The Gospels as Ancient Biographies: a History of the Genre Debate

Abstract

This article analyzes the scholarly debate surrounding the genre of the Gospels, with a particular focus on their interpretation as ancient biographies. The author traces the evolution of scholarly perspectives from the 19th century to the present, paying close attention to the key arguments of both critics and proponents of this theory, such as R. Bultmann and R. Burridge. Special emphasis is placed on the pivotal role of R. Burridge’s «What Are the Gospels?» (1995), after which the classification of the Gospels as Greco-Roman bios gained significant support. Methodologically, the study is based on an analysis of the formal and thematic features of the Gospels in the context of ancient literature. The article also addresses christological and theological aspects of the discussed theory.