Fourth Gospel in First-Century Media Culture

Anthony Le Donne (PhD, Durham University) is Assistant Professor of New Testament and Second Temple Judaism at Lincoln Christian University, Lincoln, Illinois. He is the author of The Historiographical Jesus: Memory, Typology, and the Son of David (Baylor University Press, 2009) and Historical Jesus: What Can We Know and How Can We Know It? (Eerdmans, 2010). Together with Jacob Neusner and Bruce Chilton he is co-editing Soundings in Jesus and His Religion (Fortress, forthcoming in 2011). His home on the web is anthonyledonne.com. Tom Thatcher is Professor of Biblical Studies at Cincinnati Christian University. He has authored or edited numerous books and articles on the Johannine Literature and early Christian media culture, including Memory, Tradition, and Text (with Alan Kirk; SBL 2005), Why John Wrote a Gospel (WJK 2006), and Jesus, the Voice, and the Text (Baylor University Press 2008). A co-founder and former chair of the 'Mapping Memory' research group in the Society of Biblical Literature, Tom now serves on the programme committee of the SBL's Bible in Ancient and Modern Media section.

'The contributors to this volume boldly and, in varying measure, successfully demonstrate not just the potential but even the necessity of attending to the media culture(s) in which the Johannine writings first found expression and reception. The issues raised by this volume may focus on the FG and related texts, but they apply more broadly to early Christian and Second-Temple Jewish texts in general. The focus on the Johannine literature gives this collection a coherence and concreteness that clarifies and demonstrates the possibilities of media research. However, the value of this collection for NT and biblical scholarship is in no way limited to students of the FG and its cousins.'—Biblical Theology Bulletin

• Part I: John and Oral Culture Introducing Media Culture to Johannine Studies: Orality, Performance, and Memory Anthony Le Donne and Tom Thatcher Seeing, Hearing, Declaring, Writing: Media Dynamics in the Letters of John Jeffrey E. Brickle The Riddle of the Baptist and the Genesis of the Prologue: John 1:1-18 in Oral/Aural Media Culture Tom Thatcher A Performance of the Text: The Adulteress' Entrance into John's Gospel Chris Keith Part II: John as Oral Performance John's Memory Theater: A Study of Composition in Performance Tom Thatcher The Medium and Message of John: Audience Address and Audience Identity in the Fourth Gospel Thomas E. Boomershine Jesus Retold as the World's Light in Johannine Oral Prophecy Antoinette Wire Part III: John in the Medium of Memory Scripture Talks because Jesus Talks: The Narrative Rhetoric of Persuading and Creativity in John's Use of Scripture Michael Labahn John's Gospel and the Oral Gospel Tradition James D.G. Dunn Memory, Commemoration and History in John 2:19-22: A Critique and Application of Social Memory Anthony Le Donne Abraham as a Figure of Memory in John 8:31-59 Catrin H. Williams Part IV: Reflections and Directions What Difference Does the Medium Make? Barry Schwartz Introducing Media Culture to Johannine Studies Gail R. O'Day Bibliography