Author Interview: Nicholas Elder on The Media Matrix of Early Jewish and Christian Narrative

 

 

 

Professor Nicholas Elder explains his research into media and modes of composition in antiquity, found in The Media Matrix of Early Jewish and Christian Narrative, one of the latest publications in The Library of New Testament Studies.

1. How do you think your book could be described – in just one sentence?

This book is a comparison of two narratives, the Gospel of Mark and Joseph and Aseneth, that are dissimilar by many counts but, as I argue, were of a similar antique media form.

2. What drew you to researching early Jewish and Christian Narrative?

I was drawn in by the rhetorical power that narrative generally, and early Jewish and Christian narrative particularly, possesses. As humans we think narratively. There is nothing like a good story, and both the Gospel of Mark and Joseph and Aseneth are great stories.