Jesus on Stage

About the Book

Jesus on Stage argues that the Gospel of John is, in its present form, an ancient historical novel, but that the evangelist’s first version was his own draft for a Greek play. The development of Greek drama at Athens is briefly described, with new suggestions on some details, and the continuing influence of the great Greek tragedians in the 1st Century AD is shown. Then the internal evidence in the gospel which points to an earlier draft play is marshalled: not merely dramatic scenes, some of which echo Sophocles, but speeches only appropriate to the stage, puzzling features which make sense if they were devised with theatrical presentation in mind, others which suggest the chorus of a play; and a drastic reshaping of the Synoptic storyline to centre the whole work on Jerusalem, with a Jesus who resembles the hero of a play. All this has later been expanded to form a novel, including incidents in the ‘mystery and suspense’ tradition beloved by ancient novelists. But the book is not only for scholars; anyone re-examining John’s gospel from this standpoint will find new depths in the evangelist’s seldom historical but deeply spiritual creation.

About the Author

Philip Oakeshott, now a member of Southampton Quaker meeting, was born to an Anglican clerical family. The Second World War meant a rather ramshackle education, in seven schools, four of them in South America. From St. John’s, Leatherhead, he went with a State Scholarship to Christ’s College, Cambridge, where Modern and Mediaeval Languages were followed, since he intended to be ordained, by Theology. During a gap year on the shop-floor of a Sheffield steelworks he altered course into teaching, starting at an East End Grammar School and ending as head of a large and successful Hampshire Comprehensive School. On retirement he returned to the serious study of the gospels, while service as Quaker chaplain at Parkhurst and Albany prisons widened his experience further and deepened his theology. He first had articles accepted by Theology in 2008, and published his own book on Mark’s gospel, The Man that Peter Knew, in 2011. Since then he has been concentrating on John.