The Media Matrix of Early Jewish and Christian Narrative

This volume compares two seemingly dissimilar ancient texts, the Gospel of Mark and Joseph and Aseneth. The former is a product of the nascent Jesus movement and influenced by the Greco-Roman Bioi (“Lives”). It details the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of a wandering Galilean. The latter is a Hellenistic Jewish narrative influenced by Jewish novellas and Greek romances. It expands the laconic account of Joseph's marriage to Aseneth in Genesis 41 into a full-fledged love and adventure story. Generically, theologically, and concerning content the two texts are quite different.

Nonetheless, Mark and Joseph and Aseneth exhibit a number of remarkable similarities. This book suggests that Mark and Joseph and Aseneth are alike because of their medium and mode of composition. Each was composed via dictation. They are “textualized oral narratives.” As such they represent one instantiation of the complex relationship between orality and textuality in early Judaism and Christianity.

• Table of contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• List of Abbreviations
• Chapter One: Mark and Aseneth
• Chapter Two: Media Theory, Ancient Media, and Orally Composed Narratives from the Papyri
• Chapter Three: Linguistic Oral Residues
• Chapter Four: Metalinguistic Oral Residues
• Chapter Five: Linguistic Trajectories of Joseph and Aseneth and Mark
• Conclusion
• Works Cited