels a few dozen more times along with the primary texts of Cicero, Longinus, etc.

I would caution him and others with the following observations.

While he admits in many of these areas "we cannot know" (p. 104), he often proceeds to state his conclusions or assumptions as facts. (p. 25)

He sometimes cites primary sources through secondary ones. (p. 44 FN 80)

When discussing orality or any other argumentum ex silentio, one must be very careful to make sure to use parallels that are geographically near and contemporaneous. Or use the arguments in a more methodologically precise way. Shiner shows an awareness of synchronic and diachronic evidence, his argument are often supported somewhat cavalierly without regard to nearness in time or place. E.g. p. 21 where he uses an argument from Homer and one followed by Byzantine Greek as if they are equal in weight to each other and to Mark. This is a span of over a millennium, and while it may very well be relevant in the absence of more local or contemporary evidence, more caution should be used than is evidenced. Those who argue for orality among the ancients frequently cite the studies of Lord and Parry from the Balkans in the 20th century. While there are clear parallels to this "evidence," one cannot assume that modern contrasts between oral and literate cultures show corresponding relationships among the ancients. One needs to align the ancient evidence and show evidence of where along the continuum between prehistorical orality and modern literacy the evidence falls. Cultures in close and frequent contact are more likely to share practices than those which are distant in either time or distance.

Shiner's arguments are literally all over the map and across the timeline.

Rather than trace the development and practice of oral recitation and performance, since this is both assumed and completely lacking in evidence, we need to look at the development and practice of writing in pre-media cultures. Before the invention of writing, culture of necessity was passed on orally. (The modern popular notion that oral culture was followed by an artistic or visually representative stage prior to the invention and development of writing is wholly without evidence in the record.) After the invention of writing, this doesn't seemed to have changed much. However, with the invention of the alphabet at the end of the second millenium b.c., there does seem to be a demonstrable shift in both the quantity, quality, and purpose of writing.


What about the proliferation of libraries in the late Greek and early Roman Empires? This argues for a fairly high level of literacy amongst the upper class. If Early Christianity was primarily a religion of the upper class, this would argue that it would have transitioned into the written stage fairly early.

He seems also to have missed the obvious conclusion that the so called "Q" or proto-gospel behind the synoptics was an oral or performance based source. Therefore Mt, Mk, and Lk were "Ciceronian publications" (cf. p. 112) of "Q."

With the crucifixion of Jesus, the stoning of Stephan, and the persecutions of Nero; is there any evidence of Christian performances anywhere in the Roman empire of the late first century?

With libraries spreading rapidly throughout Rome beginning in this period and the complete overturning of writing habits by the early Christians (E.g. the move from scroll to codex). (See for instance Casson's excellent "Libraries in the Ancient World.) It seems likely that Christians began writing covertly and surreptitiously early in the tradition and this explains the almost universal dependance on the codex rather than the scroll --the exact opposite of the nearly universal practice at that time for literary works. Performances seem a very unlikely way to have spread the gospel in this climate. Shiner also fails to supply reasons for the fairly uniform kinds of errors in the textual history of the NT. Which show evidence of parablepsis (eyes skipping over... Read more ›