Ep 167: The Gospels as Biography with Helen Bond

Ep 167: The Gospels as Biography with Helen Bond

In this episode I talk with Dr. Helen Bond, professor of Christian Origins and New Testament at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and cohost of the Biblical Time Machine podcast. She has a chapter in the new book The Next Quest for the Historical Jesus, out now on Eerdmans, where she argues that the gospels need to be understood as an expression of ancient Greek biography. Dr. Bond explains how ancient biography works as a genre, that the goals of ancient biography are to recount the life of a great person so that others can imitate them, and why the goal of ancient biography isn’t simply historical accuracy but rather representing the ‘gist’ or the ‘impact’ that the subject had on those who encountered them. She also explains how the gospels contain anecdotes that were skillfully woven into a narrative by the writers, how the gospels reflect the oral culture of antiquity, and why we should be less concerned about determining whether individual stories and sayings in the gospels happened exactly as they were told and more concerned with the overall impression of Jesus the gospel writers are trying to impart. We then discuss the Next Quest and how recovering the gospels as biography will help move historical Jesus research forward.

Additional Resources

• Helen Bond Bio: https://www.research.ed.ac.uk/en/persons/helen-bond
• Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B001HMRULC/allbooks?ingress=0&visitId=62f6a737-f5de-43aa-aa9c-5d5dc01d12b6&ref_=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1
• Biblical Time Machine Podcast:
• Listen on Apple Podcasts
• https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/biblical-time-machine/id1648738323
• Listen on Spotify
• https://open.spotify.com/show/7cNljZzhe4w3zL9t0MaOZH?si=9G0vB9NVRDe5XZZVDfOGVg
• The Next Quest for the Historical Jesus: https://a.co/d/6oqI7qd
• Craig Blomberg Interview: https://libertarianchristians.com/episode/ep-162-johns-gospel-and-the-historical-jesus-with-craig-blomberg/