Ancient Fiction: The Matrix of Early Christian and Jewish Narrative (SBLSymS 32)

Despite the remarkable diversity of texts considered in the papers, Pervo astutely assimilates many of the authors' observations into three characteristics of ancient narratives: (1) the pervasive and subversive recurrence of imitation in the narratives, (2) a free license to blend history and fiction, and (3) the use of historical narrative as a means of expressing identity (rather than simply as an expression of "what actually happened").