John the Baptist in life and death audience-oriented criticism of Matthewʹs narrative - Yamasaki, Gary (Sheffield Academic Press, 1998)
Includes bibliographical references (pages 152-169) and indexes
In a narrative about Jesus, a character like John the Baptist would not be expected to play a role much beyond that of providing a baptism for Jesus. Yet the Matthaean narrator finds several other uses for John in the development of the narrative, not only while he is still alive, but also after he is dead. In examining John's role, Yamasaki deploys an audience-oriented critical methodology, an approach that chronicles the narrator's efforts to influence first-time readers' experience of the narrative as they proceed sequentially through the text. He traces John's characterization as 'forerunn