Chapter 75 of 404

Memoirs?

The Gospels’ sources may well include collections of “memoirs,” personal recollections sometimes also polished in antiquity for publication.³² Such memoirs could readily provide content for “folk” biographies.³³ Some or many second-century Christian writers viewed the Gospels³⁴ — alongside other apostolic works — as “memoirs,” perhaps recalling Xenophon’s Memorabilia, a “life” of Socrates. This comparison provides attestation that some saw the Gospels as a form of biography from an early period.³⁵ A common general pattern does exist, but the canonical Gospels may represent a different kind of biography than most collections of memoirs; they are complete literary narratives and not simply “folk” biographies as most such collections would be.³⁶

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