Ancient Fiction: The Matrix of Early Christian and Jewish Narrative (Symposium Book 32)

The essays in this volume examine the relationship between ancient fiction in the Greco-Roman world and early Jewish and Christian narratives. They consider how those narratives imitated or exploited conventions of fiction to produce forms of literature that expressed new ideas or shaped community identity within the shifting social and political climates of their own societies. Major authors and texts surveyed include Chariton, Shakespeare, Homer, Vergil, Plato, Matthew, Mark, Luke, Daniel, 3 Maccabees, the Testament of Abraham, rabbinic midrash, the Apocryphal Acts, Ezekiel the Tragedian, and the Sophist Aelian. This diverse collection reveals and examines prevalent issues and syntheses in the making: the pervasive use and subversive power of imitation, the distinction between fiction and history, and the use of history in the expression of identity. Jo-Ann A. Brant is Chair of the Department and Professor of Bible, Religion, and Philosophy at Goshen College in Goshen, Indiana. She is the author of Dialogue and Drama: Elements of Greek Tragedy in the Fourth Gospel (Hendrickson).Charles W. Hedrick is Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at Southwest Missouri State University in Springfield, Missouri, and the author of numerous books, including Many Things in Parables: Jesus and His Modern Critics (Westminster John Knox).Chris Shea is Chair of the Department of Modern Languages and Classics and Professor of Classics at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. Read more