Genre of Passion Narratives
Genre of Passion Narratives
First we should address the genre ancient audiences may have perceived in the passion narrative. Naturally in the Gospels readers would approach the passion narrative as related to a common feature of ancient biographies (i.e., the final part narrating the subject’s death). Nevertheless, we must also ask about the earlier, independent passion narrative (or perhaps more likely, various passion narrations) that stand behind this portion of the Gospels.
Because both the passion narratives and martyr stories address the unjust death of the righteous, the passion narratives repeat some themes that also appear in the martyr stories (e.g., 2 Macc 6-7; Wisd 2:12-20),6 as many scholars have properly emphasized.7 Ancient moralists and historians praised honorable and heroic deaths, whether within or beyond martyr stories.8 Writers may have also drawn on a stock arsenal of motifs when expanding martyr stories for dramatic purposes.9 At the same time, analogous story lines need not demonstrate dependence or genetic relationship. Those who stood against the establishment regularly invited repression, so their stories tended to turn out in similar ways.
Important as comparisons with martyr stories are for analysis of the texts, the comparisons involve some limitations. Apart from the fact that both martyr stories and Gospel passion narratives involve a righteous person’s unjust death, the parallels may be inadequate to place the Gospel passion stories fully in this genre, especially given the differences.10 Many features reflect common notions of courage or acting on behalf of others.11 More specifically, early Jewish Christians probably drew on the Isaian servant songs, which came to be widely applied to Jesus (e.g., Matt 12:17-21; Acts 3:13; 8:32-35; 1 Pet 2:22).12
Of the other motifs that both the passion narratives and martyr stories share, many are no more distinctively characteristic of martyr stories than of other ancient literature. For example, where possible, Diogenes Laertius ends his discussions of the lives of eminent philosophers with their death.13 Martyr stories of course could vindicate their protagonist’s devotion and so offered greater impact than other death accounts.14
Despite analogies, barely anyone would suggest that Jesus’ execution was merely fabricated to fit this genre; as we have noted, early Christians had every reason to avoid fabricating a story that would bring them into repeated conflict with Roman authorities and their own Jewish elite. Further, most biographies that reported their subjects’ death did not conclude with martyrdom, and nearly all scholars concur with good reason that the basic kerygma (gospel message) arose shortly after Jesus’ execution.15 Though martyr stories may explain the form in which some cohesive passion narrative or narratives circulated, they would not by themselves indicate their composition to be fiction.
Theissen thus concludes his own analysis, “There is no analogy to the passion narrative in all of ancient literature. Elements of Hellenistic acts of the martyrs and Jewish tales of martyrdom have been melded into something quite new.”16 If he overstates their uniqueness from a formal standpoint, he nevertheless corrects an overemphasis on parallels that explain less than some other scholars would claim. The vast majority of ancient biographies concluded with the subject’s death, funeral, and related events.17 Many biographies focused a significant amount of space on the conclusion of their subjects’ lives, especially if the end was central to the subject’s achievements.18 Likewise, if the passion narrative is not simply a martyr story, neither is it a typical Greek apotheosis story; the focus in the Synoptic Gospels is on Jesus’ mortal suffering, not a promotion to divinity.19