Program / Course 16: Historical Defense / Lesson 3.5
What you will learn
- Define the Greco-Roman biography (bios) and describe its conventions.
- Explain why many scholars now classify the Gospels as ancient biographies.
- Describe what the conventions imply for reading chronology, speeches and quotations.
- State the objections to the classification and what remains distinctive about the Gospels.
The big idea
For much of the twentieth century many scholars treated the Gospels as a unique kind of writing, a form of preaching with no parallel. Since the 1990s a majority have argued that they fit the ancient genre of biography, called bios in Greek. This matters for historical use. Ancient biographers aimed to portray a person’s character through deeds, sayings and death, often arranged by theme and with free paraphrase of speeches. Reading the Gospels by modern standards of exact chronology and word-for-word quotation would misjudge them. Reading them as biography does not prove them accurate, but it sets fair expectations.
Key terms
- Genre
- A type of writing with shared conventions, such as letter, epic or biography. Knowing the genre tells a reader what to expect.
- Bios (plural bioi)
- The Greek word for life, used for the ancient genre of biography, which differed from modern biography in several ways.
- Burridge
- Richard Burridge, whose book What Are the Gospels? (1992) argued that the Gospels belong to the genre of ancient bioi.
- Encomium
- A speech or writing in praise of a person, a form that influenced ancient biography.
- Paraphrase
- Restating the sense of words in different language. Ancient historians often gave the gist of speeches this way.
- Topical arrangement
- Organizing material by theme rather than strict time order, a common practice in ancient biography.
Background
Genre decides how a text should be read. A reader who takes a poem for a news report will make mistakes, and so will a reader who takes a legal contract for a novel. Reading the Gospels requires the same question: what kind of writing is this? The Gospels do not call themselves by a genre name, though Mark begins with the beginning of the good news, and Luke compares his work with others who have undertaken to set down an account (Luke 1:1).
Earlier in the twentieth century some form critics held that the Gospels were a new kind of literature, created by the church. Others compared them to myths of dying gods, or to collections of sayings. Studies of Greco-Roman literature in the last decades have turned most scholars toward the biographical classification. The following steps describe the case and the objections.
Step-by-step explanation
Step 1: What ancient biography was
Ancient lives were written from at least the fourth century BC. Examples include Xenophon’s account of Socrates, Plutarch’s Parallel Lives (around AD 100), Suetonius’ Lives of the Caesars and Tacitus’ Agricola. They told of a real person’s life, often from public career to death, to show the person’s character and teach readers by example. Their size was short, usually a scroll in length.
They varied in how closely they followed history. Some were careful and used sources. Others were more rhetorical or legendary. Ancient readers expected a bios to center on an actual person and to be broadly truthful, but not to follow modern standards of documentation.
Step 2: The case for the Gospels as bioi
Burridge compared the features of the genre, such as opening words, subject, scale and attention to the subject’s deeds and death, with the Gospels. He found that the Gospels share them. They focus on one person, devote a large share of the text to his last days, and present his teaching and deeds as a revelation of who he is. Luke and Matthew begin with his origins, which also happens in ancient lives.
If the classification is right, then the Gospels were intended to describe a real person, which supports their value as historical sources. Ancient readers would not have taken them for fiction or myth.
Step 3: What the genre implies
Ancient biographers often arranged events by theme and not by strict time. This helps explain why the Gospels differ in the order of events, as in the placing of the Temple cleansing. They also paraphrased speeches. Thucydides, a historian of the fifth century BC, says that he gave the speeches as he thought the speakers would have said what the situation demanded, keeping as close as possible to the general sense (History 1.22). The Gospels’ different forms of Jesus’ sayings are in line with this practice.
The genre also allowed the author to shape the picture to highlight a theme. A modern reader may call that bias. An ancient reader would have considered it the point of the genre.
Step 4: The objections
Critics raise several points. The Gospels are about a person said to be divine, with miracles and a resurrection, which no other ancient biography has in the same form. They were written for a community of believers, not a general readership, and their central purpose was to elicit faith (John 20:31). Some scholars believe the label of biography is too wide to mean much, since the genre was flexible. Others say that classifying the Gospels as biography does not decide how historically careful they are, because ancient biographies ranged from sober to fanciful.
Michael Licona, studying Plutarch’s Lives, has argued that Plutarch changed details, transposed events and compressed time in different Lives of the same events, and that this shows how ancient authors treated their sources, and how some Gospel differences could be explained. His proposals have been debated, including by conservative Christians who fear that they weaken the claim of accuracy.
Step 5: What follows
The biographical classification asks readers to expect a real person, a rough outline of the career, a message about his significance and a good deal of freedom in arrangement and wording. It rules out some modern demands, such as exact quotations. It also rules out extreme dismissals that treat the Gospels as pure myth.
Whether the Gospels are accurate within this genre must be tested by other means: dating, sources, consistency, outside evidence and plausibility. Genre sets the rules of the test. It does not decide the result.
- What did the author want the reader to learn about the subject?
- Does the text focus on a real person and his public career?
- What would an ancient reader expect from this kind of writing?
- Is a difference in order or wording a change of fact, or a change of arrangement?
- Does the supernatural content set the Gospels apart from other bioi, and does that matter for their historical use?
- How would I judge the accuracy of Plutarch, and why not use the same standard here?
Examples
Plutarch on Alexander
Plutarch says in the opening of his Life of Alexander that he is writing lives, not histories, and that a slight act, a saying or a jest often shows character better than great battles. This explains why a biographer might choose small scenes and tell them in his own way.
Thucydides on speeches
Thucydides explains that he reports speeches as the speakers probably would have addressed the needs of the moment, keeping to the general sense of what was said. Readers of Greek history knew this practice and did not accuse him of fraud.
A heavy emphasis on death
About a third of Mark describes the last week of Jesus’ life, a proportion unusual for modern biography. Burridge notes that some ancient lives, such as accounts of Socrates and Cato, also give great weight to the subject’s death, because it reveals the character.
Different perspectives
Majority of Gospel scholars
Most now accept that the Gospels are ancient bioi in a broad sense, with some distinctive features. They see this as supporting the claim that the authors intended to write about a real figure and used freedom in arrangement.
Conservative Protestants
Many welcome the classification as support for historical intent. Some, however, resist Licona’s claims that the evangelists changed details, because they hold that inspiration requires full factual accuracy. This is an active internal debate.
Catholic and Orthodox
Catholic teaching describes the Gospels as written by the evangelists who selected, synthesized and explained, keeping the form of proclamation, while telling the truth about Jesus. This fits well with the biographical view. Orthodox readers receive each Gospel as an icon of Christ in words.
Skeptical scholars
Some argue that the genre was loose enough to include legend and that biographies of divine men contained miracles. They hold that the classification does not strengthen the historical case as much as defenders claim.
Scholars who stress uniqueness
Some hold that the Gospels are a new genre, shaped by the Jewish Scriptures and by the preaching of the church, as well as by Greco-Roman models. They accept a biographical element without making it the whole.
Why it matters
Many disputes about the Gospels come down to unspoken assumptions about what they are trying to do. A reader who expects a modern news report will find faults, and a reader who expects dictation will find perfection. Considering the genre lets a student ask better questions and see what kind of evidence the Gospels can be.
Common misunderstandings
Misunderstanding: If the Gospels are biography, they must be accurate.
Correction: Biographies in the ancient world varied from careful to legendary. Genre sets the expectations; accuracy has to be shown by evidence.
Misunderstanding: The Gospels are myths like stories of ancient gods.
Correction: They concern a recent historical person, are placed in named times and places, and take the form of lives, not myths of an earlier age.
Misunderstanding: Ancient writers had no concern for truth.
Correction: Many cared deeply and criticized one another for inaccuracy. They had different conventions from ours, such as freer paraphrase.
Misunderstanding: The Gospels are unique, so they cannot be compared to anything.
Correction: Their content is unique, but their form has close parallels. Comparison with other ancient works is a normal historical method.
Knowledge check
What was an ancient bios?
It was a life of a real person, usually focused on his character as shown by public deeds, teaching and death, written in a flexible form. It might arrange events by theme, paraphrase speeches, and aim to teach or praise. Quality ranged from careful to legendary.
What were Burridge’s main points?
Burridge compared the Gospels with known ancient lives and found common features of subject, structure, scale and emphasis on the subject’s deeds and death. He concluded that the Gospels belong to the genre of bioi, which most scholars have since accepted in broad terms.
How does the genre help explain differences among the Gospels?
Ancient biographers often grouped material by theme, adapted wording and paraphrased speeches while keeping the gist. Differences in order or phrasing can therefore reflect ordinary conventions and not contradiction. This does not mean every difference is explained, but it sets fair expectations.
Give one objection to treating the Gospels as ordinary bioi.
The Gospels are about a figure presented as divine, with miracles and resurrection, they were written for believers to promote faith, and the genre was so flexible that the label does not decide how historical a work is. Some scholars therefore stress their distinctiveness.
Think it through
- What do you expect from a biography of a living person? Would an ancient reader expect the same?
- Should a Christian be troubled if the evangelists arranged events by theme?
- How does knowing the genre change what you expect of the Gospels?
- What would count as a mistake in the Gospels, given the conventions of their time?
Independent assignment
Reading as an ancient reader
In your own notebook, write 300 to 500 words. Read a short passage from Plutarch or Suetonius if you can find a translation, and a short passage from a Gospel. Compare their aims, structures and treatment of speech. State what you would expect from each as a historical source. Do not send this to anyone.
Further study
- F. F. Bruce, The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable? Compare this older defense of reliability with the genre-based approach.
- Richard Bauckham, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses Read for the author’s comparison of the Gospels with other ancient historical writing.
- Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth Read the chapter on the Gospels for guidance on reading by genre.
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Hermeneutics Read for the role of genre in interpretation.
- Luke 1:1 Luke refers to others who have undertaken to write an account.
- John 20:31 The stated purpose of John’s Gospel.