Includes bibliographical references (p. 341-357) and indexes.

1. Historical survey -- 2. Genre criticism and literary theory -- 3. Genre criticism and Graeco-Roman biography -- 4. Evaluation of recent debate -- 5. Generic features -- 6. The generic features of early Graeco-Roman [actual symbol not reproducible] -- 7. The generic features of later Graeco-Roman [actual symbol not reproducible] -- 8. The synoptic Gospels -- 9. The fourth Gospel -- 10. Conclusions and implications -- 11. Reactions and developments -- App. I. Analysis charts of verb subjects -- App. II. Gospel genre, christological controversy and the absence of rabbinic biography.

"Richard Burridge's study of the Christian Gospels is updated and expanded in this second edition. Here Burridge engages the field of Gospel studies over the last hundred years, arguing convincingly for viewing the Gospels as biographical documents of the sort common throughout the Graeco-Roman world. In pursuing the question of his book's title, Burridge compares the work of the Christian evangelists with that of Graeco-Roman biographers. Drawing on insights from literary theory, he demonstrates that the widespread view of the Gospels as unique is false and discusses what a property "biographical" perspective means for Gospel interpretation. New to this second edition of What Are the Gospels? are a long final chapter detailing the recent paradigm shift in Gospel scholarship - a shift due in large part to this very book - a foreword by Graham Stanton, and an appendix on the absence of comparable early Jewish biographies."--BOOK JACKET.