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The Oral Ethos of the Early Church
Speaking, Writing, and the Gospel of Mark
Biblical Performance Criticism
by Joanna Dewey
Imprint: Cascade Books
To experience the gospel message as first-century people heard it is to move into an oral world, one with very little reliance on manuscripts. The essays in this book explore this oral world and the Gospel of Mark within it. They demonstrate the oral style of Mark's gospel, which suggests that it was composed orally, transmitted orally in its entirety by literate and nonliterate storytellers, and survived to become part of the canon only because it was widely known orally. Women's storytelling also thrived during the first centuries of Christianity. With the transition to manuscript authority beginning in the middle of the second century, women's voices were often minimized, trivialized, or completely omitted in written versions. Further, when the Gospel of Mark was one of four written Gospels these voices were quickly ignored. An ancient audience hearing Mark performed, however, enjoyed a vibrant experience of the gospel message and its urgent call to follow.
Joanna Dewey is Harvey H. Guthrie Jr. Professor Emerita of Biblical Studies at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She has written numerous articles and is the author of Markan Public Debate (1980) and a coauthor of Mark as Story (3rd ed., 2012).
"Dewey's latest collection helpfully brings together key articles from a leading voice in the study of the Bible in its ancient media context. Taken together, the essays summarize and illustrate foundational problems in the study of Scripture as a product and shaper of early Christian performances of Jesus tradition. An essential reference tool for scholars interested in media, memory, and Mark."
--Tom Thatcher, Cincinnati Christian University
"In these beautifully crafted essays, Joanna Dewey explores with clarity, rigor, and insight what it means to hear the texts of the New Testament as oral texts. I am especially pleased to see the inclusion of her essays on women and storytelling, an often neglected subject. . . . This is essential reading for anyone interested in the area of orality."
--Holly Hearon, Christian Theological Seminary
"Joanna Dewey's essays skillfully braid the strands of three scholarly approaches: narrative criticism, feminist interpretation, and orality studies, resulting in an engaging story of how New Testament texts, especially Mark's Gospel, came to be and an inviting reflection on how that context can enrich our interpretation today."
--Elizabeth Struthers Malbon, Virginia Tech
"Joanna Dewey, a leading voice in orality-scribality studies, has made an extremely valuable contribution to the lively and rapidly progressing debate on media and communication. Challenging our habits of equating early Christian identity with written texts, she demonstrates persuasively the oral-aural factor in Paul and Mark, illuminates the great significance of the storytelling tradition, and astutely develops links between oral-scribal media shifts and power relations."
--Werner Kelber, Rice University
"Joanna Dewey has been a pioneer in opening up the world of oral performance and the hearing of the gospel story, including the key role of women storytellers. Each new essay builds on the previous ones and leads to new insights as the gospel comes alive."
--Richard Horsley, University of Massachusetts, Boston