416:, he also wondered whether ignoring parallels from important Jewish literature was good practice, since Walsh is dismissive of recent evidence from orality and performance studies. Mark's Greek and his consistent Semitic interference made it hard for Skinner to imagine especially his gospel as a product of the elite circle that Walsh described. He states that Walsh's thesis "has tremendous explanatory power, especially for those tempted to downplay questions related to orality and ancient performance," and was possibly the beginning of a "paradigm shift among gospel scholars thinking about this question". Yet Skinner states " I remain unconvinced by Walsh’s argument on several fronts and a few questions remain."
174:
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211:; Walsh referred to this as the "Big Bang 'myth' of Christian origins". Walsh criticized the three presumptions of this theory: that Christianity experienced early and explosive growth, that it was institutionally well-developed within its first century, and that discrete Christian communities formed. Walsh critiqued this view as established by 2nd-century "inventors or myth-makers" who wrote Acts. Part of the basis for her view is that
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359:, remarked that Walsh's argument was "clearly structured, well-written and extremely stimulating" in its analysis of the Synoptic Gospels. However, Becker critiqued the work as too "one-sided" and challenged Walsh's presentation of classical authorship as one of an "independent ... 'rational agent'". He also found that the
307:. Unlike "civic biographies", which promoted "dominant social values", subversive biographies "depict colorful events in the lives of the protagonists". Protagonists of subversive biographies lead "colorful" lives, use cunning to outwit opponents, and ultimately meet an early or tragic death. Comparing the
287:
should be interpreted as "elite cultural producers writing for other elite culture producers". These authors, according to Walsh, established the narrative of Jesus's life with their idiosyncratic stylizations. Walsh holds that these elite authors were writing with influence from and in exchange with
247:
can inform thinking regarding Early
Christian communities. Walsh contended that this presumption survives within modern scholarship. Walsh has argued that earlier studies have missed aspects of early Christian social development "by only focusing on the presumed Christian communities of these authors
402:
also found that "the issue of authorship deserves more nuance" and criticized the book for its "uneven quality". Nongbri pointed to the "ambivalence" of authorship in contemporaneous Roman literature and found that "the relationship between a written text and oral teachings can be less neat than
311:
to other subversive biographies, Walsh asserted that the specifics of Jesus's portrayal was not the product of an oral tradition but instead the "reflection of the rational interests of elite, imperial writers". Walsh, noting that subversive biographies are typically largely fictional, further
403:
Walsh’s bifurcated model allows". Although "unpersuaded" by some of Walsh's arguments, Nongbri found that the chapters in which Walsh made her more novel arguments "make for stimulating reading. The book is highly provocative and should elicit spirited debate among New
Testament scholars."
388:
presents as a counterexample of a "literary specialist" living within early
Christian communities, suggesting that Paul-like figures may have been responsible for the gospels. Crook also found Walsh's model of gospel authorship deficient in resolving the
215:
is a modern concept from the
Enlightenment era and it is misused in anachronistic manner by modern scholars when applied to the ancient world. She believes that individuals from the Jesus movement in the first century were not thinking in terms of
492:"Robyn Faith Walsh, The Origins of Early Christian Literature. Contextualizing the New Testament within Greco-Roman Literary Culture, Cambridge – New York (Cambridge University Press) 2021, XIX, 225 S., ISBN 978-1-108-83530-5 (geb.), £ 75,–"
338:
is based on a false presumption. These oral traditions, according to Walsh, "are irretrievable to us, if they existed at all". Walsh also used comparisons between the gospels and other contemporary literature, including the
410:, found Walsh's identification of the gospels as Greco-Roman biographies problematic because the previous consensus on this matter had eroded in the previous few years and needs more justification. In his review for
251:
Walsh's assessment in the book was that only early
Christian scholarship formally adopts modern conceptions of cohesive community to describe Christianity in its first century, in contrast with norms in other
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Finding Walsh's work "a refreshing edge in that it challenges so many deeply held assumptions and traditional goals of scholarship on the gospels", Brent
Nongbri's review for the
27:
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who died in 2017. Crook also found strength in Walsh's contention that the gospel writers most likely came from elite literary culture. However, Crook suggests that
434:, calling the monograph "excellent work". Like other reviewers he observed that many of the ideas in the book had been argued by earlier generations of scholars.
462:
Crook, Zeba (June 2021). "Compte Rendus: The
Origins of Early Christian Literature: Contextualizing the New Testament within Greco-Roman Literary Culture".
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771:
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explicitly established in Acts of the
Apostles directly contradicts and renders "unfounded" Walsh's thesis of a non-cohesive "Jesus people".
334:
is a motif to express divinity. These thematic similarities with other Greco-Roman literature, according to Walsh, means searching for an
637:"The Origins of Early Christian Literature: Contextualizing the New Testament within Greco-Roman Literary Culture. By Robyn Faith Walsh"
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616:"The origins of early Christian literature: contextualizing the New Testament within Greco-Roman literary culture"
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scholarship. Early 19th-century German
Romanticism, according to Walsh, reflected contemporary conflicts between
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The
Origins of Early Christian Literature: Contextualizing the New Testament within Greco-Roman Literary Culture
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who Walsh credits with establishing assumptions in gospel analysis that persist to the modern day
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challenged the approach of using the gospels to derive insights on early Christian communities.
376:, Zeba Crook said "there is much to admire about this work" and that it "extends the legacy of
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According to Walsh's argument in the book, references to eyewitnesses like that made in the
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and the literary creativity of the gospels as evidence of possible elite authorship.
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Christopher W. Skinner, a professor of the New Testament and early Christianity at
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203:, author Robyn Faith Walsh began by "problematizing" a notion perpetuated through
660:
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rather than also on what we know about ancient authorship practices in general".
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of the gospels is best described as "subversive biography", a view supported by
257:
508:
615:
716:
574:"Shifting Gears or Splitting Hairs? Performance Criticism's Object of Study"
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128:
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264:: German Protestants articulated early Christians as comparable to the
316:
244:
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272:
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literature and proposes alternative theses for the origins of the
585:
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skepticism, lauded Walsh's work on building her dissertation at
266:
548:"AJR Conversations: The Origins of Early Christian Literature"
147:–premised on their authorship by an elite in contrast to the
546:
Walsh, Robyn Faith; Concannon, Cavan (9 September 2021).
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292:. Walsh has pointed to the low literacy rates of the
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Matthias Becker, reviewing the book for the journal
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written by Robyn Faith Walsh which was published by
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661:"Robyn Faith Walsh and the Gospels as Literature"
422:, a historian of ancient history known for his
276:struggling against an elite and corrupt Rome.
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635:Skinner, Christopher W. (31 January 2024).
572:Eberhart, Zechariah Preston (August 2023).
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243:, on establishing the presumption that the
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20:The Origins of Early Christian Literature
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368:The Origins of Early Christian Literature
207:and scholarly presumptions regarding the
201:The Origins of Early Christian Literature
135:in 2021. The text covers the contexts of
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299:In the book, Walsh also argued that the
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16:2021 history book by Robyn Faith Walsh
614:Nongbri, Brent (September 11, 2021).
526:from the original on 22 January 2023.
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220:or differentiating from things like
231:Walsh then traced the influence of
642:The Journal of Theological Studies
413:The Journal of Theological Studies
345:, to emphasize literary exchange.
95:Print (hardback, paperback), ebook
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777:History books about ancient Rome
772:Cambridge University Press books
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490:Becker, Matthias (June 2022).
330:while the missing body of the
235:, particularly the thought of
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621:Bryn Mawr Classical Review
399:Bryn Mawr Classical Review
199:In the opening chapter of
133:Cambridge University Press
68:Cambridge University Press
408:Loyola University Chicago
283:Walsh also held that the
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237:Johann Gottfried Herder
183:Johann Gottfried Herder
517:10.1515/klio-2022-2015
290:their cultural context
149:oral gospel traditions
58:Oral gospel traditions
767:Books about the Bible
382:historian of religion
336:oral gospel tradition
665:Richard Carrier Blog
205:Acts of the Apostles
595:10.3390/rel14091110
191:German Romanticists
21:
659:(8 January 2023).
552:Ancient Jew Review
349:Critical reception
241:Friedrich Schlegel
233:German Romanticism
187:Friedrich Schlegel
54:Early Christianity
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84:Publication place
37:Robyn Faith Walsh
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511:: 406–410.
378:J. Z. Smith
258:Protestants
185:(left) and
782:Monographs
762:2021 books
756:Categories
734:Literature
645:(flad077).
509:De Gruyter
438:References
218:"religion"
325:literary
262:Catholics
254:classical
222:"Judaism"
189:(right),
129:monograph
103:xix + 225
64:Publisher
588:: 1110.
578:Religion
521:Archived
342:Satyrica
213:religion
155:Contents
151:thesis.
116:Hardback
42:Language
684:Portals
319:to the
317:preface
270:with a
245:gospels
141:gospels
50:Subject
45:English
424:fringe
34:Author
710:Books
698:Bible
584:(9).
524:(PDF)
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495:(PDF)
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380:", a
327:topoi
273:Geist
100:Pages
672:2023
586:MDPI
559:2023
500:Klio
472:(2).
370:for
356:Klio
323:are
267:Volk
260:and
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109:ISBN
79:2021
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
