Biblica_1_Layout 1 20/01/12 11:44 Pagina 580 Prosopopoetics and Conflict: Speech and Expectations in John 8 1 The fact that characters speak in narratives is commonplace and expected. As with other aspects of characterization in the ancient world, however, the way in which authors crafted the speech of their characters was considered a skill that was inextricably linked with the effectiveness of their work. Giving speech to characters, both his- torical and otherwise, is broadly categorized as prosopopoiia or ethopoiia by ancient rhetoricians and progymnasmatists 2. The following essay will explore the Fourth Gospel’s own adapted use of prosopopoiia in its characterization of Jesus. Repeatedly Jesus’s words surprise other characters in the Gospel of John, causing conflict when those around him fail to see the “appropriateness” of his words. This conflict is perhaps nowhere as apparent as in John 8. Before tack- ling John 8, however, this essay will begin by offering a more detailed discussion of prosopopoiia as well as a few brief examples to illustrate the flexibility of this rhetorical technique and its possible connections to the rhetoric of the Fourth Gospel. From this point, focus will cen- ter on the character of Jesus in John 8, where his words clash harshly with those of other characters in the Gospel. Viewing the conflict in light of the rhetorical conventions surrounding prosopopoiia under- scores the points of disagreement between Jesus and the Jews of John 8 while also revealing the rhetorical payoffs of this encounter. With his 1 This article is a revised version of a paper presented at SBL in New Or- leans, November 2009. 2 Theon calls this practice prospopoiia (Prog. 115-117) as does Quintilian (Inst. Or. 3.8.49-54). Pseudo-Hermogenes (Prog. 20), Aphthonius the Sophist (Prog. 44-45), Nicolaus the Sophist (Prog. 64-65), and John of Sardis (Prog. 194), however, have different categories for the creation of speech. They consi- der the creation of speech for a person, either historical or legendary, to be etho- poiia; the creation of speech for a god or for one who is speaking as a dead person to be eidolopoiia; and creation of speech for a thing to be prosopopoiia (thereby literally making it into a “person”). Nevertheless, for the sake of consistency, I will use the term prosopopoiia throughout this paper unless I am specifically referring to the work of one of the authors who prefers the term ethopoiia instead.