What Are the Gospels?: A Comparison with Graeco-Roman Biography (Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series) [Paperback]

Richard A. Burridge (Author)

Book Description

Series: Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series | Publication Date: May 26, 1995

In this work Dr Burridge contends that scholarly study of the genre of the Gospels has gone full circle over the last century of critical scholarship. The question of how the Gospels should be categorised is still a vexed one and - surprisingly - there is still no consensus. This book analyses and evaluates the debate over the course of the last century. It shows that while the nineteenth-century assumption that the Gospels could be likened to biographies has been denied by the mainstream scholarship of this century, in recent years a biographical genre has begun to be assumed once more. Dr Burridge provides a good foundation for the re-introduction of this biographical view of the Gospels by comparing the work of the Evangelists to the development of biography in the Graeco-Roman world, and by drawing on insights from literary theory. The author shows that the view that the Gospels are unique, which is still widespread among biblical scholars, is false: a first-century reader would have seen the Gospels as biographies, or 'Lives' of Jesus, and they must therefore be interpreted in this light.

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Book Description

Dr Burridge contends that scholarly study of the genre of the Gospels has gone full circle over the last century of critical scholarship.

Product Details

• Paperback: 306 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (May 26, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521483638
• ISBN-13: 978-0521483636
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,466,364 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Careful and persuasive., April 9, 2004

By 

David Marshall (Seattle area) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: What Are the Gospels?: A Comparison with Graeco-Roman Biography (Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series) (Paperback)

What are the Gospels? Biography? Myth? A unique genre of literature, otherwise unknown to the ancient world?

Richard Burridge begins by discusses genre, how it develops and evolves. He offers a dozen or so characteristics by which we can judge the genre of a book. No one item by itself proves that a given book belongs to a certain genre, he argues.

Following a few longish sections that establish his methods of analysis, Burridge introduces ten works that belong to the category of Graeco-Roman bioi, five from before the time of Christ, five from shortly after. Applying the criteria he mentions earlier to these works, he establishes what an ancient biography was really like. Then he considers the Synoptic Gospels, concluding that they clearly fit into this category. Next he performs the same operation with the Gospel of John, and concludes that it is also an example of ancient biography.

I think Burridge proves his case, that the canonical Gospels do belong to the category of ancient bioi, or biography. (Be prepared for a few words of Greek in the text.) But what does that mean to call the Gospels "biography?" Among the examples of Bioi he considers are Tacitus' Agricola, a sober account of a Roman general written by his son in law a few years after his death, and Apollonius of Tyana, a tall tale loosely based on a New Age guru that talks about various breeds of dragon in India, and was written more than a hundred years after the alleged life it portrays. So the simple fact that a work belongs to the category of bioi, does not prove that it is true.

Burridge notes however that Apollonius is rather on the fringe of the genre. In some ways, the Gospels are closer to Agricola. Having closely compared these two texts with the Gospels on my own, I came to the conclusion that in terms of historical reliability, the Gospels are closer to Agricola, and hardly resemble Apollonius of Tyana at all. In fact,in some ways the Gospels seem more historical than Agricola.

But Burridge does not discuss the historicity of the books he reviews directly. Instead, he conducts a somewhat plodding, but careful, convincing, and I think useful argument that helps one better understand literary genre, ancient literature, the Gospels, and how they all fit together.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent answer to the question of the Gospels' genre, May 10, 2006

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gregr (Connecticut, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: What Are the Gospels?: A Comparison with Graeco-Roman Biography (Biblical Resource) (Paperback)

I have heard claims that the Gospels are "metaphor" or that they were never meant to be taken as biographical (and therefore don't have much or any historical data). This book ably debunks such claims.

The intent of this book is not to prove the historicity of Gospels, but to prove their genre. By establishing their genre, then we can better understand the intent of the authors.

The well reasoned conclusion in Burridge's book is: the Gospels fit the ancient genre of biography.

In doing so he discusses a lot about genre and analysis (this section was a bit tedious for me, but it was thorough). In all of the discussion and examples we learn how the ancient biographies are much different from modern ones. This is a key point, because I think much of the debates and criticisms of the gospels are done from the perspective of a modern biographical viewpoint. The ancients wrote biographies differently than those that are written today. But this does not make them more or less true. It is a matter of emphasis. Today we want to know the details about dates, eye color, and a year by year accounting of events. The ancients were more selective in their biographies, and often focused on character not a chronological "play by play" of a person's life. The ancient biographers did not just write to catalogue facts about a person, they often wrote to demonstrate why or why not we should emulate their subject. Moderns too have such motives, and even biases, but they are often less up front about them. In many ways the ancients are superior in this regard, because it makes it easier to distinguish between data and commentary.

In the end, Burridge gives several examples of biography from the ancient world, and demonstrates that the Gospels very clearly match their pattern. Though there is variety between each of the biographies and the Gospels, they are clearly demonstrated to be part of the same family of literature. This then establishes how the Gospel writers understood their own works to be - biographies of Jesus.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Dry Scholarship? Come and You Will See Otherwise, July 26, 2006

By 

Nindyo Sasongko "VDM" (Holy Town, Indonesia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: What Are the Gospels?: A Comparison with Graeco-Roman Biography (Biblical Resource) (Paperback)

I wrote to Dr. Burridge recently that I wish I found the volume when I was a seminarian studying the Gospels. I am ministering youth and teens at a local Mennonite church in Indonesia. The volume is extremely enlightening. I prefer to reading Anglo-Saxon scholars to North American who are so often too simplistic and pragmatic (pardon me). Yet many times I find Anglo-Saxon writers are deep in exploring something but dry in nurturing soul. This book is an exception. It helps much in my ministry.

Here is Dr. Burridge's reply: "I'm glad to hear that you feel that the scholarship helps with your ministry - this is indeed the driving force behind most of my writing."

I humbly invite those who are keen on correct doctrinal teachings and preachings to submit once again to the study of the Gospels and grasp the book. He himself was to come back to the Gospels having written a massive monograph: WHAT ARE THE GOSPELS? to help his personal struggle in spiritual life.

The monograph is a groundbreaking study in the study of the Gospels. He is a classicist turned New Testament scholar. His graduate study in classic was done in Oxford, and the doctorate in Nottingham. He aptly demonstrates that the Gospels are a kind of ancient "Bioi." Find what the ancient "Bioi" with contemporary biographies. The technical work has been strongly condensed in FOUR JESUS, ONE GOSPELS?: A SYMBOLIC READING.

I am really happy to find the popular volume, since the explanation are employing the most popular literary and visual art works--as C. S. Lewis' NARNIA and Tolkien's LORD OF THE RINGS. Recently I wrote a paper for an academic journal on how to read the Bible with imagination, and I was helped by Tolkien's LOTR. And Dr. Burridge aptly provides me with samples.

Come to hear again the roar of the Lion in Mark, to sit under the wise teaching of the Israel Teacher in Matthew, to contemplate on the burden-bearer ox in Luke , and to soar high with the flying eagle in John. You and I will find that our lives are worth living!!!

Thanks so much, Dr. Burridge.