Reading the Gospels Wisely

A Narrative and Theological Introduction

JONATHAN T. PENNINGTON

Baker Academic

a division of Baker Publishing Group

Grand Rapids, Michigan

© 2012 by Jonathan T. Pennington

Published by Baker Academic

a division of Baker Publishing Group

P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287

www.bakeracademic.com

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Pennington, Jonathan T.

Reading the Gospels wisely: a narrative and theological introduction / Jonathan T. Pennington.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

ISBN 978-0-8010-3937-9 (pbk.)

1. Bible. N.T. Gospels—Criticism, interpretation, etc. 2. Bible. N.T. Gospels—Theology. I. Title.

BS2555.52.P455 2012

226′.06—dc23

2012011956

Scripture quotations are from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

To Mark Gignilliat and Keith Johnson,

in gratitude for many years of life-giving friendship

Contents

Foreword by Richard Bauckham

Preface

Part 1 Clearing Ground, Digging Deep, and Laying a Good Foundation

1. What Are the Gospels? Defining “Gospel”

2. What Are the Gospels? Understanding the “Gospel” Genre

3. Why Do We Need the Gospels? (Or Why Saint Paul Is Not Enough)

4. The Joy and Angst of Having Four Gospels

5. Texts and History: The Testimony of the Fourfold Witness

6. Reading Holy Scripture Well: Three Avenues

7. Reading Holy Scripture Well: Intent, Meaning, and Posture

8. Foundations for Reading the Gospels Well

Part 2 Building the House through Wise Reading

9. Reading the Gospels as Stories: The “Whatever Strikes Me” (WSM) Hermeneutic versus Narrative Analysis

10. Reading the Gospels as Stories: Circles of Contextual Meaning

Part 3 Living in the Gospels House

11. Summing It All Up: Applying and Teaching the Gospels

12. The Gospels as the Archway of the Canon

Scripture Index

Author Index

Foreword

So much has been written about the Gospels that no one could ever read more than a fraction of it. But anyone who begins to read what scholars have been writing about the Gospels soon discovers that there are many different sorts of important questions one can ask about the Gospels and that most of them have received many different answers. It can be daunting and confusing.

Not so long ago nearly all Gospels scholars would have said, very confidently, that the Gospels are not biographies of Jesus. Now, however, many would say that is precisely what they are, though with the qualification that they are the sort of biography people wrote at that time. But does that ...