Mark and Matthew I. Comparative Readings: Understanding the Earliest Gospels in their First Century Settings

Mark and Matthew I. Comparative Readings: Understanding the Earliest Gospels in their First Century Settings, edited by Eve-Marie Becker and Anders Runesson forthcoming in the WUNT series (Mohr-Siebeck) will be published in August. The volume of essays brings together the contributions to the first conference held in Århus, reported on here, here and here. Of particular interest to readers of this blog will be the essays on textual criticism by Barbara Aland, "Was heißt Abschreiben? Neue Entwicklungen in der Textkritik und ihre Konsequenzen für die Überlieferungsgeschichte der frühesten christlichen Verkündigung," and Tommy Wasserman, "The Implications of Textual Criticism for Understanding the ‘Original Text’."

Publisher's description:

The study of Mark and Matthew from a comparative perspective has a long history. Ever since the theory of Markan priority became firmly established in the 19th century however, many studies, especially commentaries on either Mark or Matthew, make observations related primarily to one of the Gospels only. Thus the most frequent result of studying Mark and Matthew is that one Gospel is overshadowed by the other. This collection of papers employs a sustained multiperspectival comparative approach which contributes simultaneously to the synoptic problem discourse and sheds light on the individual Gospels in their first century setting(s), a procedure that reveals new questions and discoveries. This highlights new aspects of the Gospels which are critical for our understanding of the rise and development of Gospel literature in the first century C.E.

Contributors:
Barbara Aland , David E. Aune , Wayne Baxter , Eve-Marie Becker, Cilliers Breytenbach , Warren Carter , Sean Freyne , Morten Hørning Jensen , John S. Kloppenborg , Stanley E. Porter , Anders Runesson , David C. Sim , Lorenzo Scornaienchi , Tommy Wasserman , Oda Wischmeyer , Adela Yarbro Collins , Linden Youngquist


Survey of contents:
Eve-Marie Becker and Anders Runesson : Introduction: Studying Mark and Matthew in Comparative Perspective
1. History of Research
Cilliers Breytenbach : Current Research on the Gospel according to Mark: A Report on Monographs Published from 2000-2009 - David C. Sim : Matthew: The Current State of Research

2. Reconstructing the Artifacts: Text-Critical and Linguistic Aspects of the Study of Mark and Matthew
Barbara Aland : Was heißt Abschreiben? Neue Entwicklungen in der Textkritik und ihre Konsequenzen für die Überlieferungsgeschichte der frühesten christlichen Verkündigung - Tommy Wasserman : The Implications of Textual Criticism for Understanding the ‘Original Text’ - Stanley E. Porter : Matthew and Mark: The Contribution of Recent Linguistic Thought

3. Date and Genre
Eve-Marie Becker : Dating Mark and Matthew as Ancient Literature - David E. Aune : Genre Theory and the Genre-Function of Mark and Matthew

4. Socio-Religious Location
Sean Freyne : Matthew and Mark: The Jewish Contexts - Morten Hørning Jensen : Conflicting Calls? Family and Discipleship in Mark & Matthew in the Light of First-Century Galilean Village Life - Linden Youngquist : Matthew, Mark and Q - Wayne Baxter : Matthew, Mark, and the Shepherd Metaphor: Similarities, Differences, and Implications

5. Conflict and Violence
Warren Carter : Matthew: Empire, Synagogues, and Horizontal Violence - Lorenzo Scornaienchi : The Controversy Dialogues and the Polemic in Mark and Matthew - John S. Kloppenborg : The Representation of Violence in Synoptic Parables

6. Building Community Using Text
Oda Wischmeyer : Forming Identity Through Literature: The Impact of Mark for the Building of Christ-Believing Communities in the Second Half of the First Century C. E. - Anders Runesson : Building Matthean Communities: The Politics of Textualization

7. Notes from the Conference: Further Discussion
Adela Yarbro Collins : Reflections on the Conference at the University of Aarhus, July 25-27, 2008

Link to publisher's description.