In a narrative about Jesus, a character like John the Baptist would not be expected to play a role much beyond that of providing a baptism for Jesus. Yet the Matthaean narrator finds several other uses for John in the development of the narrative, not only while he is still alive, but also after he is dead. In examining John's role, Yamasaki deploys an audience-oriented critical methodology, an approach that chronicles the narrator's efforts to influence first-time readers' experience of the narrative as they proceed sequentially through the text. He traces John's characterization as...
In a narrative about Jesus, a character like John the Baptist would not be expected to play a role much beyond that of providing a baptism for Jesu...
Countless times in the Bible readers are presented with a report of a character engaged in some action, but no explicit indication from the storyteller on how the action is to be evaluated. At first glance, it would appear the readers are being left to fend for themselves in making an evaluation. Fortunately, according to Yamasaki, that is not the case, for, he argues, though the readers are not receiving explicit evaluative guidance, they may be receiving guidance in a less-obvious fashion through the way in which point of view is being used in the passage. Gary Yamasaki's bold new work sets...
Countless times in the Bible readers are presented with a report of a character engaged in some action, but no explicit indication from the storytelle...
