Life after death in early Judaism

In view of the current debate on the application of Greek and Roman rhetoric to biblical texts C. Joachim Classen aims at determining both the opportunities and the limits of such forms of criticism, stressing the importance of supplementing the ancient categories by modern ones. He emphasizes the difference between letters such as Paul's epistles and other kinds of texts, for example the gospels, and the need to select the aspects and criteria of rhetorical criticism accordingly and tries to illustrate how such criticism may be practised. In addition he answers the question to what extent Paul was familiar with Greek rhetoric by an examination of his vocabulary and analyses at length Melanchthon's early lectures, his handbooks and his commentaries to show some of the roots of this type of criticism, the manner in which its greatest exponent developed it and the qualities ideally required for its successful application.

Rhetorical Criticism of the New Testament

To my knowledge, Pietersen’s study (2004) is the only monograph published in the last twenty years that has focused on the opponents in the Pastoral Epistles, but his work is not exegetical. In this thesis, I concentrate on 1 and 2 Timothy, the two letters purportedly dispatched to Ephesus. I assemble the relevant pericopae of the letters and offer an exegetical analysis of them, with the intention of providing, first, a composite sketch of the ideology of the opposing group and, second, an in-depth account of the way the faithful Pauline community was to engage these opponents. The first chapter of the thesis is devoted to preliminary issues and methodology. I argue that 1 and 2 Timothy constitute two types of letter, both dispatched in the late first century to the Christian community in Ephesus, each addressing a stage of the conflict in which the community was engaged. I further argue that the polemical portions of the letters reveal specific information about this conflict. I then formulate a stringent method for the study of Paul’s opponents. I summarize and critique historical-critical methodologies and bring the most recent work on theological interpretation of Scripture into dialogue with these methodologies. The result is a new approach to the study of opponents, one that remains rigorously tethered to the primary text and that is characterized by ecclesial concern. In chapters two to six, I apply this method to 1 and 2 Timothy. In chapter two, I offer an exegetical analysis of the explicit units of 1 Timothy, those units where we have clear and certain reference to the opponents (1:3-7, 18-20; 4:1-5; 6:2b-5, 20-21a). Chapters three and four focus on the implicit units in 1 Timothy, those units where we have highly probable reference to the opponents (1:8-11; 2:9-15; 4:6-10; 5:9-16; 6:6-10). In chapter five, I turn to 2 Timothy, analyzing the three explicit units (2:14-26; 3:1-9; 4:15) and the one implicit unit of the letter (2:8-13). In chapter six, I bring together the full gamut of data uncovered in the exegetical chapters, offering overall conclusions about the opponents in 1 and 2 Timothy. As a follow-up to this, I enumerate what I perceive to be the most important implications of the findings for the house of God today. My findings may be summarized as follows. I conclude that the opponents came from within the Christian community in Ephesus and that their teaching is best described as an erroneous eschatological position that derived from the complexity of Paul’s views.

https://ourarchive.otago.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10523/5576/ThorntonDillonT2015PhD.pdf;sequence=1

Hostility in the House of God: An "Interested" Investigation of the Opponents in 1 and 2 Timothy

Das Verständnis der Sünde im Johannesevangelium

The Impact of Yom Kippur on Early Christianity

Die Christologie der Pastoralbriefe, by Hanna Stettler. WUNT 2/105. Tubingen: MohrSiebeck. 1998. Pp. xiv + 397. DM 118.00 (paper). This volume is a slightly revised version of a doctoral dissertation presented in 1997 at the University of Tubingen and written under the supervision of Peter Stuhlmacher. Within it the author gives critical attention to all the texts having relevance for the study of the Christology of the Pastoral Epistles. The discussion is arranged under three main headings-an overview of twentiethcentury scholarship, exegesis of christologically relevant texts, and a summation of the findings-under which there are subsections. In the first section the author reviews five different perspectives on the Christology of the Pastorals, drawing on the work of their major proponents. These perspectives are that the Christology of the Pastorals represents that of Paul late in his career (C. Spicq), that it represents a pre-Pauline stage (H. Windisch, N. Brox), that it is a postPauline Hellenistic departure from Paul (M. Dibelius-H. Conzelmann, V. Hasler, H. Hubner), that it is a Deutero-Pauline synthesis of church teaching (P. Trummer, J. Roloff, J. D. Quinn, H. Merkel), and that it is distinctive and non-Pauline (L. Oberlinner, I. H. Marshall, A. Y. Lau, K. LAger). As the discussion unfolds, it becomes clear that Stettler does not align herself exactly with any of these previous perspectives, although she stands closest to the last of them. The second and longest portion of the book contains analyses of over a dozen passages in the Pastorals that are particularly relevant for a discussion of the Christology of these three books. Included in this section are several excursuses as well. They are on such topics as "Savior," "epiphany," the "faithful saying" phrase, the question of the preexistence of Christ, the absence of the title "Son of God," and (surprisingly) the "Son of Man" concept. These excursuses are for the most part done very well, and they are building blocks for the overall thesis of the book. In regard to the term "epiphany" (1 Tim 6:14; 2 Tim 1:10; 4:1, 8; Titus 2:13), for example, the author does well in showing that the term need not be thought of as having come simply from Greco-Roman ruler cults, but that it has a background in the LXX as well. The lack of the "Son of God" title is attributed to the author's attempts at avoiding a misunderstanding, by which Gentile readers might think of Jesus as being represented then as one son of the various gods, as in pagan Hellenism. The excursus on the "Son of Man" is the most perplexing part of this section. The title does not appear in the Pastorals. Nevertheless, the author claims that the Son of Man tradition, as represented in 1 Enoch and the Synoptic Gospels, is presupposed. According to her, the Son of Man tradition provides the background for a number of texts, including 1 Tim 5:21; 2 Tim 4:1-8; and others (p. 221). The final section of the book consists of a summation of the Christology of the Pastorals, based on what has gone before. According to Stettler, the author of the Pastorals was a Hellenistic Jewish Christian with a rabbinic education (p. …

/pdf/die-christologie-der-pastoralbriefe-42gv730rrt.pdf

Die Christologie der Pastoralbriefe

According to the Synoptic Jesus tradition, Jesus brings about the eschatological sanctification of Israel promised in Ez 36,22-32 and 37,28. He ushers in the time of the Holy Spirit, and gathers God's eschatological people, which includes sinners as well as Gentiles. Moreover, he sanctifies people by healing and cleansing them, and teaches them to live a holy life. According to Jesus, the holiness of God's holy people is no longer jeopardized by ritual impurity. This is not because ritual purity is irrelevant per se, but because in Jesus, the "Holy One of God", God's holiness has come into the world. Jesus sanctifies people and time so completely that the intention of the ritual Torah is fulfilled. Holiness is now to be lived out through mercy and love, even for one's enemy.

Hanna Stettler

Papers

Die Christologie der Pastoralbriefe

Sanctification in the Jesus tradition