Just a Matter of Perspective?

Stories are foundational to early Christian literature. Yet one of the most basic narratological categories, narrative perspective, has received no detailed treatment in New Testament scholarship. Christoph Heilig argues that this concept, called focalization following Gérard Genette, is indispensable for adequately analyzing early Christian narratives. Narratives, after all, are defined not only by what they tell but also by how: a narrator can tell different stories depending on through whose eyes they let us witness the unfolding events. Drawing on recent cognitive linguistics, the author adapts the category for the exegesis of first-century Koine Greek texts. Across the New Testament, focalization sheds light on fundamental questions: it explains how Paul persuades his audiences in miniature narratives, places Synoptic redaction criticism on a new footing, provides nuanced tools for assessing the role of eyewitnesses in Mark and John, resolves debates about the we-passages in the Acts of the Apostles, and clarifies the narrative structure of Revelation. Whenever we read these stories, we inevitably make assumptions about perspective. Exegesis therefore requires a methodology both historically sensitive and creative. This includes the reception history of these perspectives, from the apocrypha onward, showing which viewpoints shape later reimaginations and which become marginalized. Theologically, then, the narratives cannot be reduced to their plots; their inherent multiperspectivity must be preserved in retellings for our time. In the age of artificial intelligence, when scholarly work is increasingly outsourced to machines, the lasting value of human interpretation lies precisely in this personal act of seeing, shared with others.

This work was awarded the Dewetteanum 2024, the prize for the best scholarly work submitted to the Faculty of Theology at the University of Basel.

1 Narratology: Who Sees?
1.1 Genette's Proposal
1.2 Subsequent Discussions
1.3 A Constraint Approach to Focalization
1.4 Markers of Internal Focalization
1.5 The Oversight of Focalization in New Testament Exegesis
1.6 From Narratology to Exegesis
1.7 Concluding Thoughts
2 Cognitive Linguistics: The Viewpointed Nature of Language
2.1 The Rise of Cognitive Linguistics
2.2 Core Assumptions of Cognitive Linguistics
2.3 Construal
2.4 Specificity
2.5 Focusing
2.6 Prominence
2.7 Perspective
2.8 Concluding Thoughts
3 Paul's Letters: Shifting Perspectives
3.1 External Focalization
3.2 The Perspective of the »Narrating I«
3.3 The Perspective of the »Narrated I«
3.4 Other Focalizers
3.5 Concluding Thoughts
4 Synoptics: Redaction Criticism Re-Visioned
4.1 Patterns of Focalization in the Synoptics
4.2 Imperfect Focalization in Mark
4.3 A Female Perspective
4.4 Concluding Thoughts
5 Eyewitnesses: Peter and the Beloved Disciple as Focalizers in Mark and John?
5.1 Bauckham's Thesis on Mark: Peter as Eyewitness and Focalizer?
5.2 The Beloved Disciple as Focalizer?
5.3 Concluding Thoughts
6 Acts: Tracing Luke's Presence
6.1 The We-Passages in Scholarship
6.2 Markers of Internal Focalization in Concert with First-Person Pronouns and Verb Forms
6.3 Luke Enters the Stage
6.4 Luke's Presence in Philippi
6.5 Leaving the Focalizer Behind
6.6 Getting the Band Back Together
6.7 Short Outlook on the Rest of Acts
6.8 Concluding Thoughts
7 Revelation: A Heavenly Perspective
7.1 A Prima Facie Case for the Experiencing I as Focalizer
7.2 John's View of Jesus (Rev 1:10-17)
7.3 Jesus as an Embedded Narrator and Focalizer (Rev 2-3)
7.4 John's Heavenly Perspective (Rev 4-5)
7.5 Some Indications for Future Research
7.6 Concluding Thoughts
8 Epilogue: Broadening the Perspective
8.1 The Inevitability of a Viewpointed Construal
8.2 Reception History
8.3 Theology