Memory Of Jesus Research Articles

Book Review: From the Passion to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre: Memories of Jesus in Place, Pilgrimage, and Early Holy Sites Over the First Three Centuries

Book Review: From the Passion to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre: Memories of Jesus in Place, Pilgrimage, and Early Holy Sites Over the First Three Centuries

Ryan, Jordan J. (2021). From the Passion to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Memories of Jesus in Place, Pilgrimage, and Early Holy Sites over the First Three Centuries. London: T&T Clark

Ryan, Jordan J. (2021). From the Passion to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Memories of Jesus in Place, Pilgrimage, and Early Holy Sites over the First Three Centuries. London: T&T Clark

Los rostros bíblicos de María: Exégesis y hermenéutica bíblica feminista by Mercedes Navarro Puerto

Reviewed by: Los rostros bíblicos de María: Exégesis y hermenéutica bíblica feminista by Mercedes Navarro Puerto Barbara E. Reid mercedes navarro puerto, Los rostros bíblicos de María: Exégesis y hermenéutica bíblica feminista (Estudios Bíblicos; Estella: Verbo Divino, 2020). Pp. 335. Paper €32. This splendid book is the fruit of decades of study by Mercedes Navarro Puerto, beginning with her studies at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome, which resulted in her first publication, María, la mujer: Ensayo psicológico-bíblico (Madrid: Ediciones Claretianas, 1989). This new book aims to give coherence and systematization to the work that has been done in the intervening decades, offering perspectives on Mary that are liberative. Navarro Puerto's method is primarily narrative, while also incorporating the fruits of historical criticism and other newer methods. Her hermeneutical lenses are feminist and psychological. The latter approach is important in that cognitive psychology now recognizes the critical role that narrative plays in the organization of the mind and the ways in which we process reality and construct identity and social interaction. The ways we construct the narrative about Mary are as important, N.P. argues, as how we tell the story of Jesus. N.P. notes that the Mary that most Christians construct is based on cultural memory and a composite of brief mentions of her in the Gospels. Thus, N.P. examines carefully each reference and allusion to Mary in the NT texts, showing quite distinct portraits that emerge. [End Page 504] She pays attention to both the cultural context from which the texts emerge and that into which the texts are inserted now. Throughout, she urges her readers to resist portraits of Mary that serve to advance patriarchy and sexism. Part 1 treats the Gospel of Mark and is titled "Socio-Familiar Ruptures and Transformations." At the outset, Mary is grouped with family members, characterized as mother and the one who heads the family delegation to confront her son (3:31). As Jesus redefines his family (3:33–35), mother is situated with brothers and sisters in a community of equal relations. Mother is no longer defined biologically but is a vocation defined in relation to followers of Jesus. Reading "Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses" in 15:40 and "Mary, the mother of James" in 16:1 as Jesus's mother (in light of 6:3), N.P. sees Mary as having made the choice for discipleship. Part 2 is devoted to Matthew: "At the Crossroads of Life." N.P. gives the bulk of her attention to the infancy narratives. From the genealogy, the reader sees Mary as one in a long line of women whose refusal to remain victimized calls attention the divine presence in the history of God's people, a presence that is not limited by patriarchal structures. The genealogy has an anticipatory function, preparing the reader for categories of discipleship proposed by Jesus that distances his group from familiar structures. Going forward from chap. 2, Matthew orients the characterization of Mary in relation to her son. She is mother above all. As in Mark, Mary moves from being identified as mother to becoming a disciple. The "other Mary" in 28:1 is Jesus's mother, identified as "Mary the mother of James and Joseph" who witnessed the crucifixion (27:56), and the "other Mary" who saw where the body was laid (27:61). In the third part, N.P. treats the works of Luke: "Lights and Shadows of a Woman." Like other feminist scholars, she sees Luke 1:26–38 as both an annunciation of birth and a call story to a prophetic vocation, as exemplified in 1:39–56. Mary's role as interpreter is underscored in 2:19, 51. As one who hears the word and puts it into practice, she moves, as in the other Synoptic Gospels, from mother to disciple. Located in the center of the disciples at Pentecost (Acts 1:14), Mary holds the living memory of Israel, the memory of Jesus, as his mother, and the memory of his new family of followers, for whom she exemplifies...

Reading Mark's Gospel as a Text from Collective Memory by Sandra Huebenthal

Reviewed by: Reading Mark's Gospel as a Text from Collective Memory by Sandra Huebenthal Ritva H. Williams sandra huebenthal, Reading Mark's Gospel as a Text from Collective Memory (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2020). Pp. 694. $74.99. This volume is Sandra Huebenthal's translation of her 2014 work Das Markusevangelium als kollectives Gedächtnis (FRLANT 253; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht); this translation includes a "Foreword" by Werner H. Kelber. Huebenthal begins with an "Exegetical Kaleidoscope" of Gospel scholarship in which she argues for orality-scribality, memory-theoretical approaches, and narrative criticism as preferred hermeneutical lenses. Using these methods, H. intends "to read Mark's Gospel as a collective memory text, namely, one that reflects the efforts of a group to draft a group identity based on that group's memories of Jesus" (p. 81; italics original). To advance this goal, H. devotes a chapter to "Social Recollection," bringing together insights from social memory theorists, primarily Maurice Halbwachs and Jan and Aleida Assmann to produce an ideal type model or matrix of social, collective, and cultural memory. Next, she lays out a model for reading Mark as a memory text. This begins with recognizing that the Gospel consists of individual episodes initially narrated orally within social memory. When transferred into the overall narrative structure of Mark's Gospel, these memories are modified and acquire new meanings (p. 185). As a written text, Mark becomes collective memory functioning as an identity-constituting founding story for a community of commemoration. H.'s reading model begins by gaining an overview of the whole text, paying attention to what is and is not narrated, how it is narrated, its guiding perspectives and transparency. Huebenthal reads the whole narrative as explicating "the (correct) perception of the character Jesus" (p. 235) for the purpose of constituting and organizing a community of narration and commemoration. She sees "the experience of crisis and dealing with crises as a continuous subtext" to which the proper response is "usually withdrawal, composure (also in prayer), reconstitution and continuation at a different place" (pp. 248–49). [End Page 139] Huebenthal devotes three chapters to a detailed analysis of Mark 6:7–8:26, in which she explores the text's intertexture to discover the cultural patterns and frames that have shaped the narrative. Possible Worlds Theory (PWT) enables H. to explore the perspectives of different characters in the text, and of the narrative voice. PWT posits four possible worlds for each character: K-world (knowledge, information, skills, doctrines, convictions, and hypotheses about past and future), O-world (obligations, values, norms, internalized duties, conventions, morals, ethics), W-world (wishes, needs, drives), and I-world (intentions, plans). Finally, H. sheds light on the text's transparency for the community of narration by focusing on the "pragmatics of the text." Rather than asking who the author and audience of Mark's Gospel are, she asks "to which form of Christian identity construction Mark's Gospel offers its invitation" (p. 403). She answers this question by engaging in an intratextural reading, connecting characters and narrative voice with the structure of the whole text. Through these three different strategies, H. demonstrates that in Mark 6:7–8:26 memories of Jesus are presented predominantly within the cultural frame of Hellenistic Jewish Scripture (LXX), traditions, rites, and customs, with some pagan patterns and references appearing in the healing and miracle stories. Based on her PWT assessment, H. contends that "two different worlds converge [in the text] that cannot be reconciled" (p. 396). One is the "O-world" of characters like the Pharisees, scribes, and Herod Antipas; the other is the W-world of Jesus. The narrative voice, through the arrangement of episodes and subtle signals, clearly directs the hearer/reader to adopt Jesus's perspective (p. 397). H. posits a community of commemoration open to newcomers who identify with Jesus, who recognize their own fears, doubts, and mistakes in the disciples, and who try not to repeat them (p. 504). Clean/unclean, Jewish/gentile, rich/poor, sick/healthy, inside/outside are no longer relevant. Jews and gentiles have the same experience of Jesus, yet they do not merge into one group. Community members face local conflicts about matters...

From the Passion to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre: Memories of Jesus in Place, Pilgrimage, and Early Holy Sites over the First Three Centuries, Jordan J.Ryan, T&T Clark, 2021 (ISBN 978‐0‐5676‐7745‐7), xviii + 274 pp., hb £85

From the Passion to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre: Memories of Jesus in Place, Pilgrimage, and Early Holy Sites over the First Three Centuries, Jordan J.Ryan, T&T Clark, 2021 (ISBN 978‐0‐5676‐7745‐7), xviii + 274 pp., hb £85

Reading Mark’s Gospel as a Text From Collective Memory

Reading Mark’s Gospel as a Text From Collective Memory

Die Urgemeinde und das Judenchristentum

Die Urgemeinde und das Judenchristentum

Jesus the Samaritan: synthesizing Two Approaches to the Historical Jesus and their Conceptions on the Continuity between Jesus and the Gospels

Abstract This article documents how two approaches to the historical Jesus, the criteria of authenticity and the memory approach, generally produce divergent takes on the character of the (dis)continuity between Jesus and the Gospels. It highlights some of their respective strengths and weaknesses and attempts to synthesize their strengths through an analysis of the Good Samaritan. Alongside John P. Meier, it accepts that Jesus did not utter this parable, yet it also embraces insights from the memory approach on the role played by the memory of Jesus upon the Gospels’ portrayals of him. It argues for reading the parable as a creative remembrance, not of a historical utterance, but of a complex of historical impressions of Jesus.

Jesus and the Paralytics

This study explores the Greco-Roman memorialization of healings through material culture as a point of comparison for the Gospels’ miracle traditions. Special attention is given to the ex-votos left at healing shrines and especially the Iamata inscriptions connected with the Asclepius cult. This corpus of evidence brings into focus a series of dynamics that help illuminate the stories of Jesus’ two healings of a paralytic (John 5:1-15; Mark 2:1-10). The comparisons help clarify both the common memorializing supports that informed and sustained the memory of Jesus transmitted in the Gospels, as well as the distinctive relationship of the Christian cult to certain specific places where memories of Jesus where preserved.

Early Christian Memories of Jesus

Early Christian Memories of Jesus

Memory and the Jesus Tradition by Alan Kirk

Reviewed by: Memory and the Jesus Tradition by Alan Kirk Ernest Van Eck alan kirk, Memory and the Jesus Tradition (Reception of Jesus in the First Three Centuries 2; London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2018). Pp. xiii + 297. $128. Alan Kirk’s book consists of thirteen essays, twelve previously published between 2001 and 2016, with an added introduction. The twelve chapters are grouped together in four parts, Formation of the Jesus Tradition, Memory and Manuscript, Memory and Historical Jesus Research, and Memory in Second-Century Gospel Writing. In the added introduction (“Memory and Method: Towards a New History of the Tradition”), K. states the aim of the collection, namely, to “flesh out precisely how memory provides the basis for a comprehensive, unified account of the history of the Jesus tradition” (p. 8). In what follows, K. sticks to this aim, arguing that memory theory should replace the form-critical paradigms that are being used to investigate the historical Jesus tradition. Only memory theory, K. argues, is able to account for the origins and history of the Jesus tradition. In part 1, K. introduces “Social and Cultural Memory” (chap. 2), linking the social aspect of memory with the identity of groups memorizing events. In chap. 3 (“Memory Theory: Cultural and Cognitive Approaches to the Gospel Tradition”), K. elaborates on the main argument of the previous chapter, arguing that a tradition’s autonomy is the fact that it is the artefact of memory. Tradition in itself is a memory system (the product of memory forces), material remembered and retold for the sake of identity formation. As such, memory is always cultural memory. Chapter 4 (“The Memory–Tradition Nexus in the Synoptic Tradition: Memory, Media and Symbolic Representation”) reiterates K.’s point of view: the memory approach, although it incorporates some elements of form criticism, breaks radically [End Page 169] from this approach by seeing memory as the primary factor in the origins and history of the Jesus tradition. Part 1 is then rounded off with a discussion of the role of the cognitive aspects of memory (“The Formation of the Synoptic Tradition: Cognitive and Cultural Approaches to an Old Problem”). Here K., in short, argues that the Synoptic tradition is a cultural artefact that emerged at the interface of the cognitive and cultural operations of memory. Part 2 consists of three chapters. Chapter 6 (“Memory and Manuscript: Gerhardsson Revisited”) assesses Birger Gerhardsson’s Memory and Manuscript: Oral Tradition and Written Transmission in Rabbinic Judaism and Early Christianity [ASNU 22; Lund: Gleerup, 1961]), concluding that, for Gerhardsson, memory equals memorization, with the function of maintaining the closeness of correspondence between the gospel tradition and memories of Jesus. In chap. 7 (“Manuscript Tradition as a Tertium Quid: Orality and Memory in Scribal Practice”), K. focuses on scribal practices in early Christianity. Building on the work of Vernon K. Robbins, David C. Parker, and Bart D. Ehrman, K. sees scribes as tradents, not copyists, of texts. The role of early Christian scribes, K. argues, was that of “active manuscript tradition” (p. 136). Scribes did not simply copy traditions; they also produced traditions and therefore must be seen as the continuation of cultural memory that produced and shaped traditions. The final chapter of part 2 (“Memory, Scribal Media and the Synoptic Problem”) has as its focus source criticism. In assessing the ability of the Two-Document, Farrer-Goulder, and Griesbach hypotheses to explain the transmission of the Jesus tradition. K. comes to the conclusion that these hypotheses are to one extent or another predicated upon inadequate understandings of ancient media realities, especially the instrumental role of memory in corresponding literary practices. Part 3 looks more closely at historical Jesus research. In chap. 9 (“The Memory of Violence and the Death of Jesus in Q”), K. challenges the claim—the dogma in Q scholarship—that Q has no interest in Jesus’s death, and chap. 10 (“Memory Theory and Jesus Research”) is an abbreviated repetition of part 1 of the book. Chapter 11 (“Cognition, Commemoration and Tradition: Memory and the Historiography of Jesus Research”) attends to memory distortion. Memory, K. argues, distorts only if it is seen as total recall. Memory, rather than trying to remember on...

Joseph Remembered the Exodus: Memory, Narrative, and Remembering the Future

ABSTRACT The author of Hebrews selected, shaped, and narrated the events and characters of Heb 11. By drawing on collective memories shared between the preacher and the audience, the author encourages the congregation to share in the life of faith demonstrated by those who are referenced. This life of faith is not based on an unrealized future but rather on the presence of the future in the past. In the particular section of Heb 11 that deals with Abraham and his descendants (vv. 8–22), there are appeals to significant identity shaping collective memories such as the person of Joseph and the exodus. The surprising comment that Joseph remembered the exodus is one example of the way in which a collective memory such as the exodus is appealed to as evidence for a true hope, based on an eschatological future that is embedded in the memory of the past. The book of Hebrews describes the eschatological future as something that has already begun (demonstrated in Heb 12 as well as in Heb 1:2) and makes use of collective memory as one more means to solidify that anticipation. For early Christians, the memory of the exodus was a memory of God's deliverance demonstrated in the OT, as well as a memory of Jesus and the deliverance he pointed toward at the Last Supper, accomplished on the cross, and will bring to complete fulfillment on the last day.

Joseph Remembered the Exodus: Memory, Narrative, and Remembering the Future

ABSTRACT The author of Hebrews selected, shaped, and narrated the events and characters of Heb 11. By drawing on collective memories shared between the preacher and the audience, the author encourages the congregation to share in the life of faith demonstrated by those who are referenced. This life of faith is not based on an unrealized future but rather on the presence of the future in the past. In the particular section of Heb 11 that deals with Abraham and his descendants (vv. 8–22), there are appeals to significant identity shaping collective memories such as the person of Joseph and the exodus. The surprising comment that Joseph remembered the exodus is one example of the way in which a collective memory such as the exodus is appealed to as evidence for a true hope, based on an eschatological future that is embedded in the memory of the past. The book of Hebrews describes the eschatological future as something that has already begun (demonstrated in Heb 12 as well as in Heb 1:2) and makes use of collective memory as one more means to solidify that anticipation. For early Christians, the memory of the exodus was a memory of God's deliverance demonstrated in the OT, as well as a memory of Jesus and the deliverance he pointed toward at the Last Supper, accomplished on the cross, and will bring to complete fulfillment on the last day.

Psychologiczne wątki w encyklice Lumen fidei

The author is convinced, that the first Encyclical of Pope Francis Lumen Fidei (Light of Faith) offers a profound and comprehensive meditation on the role of faith in our live. The Pope writes, that the light of faith comes from God and is able to illuminate all aspects of man’s existence: it proceeds from the past, from the memory of Jesus’ life, but also comes from the future as it opens up vast horizons.In the present article the phenomenon of light and dynamics of faith are analysed from the psychological point of view.

Collective Memory Distortion and the Quest for the Historical Jesus

Memory theory is being used, if not explicitly to buttress the reliability of the Gospel portraits of Jesus, to do so implicitly by shifting the search away from the ipsissima verba Jesu towards the memory of Jesus. Rather than argue about what Jesus did or did not say—the reliability wars—some scholars now sidestep the issue by arguing that memory is inherently reliable in a broad or general way. Thus, the Gospels are reliable not at the level of detail, but at the level of broad memory, impact, or gist. In this article I argue that such optimism can only come by selectively quoting the troubling work of memory theorists, and by ignoring the full implications of memory theory.

The Jesus Tradition and the Letter of James

This article examines the relationship between the Jesus tradition and the letter of James. It first argues that the author of James did not know the gospels, but was familiar with a source for Matthew and Luke, otherwise known as “Q.” In particular, James indicates awareness of a form of Q used within the Matthean community (QMatt). The article then explores how James adapts the Jesus tradition to suit the letter's overall purposes, and illustrates how James builds from pre-existent literary models found in the wisdom tradition and in Greco-Roman literature. James shapes the Jesus tradition in order to strengthen his arguments and in so doing, he reveals that his wisdom is consistent with that of Jesus, which in turn, enhances the character of James as a speaker. The article focuses especially on a parallel between QMatt 5:3 and Jas 2:5. James integrates and expands the beatitude about the blessedness of the poor into this part of his letter in order to buttress his attempts to dissuade his readership from showing partiality to the rich. Despite the many correspondences between James and the Jesus tradition, it is difficult to discern a Christology in James, other than to assume that James must have viewed Jesus as a great wisdom teacher, for the references to “the Lord,” (e.g., Jas 5:7) the “Judge” (Jas 5:9) and the “holy name” (Jas 2:7) are all ambiguous. Despite this lack of Christology, the letter of James is remarkably consistent with many of the memories of Jesus, especially in its stress on care for the poor, criticism of the rich, integrity between word and deed and the necessity of total reliance upon God.

Are there Parables in John? It is Time to Revisit the Question

AbstractA point of agreement between historical-Jesus scholarship and Johannine scholarship is that there are no parables in the Fourth Gospel. The following article, however, questions this consensus on both historical and literary grounds. Drawing on the insights of memory research, the following discussion will not seek to peer 'behind' the text, but rather embraces the text itself as a historical document of the memory of Jesus. Additionally, new genre theories necessitate a shift in the application of form criticism to the parable genre. Taking these new methodological insights into account, one finds texts in John that have the same right to be called 'parables' as texts found in the Synoptic Gospels. Furthermore, these Johannine parables, in their specific form of remembering, preserve and reveal important theological aspects of Jesus' parables.

The Claim of John 7.15 and the Memory of Jesus' Literacy

This article argues that John 7.15 claims neither literacy nor illiteracy for Jesus, but rather that Jesus was able to confuse his opponents with regards to his scribal literacy. According to the Johannine narrator, Jesus' opponents assumed he did not ‘know letters’, but also acknowledged that he taught as if he did. This article also suggests that the claim of John 7.15 is historically plausible in light of first-century Christianity's corporate memory(ies) of Jesus' literacy.

The Testimony of the Beloved Disciple: Narrative, History and Theology in the Gospel of John. By Richard Bauckham

The Testimony of the Beloved Disciple: Narrative, History and Theology in the Gospel of John. By Richard Bauckham

Canone biblico e teologia biblica. Un rapporto necessario… difficile

Biblical Canon and Biblical Theology are two realities tied together similar to the problem of a unique canon made of two Testaments in tension, and answer, to demonstrate the unity of the Scriptures. Having introduced the problem, two crucial moments are taken into consideration in which the canon has been at the center of theological reflection: the 70 with the German hermeneutics on the one hand and the American canonical critics on the other; the 90 with the proposal of three important “ Biblical Theologies”, examined for the answer they give to the problem of the canon. In last part the results are synthesized and an attempt is made to find a new way in order to demonstrate the unity of the Scriptures: the collective memory of Jhwh as the one God who has created the world and has chosen Israel and the memory of Jesus containing the former and bringing it to fulfillment in the definitive revelation of the God who saves all men.