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36:13, 19), may not have a literary form but distinct content relating to a subject’s wonderful deeds (196). Aretalogia, though used for reporting or reports themselves (Manetho 4.445ff. 11, 1382, lines 22ff ) and a thanksgiving inscription aretēn Amenōtou (Egyptian Museum, Cairo, No. ![]() There are no extant texts, but Smith notes a miracle story entitled Dios Hēliou megalou Sarapidos aretē (p. Aretalogia is “telling tall stories and the praises of a god” (175-6). Seutonius, Augustus, 74 on aretalogi at dinner parties Juvenal 15.16 on a lying aretalogus Manetho Apotelesmaticorum, 4, 445-49 on myth-making) (174-5). In Smith’s article, an aretalogus is a “teller of miracle stories” (175), often a temple functionary or spinner of tales (e.g. Hadas and Smith put Luke’s Gospel, Porphyry’s Pythagoras, Philo’s Moses,and Philostratus’ Apollonius in the category of aretalogy, a type of biography on a subject’s supernatural birth, wisdom, miracles, subversiveness, martyrdom, and vindication. “Die Stellung der Evangelien in der allgemeinen Literaturgeschichte” in EYXAPIΣTHPION: Studien zur Religion und Literatur des Alten und Neuen Testaments. Schmidt Hypothesis of the Literary Uniqueness of the Gospels.” Pages 203-33 in Colloquy on New Testament Studies. “The Implications for Theology of a Shift from the K. Translated by John Marsh Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1972 The Theology of the New Testament: Volume I. Westminster John Knox Press: Louisville, London, 2006. As kerygmatic narratives, they are in a category of their own ( sui generis).Ĭriticisms: the evangelist’s limited literary ability has no implications for the genre they imitated, the diverse material originating on different occasions has no implications for the genre of the finished product, the view of the evangelists as compilers of tradition has given way to redaction and literary studies of them as creative authors, and a unique genre is a contradiction of terms (i.e. Boring adds that, unlike biographies, the Gospels juxtapose Jesus’ humanity and divinity via the secrecy motif, proclaim the climax of universal history, do not distinguish the past Jesus and present Lord, are made up of oral units formed by preaching, and express the Christ-event in parabolic imagery ( Mark, 7-8). Faustus) or hagiographic tales in a cultic context and the Gospels lack an authorial “I” or distinct personality or intention of the author (“Literaturgeschichte,” 76, 82, 114). Schmidt saw the Gospels not as Hochliteratur (high literature) their traditions developed akin to German folktales (e.g. hagiography, rabbinic anecdotes, Hellenistic heroes). For Dibelius (5-6) and Bultmann ( Tradition, 6-7), the closest analogy to the oral traditions are folktales, fairy-stories, folk songs, and cult legends (e.g. ![]() baptism, Eucharist), miracles, pronouncement stories, and sayings once passed down separately for exhortation or instruction ( Theology, 86). Bultmann outlines how the proclamation ( kerygma) about Easter became fixed in creeds (1 Cor 15:3-5) and was progressively expanded upon with prophetic proof-texts, rituals (e.g. ![]() The evangelists were not composers but collectors and editors (1, 3). Meagher adds that a “unique genre” violates two standard assumptions in literary history: humans rarely have the ability to produce what is genuinely original, as novelty often relates to content rather than forms which are culturally conditioned, and meaning is understood in the context of shared conventions (211).įorm Critics and the Unique Kerygmatic Genreĭibelius judged early Christians to be unliterary persons with no need to record history in light of the imminent end of the age, so the only form Jesus traditions could be preserved was missionary preaching ( kerygma) ( Tradition, 60-61). Richard Burridge explains that speaking or writing occur in a system of conventions (traits, rules, customs, necessities, properties that constitute verbal meaning) and genre is a contract between author and reader based on shared expectations about what traits make up an utterance ( Graeco-Roman Biography, 34-36, 43-44 cf. She defines genre as “a prior agreement between authors and readers or as a set of shared expectations or as a consensus of ‘fore-understandings exterior to a text which enable us to follow that text’” ( Sowing the Gospel, 49). novels, biography), or specifically describe features of a single text. tragedy, comedy), narrowly classify texts that possess related traits around plot points or characters or motifs in a certain category (e.g. For instance, if it starts with “once upon a time in a far away land,” you may instantly spot the “genre.” Mary Ann Tolbert notes that genre can broadly cover archetypal plot patterns (e.g. There are informal guidelines for reading types of literature.
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