The NT writers shape and twist the conventions of their time in order to better accomplish their purpose: to proclaim the name of Christ to the ends of the earth. This event—the coming of the Christ and the call to establish His Church–is unique and unprecedented, and as such cannot be contained within the established conventions of the day.

I’ve finally finished Hurtado’s Destroyer of the Gods, which is an excellent historical argument for the uniqueness of Christianity within the Roman world. Highly recommended. One of the points he makes along the way is that Christian literature is unique. Christianity is not just unique religiously, but also literarily—it’s an unprecedentedly “bookish” religion. His point coordinates well with another book I’m working through, Andrew Judd’s Modern Genre Theory: An Introduction for Biblical Studies. Judd’s aim is for reader’s to better appreciate the way in which genre affects the way we read, and so if you want to understand how the Bible means what it means, you need to understand the kinds of literature represented in the Bible.

The point of all this is, while it’s incredibly important to read the Bible in the ordinary way required by the genre of the book in question, it’s also important to recognize that each work is unique and, in some ways, innovative.

Every book of the New Testament challenges the conventions of their respective genre. They each attempt something unique, even unprecedented, and must therefore bend the literary rules of the time to fit their purpose. (This is true for most great literature, but I’d argued that there’s something different going on with the Bible). A brief tour is in order, but I intend what follows to be more suggestive than definitive, and I’m also refraining from footnotes–if you´re interested in more, the two aforementioned books will get you started!

The Gospels Are Too Religious to Be Biographies

On the one hand, the four Gospels read like ancient biographies. There are, of course, some “oddities” with them, like there is almost nothing about Jesus’ childhood, and the last week of Jesus’ life receives an exceptional amount of attention, and it is not at all normal to write a biography about a poor Jewish carpenter rather than an important senator or ruler, but in general they behave like biographies. Except that these biographers are writing, to quote John, “that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ… And that in believing you might have life in his name” (John 20:31 ). Sure, they want you to understand–Luke writes “an orderly account” because he wants to set the record straight (Luke 1:1-4 )–but they want more than simply intellectual assent. To a man the evangelists want you to worship. And they want you to worship the one they are describing, name Jesus of Nazareth.

It’s an odd tension, perhaps best illustrated by Mark. On the one hand, he is writing “ordinary” history; it’s not mythic or romantic or highly stylized. Mark does not tell you why he is writing, nor does he advertise his main themes and agenda. It’s subtle because, on the surface, Mark’s goal is simple: to tell you the history of Jesus. On the other hand, at the center of Mark’s Gospel is Peter’s confession: “You are the Christ.” It’s an ordinary biography, but it should lead you to bow the knee before the King, God’s true Son.

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