Why Are There Differences in the Gospels? What We Can Learn from Ancient Biography

Abstract

Licona is associate professor in theology at Houston Baptist University and the president of Risen Jesus, Inc. This book includes a foreword by Craig A. Evans. In the introduction, Licona notes some similar comparative studies of ancient writers undertaken by modern scholarship. He then notes that less attention has been paid to compositional devices as described in the progymnasmata as well as compositional devices employed by ancient biographers. He follows Richard Burridge in classifying the Gospels as Greco-Roman biography. Finally, Licona notes transparently in both the acknowledgments and at the end of the introduction that this project is outside his discipline and notes the primary texts of which he made use and the classical scholars with whom he dialogued.Chapter one looks briefly at the compositional practices that can be gleaned from the progymnasmata, particularly the exercises from Theon of Alexandria who is chronologically closest to the writing of the NT. Because these rhetorical textbooks were meant to teach aspiring writers, it is likely that the Gospel writers would be influenced in some sense by what is found in them. Licona describes the compositional techniques included in Theon’s account of chreia and narrative, noting both the flexibility and stability inherent in the techniques.In ch. two Licona introduces the reader to Plutarch and his writings. He notes the devaluation of Plutarch as a historian in the 19th century because he sacrificed precision. The Lives written by Plutarch are dated and ordered by Licona; Lucullus and Cicero from AD 100–110, Pompey, Cato Minor, Crassus, Caesar, Brutus, and Anthony from AD 110 or later, and Sertorius between AD 115 and 120. Licona goes on to briefly describe eight of the compositional devices that are used by Plutarch. Finally, Licona highlights the law of biographical relevance, which undergirds Plutarch’s Lives; stories are relayed and reshaped so as to be most relevant to the main character of each work.In ch. 3, Licona sets to the task of analyzing 30 pericopes in Plutarch’s Lives. These pericopes appear two or more times in Plutarch, offering the reader insight into how one ancient historian might narrate the same event differently. Licona intentionally restricts his research to Plutarch, rather than venturing into other Roman historians who may recount the same events. For each of the 30 sections, Licona provides: (1) the primary literature citations, (2) a narrative summary of the events, (3) his analysis of the pericopes, and (4) a summary that concisely lists the compositional devices noted. Numerous techniques are noted through this chapter, including transference of speech from one character to another, story compression, detail omissions, inflections from singular to plural or vice versa, chronological rearrangement, conflation, transfer of action from one character to another, and numerical differences, among many others.Licona begins chapter four with the near-universal assertion that the four canonical Gospels hold the greatest historical value for understanding the historical Jesus. He then moves on to describe briefly the synoptic problem and the two-source, Farrer, and Griesbach solutions. Licona assumes Markan priority and holds to the two-source hypothesis, utilizing its terminology when necessary. Following these brief introductory comments, Licona moves through 16 pericopes from the four canonical Gospels with the same structure as the previous chapter on Plutarch. By noting similar compositional techniques to those seen in Plutarch, Licona helps readers to view the Gospels in the light of ancient historiography.In the brief closing chapter, Licona examines the most troubling compositional device for modern readers, chronological synthesis. He works through three examples of synthetic chronology in Plutarch, one by Sallust, and the fifth in Tacitus. Synthetic chronology was seen as the artistic work of a well-trained historian. Licona provides the labels of floating chronology (no specific sequence entailed), implied chronology (linking an event as subsequent to the event narrated prior), and explicit chronology (when the sequence and/or timing of the event is explicit). He proceeds to examining three events in the Gospels in which this compositional technique may have been employed. The book closes with a conclusion and four appendixes that briefly list the Plutarch and Gospel pericopes from chs. 3 and 4 (appendixes 1–2), a table of which women were present at the cross, burial, and empty tomb (appendix 3), and short biographical sketches of the characters from Plutarch’s Lives.In a discipline that is so often siloed, Licona has offered NT scholars a valuable piece of comparative research that sheds some significant light on the Gospels. The volume is also very accessible, making it a good volume for introducing the progymnasmata and ancient historiography to those who are unfamiliar.