From Narrative in Print to Narrative in Performance

Abstract

This article examines the paradigm shift from analysing the biblical narratives in a modern print medium to the exploration of biblical narratives as witnesses to oral performances in an ancient oral/aural medium. Our modern print medium assumes a single author writing a fixed text to be read in private and in silence by individual readers. The ancient Mediterranean media world presumes the ethos of a predominantly oral culture, a strong role for memory, the activity of scribes writing on scrolls, and performances to communal audiences. All these factors work to shape communal identity. The article then offers examples from the Gospel of Mark of various features of an oral performance, how oral performances may have generated a rhetorical impact, and how we might use insights from such studies to reinterpret Mark in an oral ethos.