Showing papers in "New Testament Studies in 1988"

The Rhetorical Situations of Revelation 1-3

Abstract: The publication of George Kennedy's New Testament Interpretation Through Rhetorical Criticism marked the full realization of a growing trend in NT criticism, whereby scholars are beginning to look beyond the limitations of form- and source-criticism for another viable hermeneutical tool. Rhetorical criticism has its origins in the classical canons conceptualized and formulated by the principal rhetoricians of Greek and Roman antiquity, such as Aristotle and Quintilian. This methodology sprang from roots in the ancient world; rhetoric was ‘one of the constraints under which New Testament writers worked’. But it has a universality that transcends its own cultural boundaries, as well as an extraordinary practicality: ‘ … it does study a verbal reality, our text of the Bible, rather than the oral sources standing behind that text, the hypothetical stages of its composition, or the impersonal workings of social forces, and at its best it can reveal the power of those texts as unitary messages’’. Often, too, it is capable of slashing through exegetical Gordian knots that prove otherwise intractable. The ability of rhetorical criticism to evaluate even the more opaque or mystical portions of the NT is a measure of its effectiveness.

Culture and historicity: the plucking of the grain (Mark 2.23-28)

Abstract: Mark 2. 23–28 relates an incident which took place when Jesus was walking through the fields with some of his disciples one Saturday: the disciples plucked ears of corn, and some Pharisees objected to this on the ground that it was a breach of Sabbath Law. Jesus defended his disciples with two arguments which have proved difficult to understand, and which have led many scholars to imagine that the passage is not a unity and is mostly a product of the early church. I propose the following reconstruction of Mark's Aramaic source, on the basis of which I shall argue that the incident is authentic and intelligible.

Is Paul Defending his Apostleship in Galatians

Abstract: In recent research, the claim has been made that Paul's statements about the law in Galatians are often misread from the perspective of the post-reformation law/gospel debate. The thesis of this article is that Galatians has also suffered from a different kind of misreading, that is a reading from a specific perspective of the Corinthian correspondence and which mistakenly assumes that the main issue in Galatians is a defense of Paul's apostolic authority. It will be argued that the main focus is on the nature of Paul's gospel and, therefore, on the theological basis on which it rests. For this purpose, a number of arguments will be presented relating to the function of Gal 1. 10–11 and 2. 20, both critical transitions in the structure of the letter. These arguments are based on a pragmatic analysis of the letter as a whole, which cannot be discussed here in any detail. It should be stressed, however, that for the determining of the rhetorical function of any subsection of the letter, an analysis of the entire text as a communicative unity is essential. Therefore it is necessary to explain certain methodological implications of the approach which will be followed here.

Paul in Acts: Preacher of Eschatological Repentance to Israel

Abstract: The ‘enigmatic ending’ of Acts continues to baffle the exegetes. Not the least of its difficulties is the status of ‘the Jews’ after Paul's peculiarly solemn pronouncement of Isa 6. 9–10 against a ‘closed’ and ‘hardened’ people (Acts 28. 26–27). Coming as it does as a climax to the equally ponderous pronouncements of judgment in Acts 13. 46 and 18. 6, for many scholars the cumulative, three-fold impact of this indictment resounds a note of finality, of foreclosure upon Israel which consequently consummates an era and looks ahead almost exclusively to a Gentile church. The two leading clusters of opinion expressing this understanding are those associated with E. Haenchen – viz., that repentance for Israel by the end of Acts is de facto now over, with Gentiles replacing Jews as the people of God – or with J. Jervell – that a core of repenting Jews constitutes a restored Israel which, along with increasing numbers of Gentiles, by the end of chapter 28 has completed its mission to unrepenting Jews who no longer have a right to the name ‘Israel’ or ‘people of God’.

When Men Wore Veils to Worship: the Historical Context of 1 Corinthians 11.4

Abstract: 1 Corinthians 11. 2–16, because of the social concerns of much contemporary exegesis and theology, has provided a rich vein from which to quarry materials for current feminist agendas. However, exegetes have tended to neglect the ‘male issue’ in this text and the Corinthian context underlying it. The purpose of this article is to reconstruct the most plausible matrix of the practices addressed by Paul in 1 Cor 11. 4 when he refers to . Numerous exegetical issues and ancient social practices relevant to a full study of 1 Cor 11. 2–16 do not fall within the purview of this narrow investigation. Questions such as the origin and character of Paul's views of women as well as their apparel, and the question of ancient Greek, Roman, and Jewish customs concerning the veiling of women in their domestic and street apparel will not be broached here.

Paul as Master Builder Construction Terms in First Corinthians

Abstract: For some time the present writer has been impressed by certain verbal and phraseological correspondences between a number of ancient inscriptions, relating to temple building and public works, and a rather extensive metaphor in Paul's first letter to the Corinthians. This paper will address some parallel features of form and content shared by a particular inscription of the 4th century B.C. from Arcadian Tegea and the Pauline metaphor (1 Cor 3. 9b–17), features which offer tangible assistance in the interpretation of the latter.

Paul's Thorn of Rejected Apostleship

Abstract: Over a century ago, Soren Kierkegaard remarked that Paul's thorn in the flesh ‘seems to have afforded an uncommonly favorable opportunity for everyone to become an interpreter of the Bible’. Adolf Deissmann suggested that a small library could be gathered together all dealing with Paul's illness. However, Lenski thinks we have ‘nothing but hypotheses’. Some say certainty about the identification of Paul's thorn is ‘unattainable’, that ‘nobody knows exactly what it was’ and that not even the Corinthians knew what the metaphor meant.

Which Gehenna? Retribution and Eschatology in the Synoptic Gospels and in Early Jewish Texts

Abstract: Gehenna, we all know, is a Hebrew word which means hell. It appears often in Jewish texts of the Hellenistic and Roman periods as well as in the New Testament. In this paper we hope to show that the use of this word in Matthew and Luke, when analyzed in the context of Jewish notions of retribution, offers us an important key to understanding Matthew's and Luke's beliefs concerning eschatology, retribution, and their interrelationship.

Jesus and the Adulteress

Abstract: The story of Jesus and the Adulteress (John 7. 53–8. 11) is fraught with historical and literary problems, many of which have seemed insoluble. On only two points is there a scholarly consensus: the passage did not originally form part of the Fourth Gospel, and it bears a close resemblance to Synoptic, particularly Lukan, traditions about Jesus. The arguments for these judgments are overwhelming and do not need to be repeated here. In some respects these unanimous conclusions have themselves brought into sharp focus the thorny problems of the story's textual and pre-literary history: (1) Textual. Since the oldest and best textual witnesses of the Gospel of John do not contain the passage, how should the allusive references to it from the second and third centuries be evaluated? Did Papias know this story? If so, did he find it in the Gospel according to the Hebrews? Or was it Eusebius, who informs us of Papias's knowledge of this or a similar story, who found it there? What form of the story was known to the author of the Didascalia and his subsequent editor, the author of the Apostolic Constitutions? Did Origen know the story? If not, when was it first accepted into the Alexandrian canon? (2) Preliterary. How should this story be classified form-critically? And in what Sitz im Leben of the early church would it have thrived? Does the story preserve authentic tradition from the life of Jesus? Scholarship has reached an impasse on these questions because the early evidence is so sparse. Martin Dibelius's famous pronouncement from a different context applies here as well: ‘Enlightenment is to be expected not from new hypotheses but only from new discoveries.’

The Idle in 2 Thess 3.6–12: An Eschatological or a Social Problem?

Abstract: Much of the scholarly attention given the Thessalonian epistles has been devoted to various debates. These polemics have included the epistles' authenticity, with some arguing that 1 Thess 2. 13–16 and Thessalonians are post-Pauline, often by appealing to letter structure. Lack of agreement exists as well with the interpretation of Paul's eschatology–the letters' main concern - and difference of opinion also characterizes the function of Paul's apology in 1 Thess 2. 1–12 and his paraenesis, particularly in 1 Thess 4. 1–12. While scholars have actively pursued the pros and cons of these issues, most have been rather passive when it comes to discussing ‘the idle’ (l Thess 4. 11–12; 5. 14; 2 Thess 3. 6–13) – the second most significant theme in the epistles. They usually continue the traditional eschatological explanation for the origin of the problem. This study will survey the history of this interpretation, investigate 2 Thess 3. 6–13 and recommend that a social explanation best satisfies the evidence. This study also seeks to demonstrate the fallacy of explaining historical phenomena from just theological structures and the importance of the interaction between the world of ideas and social structures for interpretation – the importance of which has been shown by redaction criticism's concern for the Sitz im Leben and by recent social descriptions of early Christianity.

Blindness in the Johannine Tradition

Abstract: That blindness should be a theme in the Johannine literature need cause no surprise; with the dualism of light and darkness and with the emphasis on what has been seen, witnessed and believed, the surprise is rather that the theme is not more prevalent. Only at two places in the Gospel and one in the Epistles is the language of blindness explicitly used, in John 9, John 12. 40 and 1 John 2. 11. However, since each of these can be seen as a focal point or interpretative key to the Johannine tradition the theme could be held to present in microcosm the history of the Johannine community. Chapter 9, the healing of the blind man, has played a central role in recent reconstructions of that history, while the reflection on the effects of Jesus's public ministry in 12. 37–50, before he turns away to address ‘his own’, invites similar treatment. Finally, the redirection towards internal opposition of language originally aimed outwards has long been seen as a mark of 1 John and as central to its interpretation. The exploration of the theme may serve in the same way to test in microcosm the presuppositions and results of such reconstruction. It also does more than this, for the imagery of blindness is by no means unique to John and raises clearly the question of the origins as well as of the context of Johannine thought.

Style and the rhetorical situation of Romans 8.31-39

Abstract: The long history of research on Paul's style has neglected to a large extent the question of the functions of the various stylistic techniques used in his letters. This statement, however, needs some clarification. By ‘style’ here is not meant the traditional figures of speech and figures of thought, but all the linguistic choices an author has made in the light of restrictions imposed on him by the rhetorical situation. These choices include such things as vocabulary, grammatical forms, sentence patterns, sentence length, coherence devices, rhetorical figures, paragraphing, etc. ‘Function’ again does not refer to the familiar efforts of linking these linguistic choices with Greek and Roman textbooks on rhetoric and style; nor does it refer to the general remarks in grammars and other works on the Greek NT, when they speak of the emotional or emphatic or forceful function of certain stylistic figures. By ‘function’ here is meant what Kennedy calls ‘function in context’.

Paul's Theology: Consistent or Inconsistent?*

Abstract: . Recent discussions of Paul's theology have reached a virtual consensus that Paul is not a dogmatic theologian, but rather an interpreter of the gospel. In this light we would expect that the tendencies of the history of Christian thought to discover a dogmatic ‘Mitte’, from which all other elements of his thought can be deduced, would have ceased. And yet the immense dogmatic pressure of the Christian tradition still persists: with their search for ‘die Mitte’ of Paul's thought which they locate in justification by faith and/or in the righteousness of God, both Barth and Kasemann show that the dogmatic quest of the church from the time of Augustine to Luther and Calvin is still alive.

Was Wissen Wir Über Die Sozialstruktur Der Paulinischen Gemeinden

Abstract: Die Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte gehort zu denjenigen Disziplinen der Altertumswissenschaft, die im 20. Jh. die grosten Fortschritte gemacht haben; man braucht nur auf die Entwicklung der Epigraphik und der eng mit ihr verbundenen Prosopographie oder auf die beiden monumentalen Monographien von Rostovtzeff hinzuweisen, die dafur ein deutliches Zeugnis ablegen. So ist es nicht verwunderlich, das sich auch die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft seit etwa 20 Jahren intensiver sozialgeschichtlichen Fragen, speziell dem Problem der sozialen Schichtung der fruhen christlichen Gemeinden, widmet.

The Narrative Meshalim in the Synoptic Gospels

Abstract: There are many problems which the layman finds easy and the expert difficult. Certainly we have – all of us, many times – heard people say that the parables of the gospels are so simple that a child can understand them. At our scholarly meetings and in our seminar rooms it is more often stated – I think – that the parables belong to the most difficult texts in the New Testament. A blessed peacemaker could, of course, say, ‘They are simple at the surface level but you can never fully reach their depth.’ However, King Solomon would hardly find that sentence quite satisfactory.

The Setting of Luke's Account of the Anointing: Luke 7.2–8.3

Abstract: Luke's account of the anointing of Jesus (Luke 7. 36–50) seems to be one of the gospel stories which critics have examined somewhat in isolation from the context of the surrounding material. One reason for this may be that Luke has told his story almost too well, if that is possible, so that the account of the woman's act of overflowing love and its contrast with the Pharisee's lack of care for his invited guest can easily be read as a self-contained unit. It has certainly provided useful ammunition for those who have sought to denigrate the Pharisaic outlook by comparing it with Christian love; moreover, as Dibelius recognised, the woman's action and Luke's six-fold repetition which emphasises forgiveness would have made the story very valuable for illustrating sermons.

Zum ‘Tempelwort’ Jesu in Apostelgeschichte 6.14*

Abstract: Wahrend der letzten zwanzig Jahre – mit Ausnahme von einigen Jahren, in denen ich krankheitshalber meine Forschungsarbeit unterbrechen muste – habe ich in meinem Fach standig sozusagen ‘zwei Hasen’ gejagt. Mit dem einen meine ich die Erforschung der gnostischen Schriften, mit dem anderen die Untersuchung der neutestamentlichen, insbesondere lukanischen Schriften. Die Zwischenergebnisse dieser Studien habe ich im letzten Jahr in meinem japanischen Aufsatzband Studies in the New Testament and Gnosticism (Tokyo: Iwanami) veroffentlicht. Freilich gibt es in Japan ein Sprichwort, das lautet: Verfolgt man zwei Hasen, fangt man keinen. Entgegen dieser Lebensweisheit jedoch werde ich auch in den kommenden Jahren den zwei Hasen weiterhin nachjagen. Und ich habe die Hoffnung noch nicht auf-gegeben, sie auch tatsachlich zu erlegen und ihre Beziehung zueinder zu klaren, damit ihre Bedeutung in der Geschichte der fruhen Christenheit deutlicher dargestellt werden kann.

Reflections on ‘the Reader’ of Matthew's Gospel

Abstract: Since World War II, the chief method by which scholars have studied the Gospels has been redaction criticism. More recently, however, literary, or narrative, criticism has also been on the rise. If one analyzes these methods, one quickly discovers that peculiar to each is a ‘model of readership’ that dictates who the ‘primary reader’ (reader or hearer of first reception) of a Gospel is and how he or she relates to the materials being presented in the Gospel. The purpose of this article is multiple: to point out who the primary reader in each of these methods is conceived to be; to take note of the role the primary reader is thought to play in the reading process; and, perhaps most importantly, to assess the adequacy of the model of readership that characterizes each method. To give the discussion focus, I shall restrict scrutiny to the Gospel according to Matthew.

On Following Jesus: the ‘Eager’ Scribe and the ‘Reluctant’ Disciple (Matthew 8.18–22)

Abstract: The pericope in Matthew entitled ‘on following Jesus’ (8. 18–22) has sparked more than its share of debate this century. Because it is closely paralleled in Luke (9. 57–60), it has been carefully scrutinized both for information regarding the historical Jesus and in terms of its place in the so-called document Q. Correspondingly less attention has been paid to it as a pericope within Matthew itself. The purpose of this article is to examine it afresh precisely as such. New is the claim that one finds the clue to the proper interpretation of key points by relating it to such ‘call passages’ as Matt 4. 18–20, 21–22; and 9. 9 (cf. further 19. 20–22).

A Primitive Hebrew Gospel of Matthew and the Tol'doth Yeshu

Abstract: The Tol'doth Yeshu is a medieval Jewish antigospel which exists in various forms. Basically it says that Jesus was born illegitimate, learned the Name of God in the temple, performed miracles by pronouncing the Divine Name and finally was executed by the Jews. His body was stolen from the tomb by Yehuda the gardener, an act which led to the assertion by the disciples that he had arisen from the dead and had ascended into heaven.The date of the Tol'doth Yeshu is assigned by Krauss to c. 500 CE; it is assigned by Klausner to the tenth century. Some of the traditions it draws upon are much older since they are reflected in such writings as the Talmud and Origen's Contra Celsum.

Der ‘Dialog Jesu mit den Juden’ im Johannesevangelium: Ein rekonstruktionsversuch

Abstract: In meinem Aufsatz uber ‘Die literarische Vorgeschichte von Joh 6, 26–58’ habe ich nachzuweisen versucht, daβ die ‘Lebensbrotrede’ des JohEv das Ergebnis einer redaktionellen Komposition ist. Als ihren Verfasser sehe ich den ‘Evangelisten’ an, jenen Reprasentanten einer Gruppe oder ‘Schule’, dem wir das JohEv in seiner vorliegenden Gestalt verdanken. In ihm hat er die mundlichen Uberlieferungen und schriftlichen Zeugnisse des johanneischen Christentums gesammelt, redigiert und auf die konkrete Lebensund Glaubenssituation der johanneischen Gemeinden zur Zeit der Abfassung des JohEv ausgerichtet. Neben einem ‘Grundevangelium’ und mundlichen bzw. schriftlichen Traditionen hat er dabei m.E. einen ‘Dialog Jesu mit den Juden’ verwendet.

Christ and Reproof (Matthew 7.1–5/Luke 6.37–42)

Abstract: The saying of the Mote and Beam (properly Chaff and Pole) has caused some difficulty; but alas an intricate and subtle saying, paradoxical (not absurd), has been domesticated by being seen as a trite commonplace. The obvious questions are why only one eye is involved: for only if both were affected could a foreign body not be extricated; and why does the seer of the Chaff have to have a Pole in his eye; why, again, does he take the initiative, offering to attend to his ‘brother’, whereas in a case of a foreign body the initiative comes from the sufferer; why is it assumed that a ‘casting out’ will occur (έκβάλλeιν has a very sombre semantic scope); and whence comes that grotesque Pole (conventionally ‘beam’)? The answers must be sought in many quarters, viz. (1) a popular saying known in more than one culture, (2) the behaviour of the eye, (3) a common Jewish cluster of idioms, (4) the pious ideal in Israel on the subject of rebuke, reproof, and (5) the Law and the Prophets. Our saying has languished because information from these quarters has not been combined.

Reader Response: Demythologising the Text

Abstract: The Greek word έξήγησις means ‘explanation’ or ‘interpretation’. When applied to the Bible, it would appear to mean ‘explication de texte’. However, Biblical exegetes are often in the habit of contrasting what they do with ‘eisegesis’, i.e. the imposition of ‘subjective’ meanings onto the text. This contrast suggests that the meaning derived by exegesis is gotten ‘out of’ the text, where it is thought to reside, by means of the ‘correct’ exegetical methods, of which the exegete is the master. Like Philip the Evangelist, the exegete responds to the plea for help implied in the reader's befuddled question, ‘How can I [understand], unless someone guides me?’ (Acts 8.31).

The Text of Acts in the Light of Two Recent Studies

Abstract: The variants found in the Greek text of Acts have been selected for three reasons. They all contain readings which have the combined support of the Byzantine majority text and papyri. They have a bearing on the study of Acts. They show differing types of scribal emendation. Hom can be demonstrated to have operated; a useful and basic rule of thumb is that the longer reading is likely to be original-other things being equal. With theological and other terms, such as the grace of God, the word of God, one may assume that an authors practice would attain fixity of usage. An issue wider than that of one Biblical authors style and usage is the usage of the New Testament as a whole. One aspect of this wider question concerns v.ll. in which one reading seems to support an Attic word or phrase and another reading supports a Koine equivalent.Keywords: Attic word; Hom; New Testament; text of Acts