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.

 

3. Are there any new insights that you realised while writing your book?

I came to realize how limited our standard models for comparing texts are. Biblical scholars tend to operate under the assumption that there must be some generic or authorial relationship in order fruitfully to compare texts and traditions. I found that utilizing different methods for textual comparison can be just as productive as the more traditional methods.

4. What led you to focus in particular on the Gospel of Mark and Joseph and Asenath?

There was an “ah-ha” moment when I was reading Joseph and Aseneth in Greek and some of the standard introductions to the narrative. I thought, “this reads an awful lot like the Gospel of Mark.” This sparked the question that the book seeks to answer: what connects these two narratives despite their dissimilarity in genre, content, and worldview?

5. What do you hope this volume will contribute towards narrative focused Biblical scholarship?

I hope this volume will prompt others to consider more carefully what kind of texts we are handling as biblical scholars. By this I don’t mean the genre of the texts we are interpreting, but their medium. I’d love to see the question “how was this text produced and received” become standard alongside other questions such as “who wrote this text,” “when was this text written,” and “what genre does this text fall into?"

 

The Media Matrix of Early Jewish and Christian Narrative is available for pre-order now, and will be published on 14th November 2019!