Expanding the Gospel according to Matthew: Continuity and Change in Early Gospel Literature: Matthew

Programme(s): H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility

Topic(s): MSCA-IF-2019 - Individual Fellowships

Call for proposal: H2020-MSCA-IF-2019

Funding Scheme: MSCA-IF-EF-ST - Standard EF

Grant agreement ID: 891569

Project description:

Early Christian literature through the Gospel of Matthew

The EU-funded project “Expanding the Gospel according to Matthew: Continuity and Change in Early Gospel Literature” at the University of Oxford intervenes in current debates about textual continuity and change in early Christian literature. Recent scholarship has challenged conventional conceptions of Gospels as stable texts, pointing to porous configurations of Gospel material in the first centuries CE. This renewed critical attention disrupts reductive frameworks and invites fresh questions. Nonetheless, emphasis on fluidity risks fragmentation, obscuring connections between diverse instances of Gospel tradition. Through rigorous analysis of the Gospel according to Matthew, this project investigates the productive tension between bibliographic continuity and ongoing change in early Gospel literature. The project will thereby enhance scholarly understanding of the production and reception of early Christian literature.

Objective:

My fellowship project, ‘Expanding the Gospel according to Matthew: Continuity and Change in Early Gospel Literature’, takes an integrative approach to early Christian literature that intervenes in ongoing debates about textual continuity and change. Recent scholarship has challenged conventional conceptions of Gospels as stable texts, pointing to porous constellations of Gospel material in the first centuries of the Common Era. This renewed critical attention disrupts reductive analytical frames and invites fresh questions. Nonetheless, emphasis on fluidity risks concomitant fragmentation, obscuring connections between diverse instances of Gospel tradition. Both continuity and change characterized early Gospel literature. My project addresses this tension through a rigorous reception-historical study of the Gospel according to Matthew. Matthew is a fruitful locus of investigation because of its centrality to Gospel scholarship and because it is richly attested in early expansions. Matthew takes many textual forms. This diversity stands in tension with the bibliographic continuity that underlies common-sense notions of ‘Matthew’ as a recognizable body of material. But, I argue, these diverse forms express the possibilities, the DNA, of Matthew as a work over time. By attending both to the diverse ways in which Matthew expanded and to underlying patterns uniting these various instances, the project advances scholarship on Matthew. The method and results of this project will enrich broader conversations about the production and reception of early Christian literature. My project will result in a completed book manuscript, two articles submitted to top-tier journals, and other scholarly communications. The project will contribute to Oxford’s vibrant interdisciplinary research environment and advance my development as an early career researcher, laying a foundation for future scholarly excellence.