Narrative Criticism
NT 400
11/11/04
Wagner
Introduction
- criticism
methods – some done in isolation, others done together
- Behind
the Text
- historical
criticism – valuable for telling us what is behind it
- Form
Criticism – attempt to talk about traditions about Jesus were
transmitted from the writers to Jesus.
learn something about the community that told these stories.
History of the Synoptic Method – what can be subscribed to Jesus.
- Genre
Criticism – take form criticism ideas and apply to text
- Redaction
Criticism – building off the ideas of form criticism, Messianic
Secret in Mark – theological program in that Jesus is confessed as
Messiah but Jesus tells people to not tell anyone. how do the other gospels change/update
the material from Mark to achieve their agendas.
- critics
grew frustrated at study of the pieces
- reaction
was to deal with gospels as a text (wholistically)
- Front
of the Text
- methods
that study what is front of the text – Reader-Oriented Criticism,
how does what is read form the interpretation? theological exegesis is in
this category (with the goal of talking about something in front of the
text – God, us, community).
- New
Criticism – treats the text on its own, as an entity that projects a
world
- does
not focus on the author
- nor
on the present reader
- focuses
on text after text
- writer
(historical author) or implied author (only accessible using the text)
- projected
from the text, the voice that appears in the text as you read
- may
or may not be close to the actual writer
- very
helpful for anonymous documents such as the gospel
- narrator
–
- example
– Huckaberry Finn
- he
is the narrator
- he
struggles with notion of going hell
- the
implied author does not agree with Huckaberry Finn
- also
different from Samuel Clemons
- implied
reader
- what
sort of reader does the author imply?
- Mark
– do they know Aramaic? do they
know Israel scriptures?
- certain
questions not asked when in this mode
Stories
- Events
/ Plot
- series
of events arranged in a plot
- *---
*---*---*---*---*
- introduction
-> tension introduced -> rising action that culminates in climatic
moment -> resolution -> conclusion
- some
leave you at different spots (at climatic moment) / multiple peaks
- what
is the role of the story?
- better
to experience the story than to reduce sentences to thesis/proof examples
- preaching
– ‘perform’ the story, let people experience it
- Mark: what is the plot? where is this going?
- Jesus
introduced
- tension
introduced, opposition
- increased
when he goes to Jerusalem (chapter 8)
- prediction
of death heightens tension
- Mark
16 – move toward resolution but it is cut off
- Matthew
– commision to go, this is an introduction of another tension
- Plot(s)
- Jairus’
daughter
- woman
with flow of blood
- similar
/ different plots
- interwoven
stories
- purpose
of interruption?
- Setting
- in
time and space
- what
is the significance in this journey to Jerusalem?
- difference
between Galiean story vs. Jerusalem?
- what
does Mark tell us about this?
- significance
of going back and forth over the sea?
location of healings and exorcisms?
- inside
vs. outside the narrative
- Characters
- prominent
individuals
- also
the crowds are a character
- what
are the characters?
- characterization
- how
much do we know?
- how
do we know it?
- some
are sketched quickly and left
- some
are 3-dimensional. some develop
- words
from characters own mouth
- watch
the character
- hear
what other people say about that character
- judge
as to whether that is reliable or unreliable – words from Jesus or the
Pharisees?
- character’s
thoughts
- Narrator
Point of View
- does
the narrator only know what the characters know?
- or
more omniscient, know more than the characters?
- does
the narrator follow a character or characters?
- Mark
– starts with Jesus, later the narrator goes to the disciples.
- resurrection
shifts to disciples
- author
shapes the perspective for the reader, more than the characters know
- trust/distrust,
like/dislike is a function of the narrator’s view
- project
meaning
- Mark
As Story – David Rhodes
- reading
of Mark
- more
indepth analysis using these ideas
- looks
at Jesus
- useful
for preaching / teaching a text
- asks
them to discover the insights using these questions
Mark 5:21-43
Events / Plot
- 21
-Jesus crossed the sea to the other side
- 21 -
crowd gathered
- 22-23
- Jairus approached, fell at his feet, and begged repeatedly – able to
separate himself from the crowd as one of the leaders of the synagogue
- 24 -
Jesus went with him
- 24 –
large crowd followed him
- was
crowd waiting because Jairus was going to approach Jesus?
- or
was crowd there because Jesus and Jairus then approached?
- 27 –
woman came up behind Jesus and touched his cloak
- 29 –
her hemorrhage stoped, she felt in her body that the she was healed of her
disease
- 31 –
disciples respond to Jesus’ question
- 33 –
woman came in fear, fell before him and told him the whole truth
- 34 –
Jesus explains
- 35 –
people tell Jairus that his daughter is dead
- 37 –
Jesus only allows Peter, James and John to follow him
- 38 –
arrive at the house
- 40 –
people laugh
- 41 –
Jesus takes her by the hand and tells her “Little girl, get up!”
- 42 –
any significance to 12 years of hemorrage or 12 years old girl? was the woman the little girl’s
mother? is there a connection?
- 43 –
people respond with amazement
- 44 –
Jesus tells them to not tell anyone
- impact
of merging stories
- greatly
increases the tension, might not have had the impact if he only healed
Jairus’ daughter
- d
- gospel
writers cover a lot of time quickly
- dialog
slows the action down
- reader
may unconsciously
Setting
- by the
sea after Jesus crossed the sea again
- east
side before
- decopolis
– mostly Gentile cities
- on the
west side – returning to Jewish territory (Galilean)
- two
impure entities involved
- dead
body
- menstrual
blood
- town
has a synagogue – what does this show?
is this a Gentile or Jewish town?
- crowd
pressed in on him
- public
/ private
- unknown
woman in crowd (public)
- daughter
of leader of the synagogue in the house (private)
Characters
- Jesus
- not
leading this crowd, in the middle
- crowd
- why
was it there? (see above)
- Mark
4 – parables (inside/outside)
- which
crowds part of story?
public/private significance?
- Jairus
- one
of the leaders of the synagogue
- able
to address Jesus
- fell
at his feet and begged repeatedly
- assumption
– knew that Jesus should lay hands on (means of healing)
- woman
with bleeding
- suffering
from hemorrhages for 12 years
- woman
unable to fulfill ritual purity steps
- marginalized
- endured
much under many physicians
- spent
all that she had
- not
growing better but grew worse
- was
she ashamed?
- assumption
– if I touch his clothes
- Jesus
addresses her as “Daughter” when he says “Daughter, your faith has made
you well”
- disciples
– specifically Peter, James, and John
- weeping
and wailing people
- mother
(not listed with Jairus in the beginning). Jairus is listed as “father” in v. 40.
-
Narrative Point of View
- what
did healing stories of that time show about healing “methods”?
- laying
on of hands
- touching
clothes (or anything)
- is
there anything different in these accounts from the normative view of
healing?
- assumption
– the ruler of the synogogue is from this community but the narrator
doesn’t say this
- movement
to the other side – potential structural marker for new story
- assumption
– the woman is from this community but the narrator doesn’t say this
- “healing
word” – did people
- 40 –
Peter listed first (usually listed first or last in Mark) – is he the
narrator?
- 41 –
Mark has to translate “tabitha cum” to the reader
- connections
between stories
- setting
of great crowd
- natural
progression from story 1 to story 2
- not
as natural from story 2 back to story 1
- 12
year connection
- coincidental?
- maybe
Mark created it?
- significance?
- fear
- woman
fears after healing
General Questions
baptism?
- initiation
by woman (adult)
- Jesus
initation to child (infant)
- overall,
first generation documents do not handle specifics, but discussion comes
afterwards
idea – crowd is the picture of a
congregation (people come for a variety of reasons)
EXEGESIS INTERPRETATIVE ESSAY IDEA
- sleeping
instead of death
o
why is it referred to as sleeping?
o
how does this relate to Paul’s description of death as
sleeping?
Teaching
- challenge
to read over and over and over – see things that normally would not see
-