Showing papers in "Horizons in Biblical Theology in 2013"

Census and Censure: Sacred Threshing Floors and Counting Taboos in 2 Samuel 24

Abstract: Focusing on the mythological features in the story of David’s census and the plague at the threshing floor of Araunah in 2 Samuel 24, this paper argues that David, by conducting a census, transgressed the power of God by mimicking God’s creator/counter role. By examining the mythological aspects of the story, such as cosmogony, threshing floors, counting taboos, sacrifice and temple building, this paper argues that the narrative disparages David’s kingly status in order to assert God’s position as the ultimate king, creator and counter. Moreover, the story points towards the future function of Araunah’s threshing floor as the site of Solomon’s Temple, a place that would symbolize the continual presence, power and rule of the Israelite deity.

Got Milk? Lactation and Purification among Covenanters

Abstract: This paper examines texts in 4Q266.6.ii in the Dead Sea Scrolls that regulated impurities attributed to parturient women living among the Covenanters. It contrasts how the regulations of 4Q266 differed from those in Leviticus 12. The thesis of the paper is that the Covenanters regarded new mothers as impure, but excluded and protected newborns from the impurities of their mothers. In particular, the paper will examine the possibility that a lactating mother was required to hire a wet-nurse to feed her infant during the first seven days of life if the baby were male or fourteen days of life if the baby were female, lest the mother’s impurity from childbirth render the infant impure. Once the 7-14 days of impurity passed, new mothers were no longer impure to the touch and could therefore resume care for their infants. They were however still impure with regard to the sancta, or holy things, including the sanctuary. This paper will use texts outside of the Qumran community to interpret possible explanations for the Covenanters’ understanding of the impurity of parturient women and the purity of their newborns. These texts will include: Mishnah, Talmud, Soranus’ Gynecology, Galen’s Method of Medicine, Tertullian’s De Carne Christi, Protevangelium Jacobi, and Cyrene Cathartic Law.

“The One Who Calls in Grace”: Paul’s Rhetorical and Theological Identification with the Galatians

Abstract: This article explores an important link Paul makes between himself and the Galatians in Galatians 1: the connection between God’s calling the Galatians “in grace” (1:6) and the calling of Paul “through grace” (1:15). By describing his calling in the same language as the Galatians’, Paul presents himself, together with the Galatians, as one who has received grace in Christ: calling here designates foremost an act of divine creation in the Christ-event and only secondly a commissioning to a particular vocation. Paul’s and the Galatians’ stories thus become intertwined and mutually explicable as instantiations of the gospel Paul received. Accordingly, this rhetorical and theological identification with the Galatians more fully establishes how chapters 1-2 relate to 3-6: Paul’s autobiographical testimony of an unworthy Apostle who now preaches the gospel of God’s grace in Christ to his unworthy churches cannot be disentangled from his exposition and exegetical defense of that gospel.

A New Reading of Anointing with Oil in James 5:14: Finding First-Century Common Ground in Moses’ Glorious Face

Abstract: The fact that James does not explain the meaning of anointing with oil ( James 5:14) likely indicates that he presupposes that his first-century audience will rely upon shared knowledge. But what is this common ground? The logic of our answer rests on several interlocking propositions regarding James 5:14. First, we will demonstrate that James envisioned an anointing of the head or face. Second, we will demonstrate that an anointing of olive oil creates a shining face and that this was a recognized phenomenon. Third, a shiny face would have evoked images of Moses from scripture and history. By creating a physical echo of Moses on the face of the sick, James just might be encouraging the followers of Jesus to seek an intimate encounter with God through prayer that parallels Moses’ encounter with Yahweh. In sum, we will argue the plausibility of the thesis that oil was used to anoint the face so that it physically shined and symbolically represented an encounter with God.

Relating Kenosis to Soteriology: Implications for Christian Ministry amongst Homeless People

Abstract: Christian ministry amongst homeless people is often characterised by division between the ministry itself as social action by independent voluntary organisations, and congregational life. This is arguably the result of sociological forces, but is also compounded by the prevalence in mainline churches of ethically lacking popular versions of penal substitution that privatise spirituality. We argue that in addition to strengthening the ethical content of such teaching, it is important to offer alternative theological tools that challenge Christian self-understanding. Kenosis is just such a tool. In a brief historical sketch of biblical and theological approaches, we suggest that it is the ethical, narrative understanding of kenosis, rather than preoccupation with philosophically-orientated Christological debates about the locus of the apparent ‘emptying’ of divine attributes, that is central to understanding kenosis. What we label the necessary ethically kenotic dimension to salvation is then explored, an area in which we are influenced by current biblical scholarship on ‘justification’ in Paul by participationist-inclined scholars, particularly the work of Michael Gorman based on the Philippian hymn and his emphasis on justification by co-crucifixion. Kenosis as a ‘selfishness emptying’ that leads to co-resurrection is an integral and ongoing part of the soteriological process of theosis. Relating kenosis to soteriology in this way has implications for church work amongst homeless people, and we suggest that when also taking into account current social work research, churches receive an imperative to offer ministry that is community orientated, relational, self-giving and absorptive.

Ruled, Creedal, and Located: The Theological Interpretation of John Goldingay

Abstract: John Goldingay has tried to distance his exegetical practice from theological interpretation. Close readings of Goldingay’s own pronouncements and interpretive practice, in combination with insights from philosophical hermeneutics, however, indicate that he may be protesting too much. The present essay demonstrates that Goldingay’s working method operates under the rule of faith, in accordance with the creeds, and from an ideological location. It recommends Goldingay’s working method as an exemplar for those who wish to practice fresh, theologically informed, and exegetically sensitive readings of Scripture.

The Book of Job: When Bad Things Happened to a Good Person. By Harold S. Kushner. Jewish Encounters. Schocken: New York, 2012. xi +202 pp. Hdbk. $16.63.

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Looking for Levites in the Book of Judges

Abstract: The social location of the village culture as portrayed in the Judges period provides no legitimate place or cultic role for Levites. Their occasional appearances, (aside from the artificial injection of Phinehas into the civil war narrative in Judg 20:27-28), simply reinforce that fact that they do not and cannot perform the tasks that are traditionally assigned to Levites in the monarchy period. Instead, they, like most other characters in Judges, are portrayed as flawed individuals, who have little stake in teaching about or ministering before Yahweh. It is more in character that they are willing to serve idols and to sacrifice others rather than speak the truth. This narrative is intentionally presented as a world-turned-upside-down and it would upset the balance of chaos for Levites to suddenly appear to rectify the situation.

Accentuation and Causes for the Obscurity in the Divine Scriptures: Polychronius’ Prologue to Job

Abstract: This article examines the work of the fifth-century bishop and brother of Theodore of Mopsuestia, Polychronius of Apamea (d. ca. 430), in light of extant writings from the second-century Greek grammarian, Aelius Herodianus. It studies a fragment from Polychronius’ prologue to his commentary on Job titled Causes for the Obscurity in the Divine Scriptures, identifies a philological analogue in the work of Herodian, and in so doing, highlights their grammatical training and shared concern with τόνοι (accents) in the interpretation of a text. The analysis shows that Polychronius’ employment of grammatical technique in understanding Christian scripture is of no less value to the Christian bishop than it is to the Greek grammarian, Herodian, in his understanding of Greek classics. For Polychronius, the “obscurity in the divine scriptures” can be resolved with the tools of Greek grammatical theory.

Newer Testaments? Tradition, Culture and the Expansion of ‘Scripture’ in Contemporary Africa

Abstract: Scripture is a text designated to bear transcendent meaning. The text thus designated mediates the Transcendent Other for the believer. Since very early in the history of the Church, the Bible has fulfilled this role in Christianity. Now, there are indications that other texts, especially folklore, may begin to be used in a similar way to how the Bible is used. This paper explores such suggestions by seeing how they apply in the thought of various contemporary African theologians. Other texts and traditions do indeed seem to hold a similar status and there is one explicit call for traditional stories to be thought of as a ‘second canon.’ In the end, it seems unlikely we can use the term ‘scripture’ to describe these texts, although they are often used as such, or to mediate the transcendent in place of the Bible’s mediation.