Configuring Nicodemus An Interdisciplinary Approach to Complex Characterization

Whitenton, Michael R. & Chris Keith

ISBN 10: 0567665305 / ISBN 13: 9780567665300

Published by T & T Clark, 2019

About this Item

Text clean and tight; no dust jacket; The Library Of New Testament Studies; 8vo 8" - 9" tall; 192 pages.

Seller Inventory # 205807

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Configuring Nicodemus An Interdisciplinary Approach to Complex Characterization
• Publisher: T & T Clark
• Publication Date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0567665305
• ISBN 13: 9780567665300
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: As New
• Dust Jacket Condition: No Dust Jacket As Issued

About this title

Synopsis

Michael Whitenton offers a fresh perspective on the characterization of Nicodemus, focusing on the benefit of Hellenistic rhetoric and the cognitive sciences for understanding audience construals of characters in ancient narratives.

Whitenton builds an interdisciplinary approach to ancient characters, utilizing cognitive science, Greek stock characters, ancient rhetoric, and modern literary theory. He then turns his attention to the characterization of Nicodemus, where he argues that Nicodemus would likely be understood initially as a dissembling character, only to depart from that characterization later in the narrative, suggesting a journey toward Johannine faith. Whitenton presents a compelling argument: many in an ancient audience would construe Nicodemus in ways that suggest his development from doubt and suspicion to commitment and devotion.

About the Authors

Michael Whitenton is Lecturer in the Baylor Interdisciplinary Core at Baylor University, USA. He is the author of Hearing Kyriotic Sonship: A Cognitive and Rhetorical Approach to the Characterization of Mark's Jesus (2017). Michael's most recent articles have been published in the Journal of Biblical Literature, Catholic Biblical Quarterly, and Journal for the Study of the New Testament, among others.

Chris Keith is Research Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society, Norway. He is the author of The Pericope Adulterae, the Gospel of John and the Literacy of Jesus, a winner of the 2010 John Templeton Award for Theological Promise, and Jesus' Literacy: Scribal Culture and the Teacher from Galilee. He is also the co-editor of Jesus among Friends and Enemies: A Historical and Literary Introduction to Jesus in the Gospels, and was recently named a 2012 Society of Biblical Literature Regional Scholar.