Summarising chapter 2 of:

Licona, Michael R. Why Are There Differences in the Gospels?: What We Can Learn from Ancient Biography. Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition.

Who Was Plutarch?

Plutarch (cAD 45 – cAD 120)  was a Greek philosopher, historian and biographer.  He wrote more than 60 ‘lives’ (biographies), of which about 50 survive.

There are important differences between ancient history and biography and their modern counterparts.  Ancient biography had its own literary conventions.  The biographer’s main aim was to illuminate the character of his subject.  This might involve some adjustment to minor (but not major) facts.

Since opportunity for recording speeches in shorthand were very limited, an author would not attempt a transcript, but would rather offer the gist of what was said.  If no recollection of a speech was available, an author would attempt to reconstruct what might have been said.

Among the compositional devices that were wides used in ancient historiography were the following:

Transferal: When an author knowingly attributes words or deeds to a person that actually belonged to another person, the author has transferred the words or deeds.

Displacement: When an author knowingly uproots an event from its original context and transplants it in another, the author has displaced the event…

Conflation: When an author combines elements from two or more events or people and narrates them as one, the author has conflated them…

Compression: When an author knowingly portrays events over a shorter period of time than the actual time it took for those events to occur, the author has compressed the story.

Spotlighting: When an author focuses attention on a person so that the person’s involvement in a scene is clearly described, whereas mention of others who were likewise involved is neglected, the author has shined his literary spotlight on that person…

Simplification: When an author adapts material by omitting or altering details that may complicate the overall narrative, the author has simplified the story.

Expansion of Narrative Details: A well-written biography would inform, teach, and be beautifully composed. If minor details were unknown, they could be invented to improve the narrative while maintaining historical verisimilitude. In many instances, the added details reflect plausible circumstances…

Paraphrasing: Plutarch often paraphrased using many of the techniques described in the compositional textbooks…

Plutarch makes frequent use of the ‘law of biographical relevance’, according to which details would be included or omitted according to their relevance to the main character.

Relevance of Plutarch’s Lives to understanding Gospel differences.

Nine of Plutarch’s Lives involve people who were contemporaries of one another, and therefore participated in the same events.  Comparing how Plutarch wrote about these in different ‘biographies’ sheds light on how and why the Gospel writers sometimes varied how they reported certain events in the life of Jesus.