"Spotlighting"--No need to invoke Greco-Roman devices

In this video I talk about "spotlighting." This is a name that Dr. Michael Licona has given to a standard harmonization move: Just because one account mentions two while another account mentions one, that doesn't mean that they are in contradiction. One author might just have been focusing on one. There is nothing wrong with this move or with giving it a new name. The problem arises when we think that this is something we are "learning" from "Greco-Roman compositional devices" and thus come to think that we need to endorse the literary device views more broadly in order to use "spotlighting" as a harmonization. I give as an illustration the fact that elsewhere Dr. Licona (and Dr. Keener) suggest that perhaps Matthew made up an extra demoniac! This is justified (by Dr. Keener) on the basis of a non-existent "device of inflection," which simply represents a blunder in interpreting a simple Greek grammar exercise. Dr. Licona suggests both "spotlighting" and Matthew's making up an extra demoniac in a "menu" of possible solutions to that alleged contradiction.  Here is the video on Inspiring Philosophy to which I'm responding.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaXHOO14i5c I talk a bit about "spotlighting" in this video from last summer.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSexrkVMGuk&list=PLe1tMOs8ARn0S9CsFG47bKjcYxsnHujhg&index=4&t=313s 

Here is a blog post to go with that:  https://lydiaswebpage.blogspot.com/2020/07/new-licona-series-equivocation-plutarch.html See also pp. 38-39 in The Mirror or the Mask.  https://www.amazon.com/Mirror-Mask-Liberating-Gospels-Literary/dp/1947929070/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=mirror+or+the+mask&qid=1600272214&sr=8-1 

Here is a blog post from last summer where I discuss the "exercise books" more and specifically the blunder concerning inflection, which I mention in this video.:  https://lydiaswebpage.blogspot.com/2020/07/new-licona-series-paraphrase-exercise.html 

Here is the video I did last summer on the "exercise books." There is much, much more in The Mirror or the Mask (TMOM):  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oldgDKH_xKY&list=PLe1tMOs8ARn0S9CsFG47bKjcYxsnHujhg&index=4&t=328s 

One more point to add: If someone means by "spotlighting" that an author was *trying* portray only one (angel, demoniac, man, etc.) as present in his narrative when the author *knew* that two or more were present, then this would of course be a factual change. But by that same token, it would not be the simple, uncontroversial claim that most people take Dr. Licona to be referring to. And it would require a lot more evidence to show that an author was trying to do this. It would also be quite confusing to readers for an author to do such a thing in an apparently historical document. So *if* Dr. Licona is conflating the harmonizing kind of "spotlighting" discussed in the video with fact-changing spotlighting, that is another distinction that needs to be made. I really hope that he is not doing this. But in the case of alleged discrepancies about time, there is often equivocation going on (between achronological and dyschronological "telescoping" and "displacement," as I've discussed elsewhere), so I bring up this possibility for the sake of completeness.

Originally uploaded June 29 2021