Biblica_1_Layout 1 20/01/12 11:44 Pagina 588 588 ALICIA D. MYERS character, be it an individual or a group 23. Brant rightly argues that such a fact creates a connection between the Fourth Gospel and Greek dramas, although dialogues often occur between two per- sons/groups in a variety of other genres as well 24. While some of these dialogues are more conversational than others, Jesus is re- peatedly given more words than his interlocutors, whose comments often serve as prompts for his excursive replies. Such a move keeps Jesus at the center of the Gospel audience’s attention while they observe how other characters within the text react to his statements. Reactions to Jesus regularly include at least some confusion, if not outright conflict. Jesus’ ambiguous comments, metaphors, and double-entendres confound his dialogue partners, who regularly latch on to the literal meaning of his words 25. For those characters, Jesus’ discourses neither reflect the situations in which Jesus speaks nor his identity as they perceive it. Thus, Nicodemus cannot under- stand Jesus’ instruction for a person to “re-enter” their mother’s womb, much less how such a comment connects to the current con- versation about the Kingdom of God (3,4); the Samaritan woman is astounded that a Jewish person is speaking with her (4,9); and the Jews present in John 6 are baffled that the man they know to be the “son of Joseph, whose father and mother [they] know” is claiming to be the “bread that came down from heaven” (vv. 41-42). For these and other characters in the Fourth Gospel, Jesus’ words contradict the most important element of any attributed speech: appropriate- ness. As a result, Jesus’ credibility for these characters is regularly undercut, triggering even some of his disciples to turn away as a re- sult of his words (cf. 6,60-66). 23 J.A. BRANT, Dialogue and Drama. Elements of Greek Tragedy in the Fourth Gospel (Peabody, MA 2004) 27-29. 24 The example of Plutarch’s Alex. 6, which Plutarch expanded to include a dialogue between Philip and Alexander, was offered above. One can also turn to Philostratus’ Life of Apollononius as well as Philo’s Vita Moses, which contains dialogues between Moses and the Lord. Lucian’s Nigrinus is a bio- graphy in dialogue form (cf. Satyrus’ of Euripides’ life, 3rd c. BCE). Dialogues regularly appear in novels (cf. Asen. 14-17; Chariton, Chaer.) and in histo- riographies as well. None of this should be surprising given the flexibility with which prosopopoiia and other techniques were employed in ancient li- terature; genres and techniques were fluid in the ancient world as authors made use of methods that fit their rhetorical agendas. 25 See R.A. CULPEPPER, Anatomy of the Fourth Gospel. A Study in Lite- rary Design (Philadelphia, PA 1987) 152.