Expanding the gospel according to matthew: continuity and change in early gospel literature
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.