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Showing papers in "New Testament Studies in 1989"


Journal ArticleDOI
Joel Marcus1
TL;DR: The Roman side of the equation has been studied in this article, where a range of arguments about the Roman situation as it relates to the letter are surveyed, and a new approach to the question is suggested.
Abstract: In a recently-published article, P. Stuhlmacher has outlined three major contemporary theories of the occasion of Paul's letter to the Romans: 1) Romans is addressed to a specific situation within the Roman community itself, 2) it is composed primarily with Paul's forthcoming delivery of the collection to Jerusalem in mind, and 3) it emerges from a convergence of the first two motivations. While not wishing to deny that the Jerusalem trip was a preoccupation of Paul as he composed Romans (see Romans 15. 25, 30–32), I intend in this study to strengthen the Roman side of the equation, first by surveying a range of arguments about the Roman situation as it relates to the letter, then by suggesting a new approach to the question.

61 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors address the question, why and how the term eỦαγγέλιον, originally a term for the early Christian proclamation, became the designation of a certain type of literature.
Abstract: This paper wants to address the question, why and how the term eỦαγγέλιον, originally a term for the early Christian proclamation, became the designation of a certain type of literature. Closely related problems have been discussed repeatedly in New Testament scholarship for several generations: (1) The origin of the term eỦαγγέλιον. (2) The consistency and uniformity of its meaning in its Christian usage. (3) The question of the literary genre of the writings which later became known as ‘gospels’. I shall comment on the second and third of these problems insofar as they concern the question addressed in this paper, but I shall leave aside the question of the background and origin of the term.

39 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The importance of Paul's first extant letter to the study of early Christianity has clearly been demonstrated by the attention paid to just a small part of it, the "dreadful text" of 1 Thessalonians 214-16, a ‘passionate, generalizing, hateful’ diatribe against the Jews for having killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets and for interfering with Paul's mission to the Gentiles.
Abstract: The importance of Paul's first extant letter to the study of early Christianity has clearly been demonstrated by the attention paid to just a small part of it, the ‘dreadful text’ of 1 Thessalonians 214–16, a ‘passionate, generalizing, hateful’ diatribe against the Jews for having killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets and for interfering with Paul's mission to the Gentiles Or so it has seemed to most historians, theologians, and exegetes of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries who have studied the passage Those early, stunning verses of Paul, written probably in 50 or 51 CE from Corinth to his recently founded church in Thessalonica, have proved especially embarrassing to Jews and Christians who, in post-Holocaust self-examination and post-Vatican II ecumenical spirit, have been trying to exorcise the demons of antisemitism How could Paul, a proud Jew and Pharisee, so categorically condemn his own people? And how can so early and sweeping a condemnation be explained by scholars who argue that such virulent antisemitism did not in fact develop until the latter part of the century, after the destruction of the Temple and the council at Jamnia?

37 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: There is no Hebrew word for reconciliation in the OT; there is general agreement that Paul obtained this word from not only the Jewish but also the Greco-Roman world as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Few scholars have proposed that there is any precise OT background for Paul's view of reconciliation, even though there has been much discussion about the formulation of the doctrine. There is no Hebrew word for ‘reconciliation’ in the OT; there is general agreement that Paul obtained this word from not only the Jewish but also the Greco-Roman world. The καταλλάσσω–διαλλάσσομαι word group is found in the Septuagint (rarely), 2 and 4 Maccabees and Josephus as well as in classical, hellenistic and koine writings. The use of the word group in these writings has been well documented.

30 citations



Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: For the first significant studies of Semitic influence on the NT published by Wyss, Pasor and Trom in the mid 17th century, there has not been a lack of interest in the topic of the language of the Greek Bible as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Since the first significant studies of Semitic influence on the NT published by Wyss, Pasor and Trom in the mid 17th century, there has not been a lack of interest in the topic of the language of the Greek Bible. Treatments of Semitic influence on the Greek of the NT usually concentrate on two issues: the current languages of lst-century Palestine, and various theories regarding the nature of the Greek of the NT. Whatever answers might be posited for the other books of the NT, few scholars have been completely satisfied with estimations given concerning the Apocalypse. Here most acutely the question of the languages used in Palestine during the 1st century overlaps with, if it is not dependent upon, the question of the nature of the Greek of the NT.

24 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, Betz used the generative rules of Graeco-Roman rhetoric to analyse the structure of the letter and found that the form of various parts and the order in which they are arranged completely conform to the classical rules of rhetoric for a judicial speech (genus iudiciale).
Abstract: This study's point of departure is the important article of H. D. Betz, ‘The literary composition and function of Paul's letter to the Galatians’, published in this journal in 1975. In that article the author suggests a new approach to the letter to the Galatians, by using the generative rules of Graeco-Roman rhetoric to analyse the structure of the letter. A rigorous examination leads him to the conclusion that the form of the various parts and the order in which they are arranged completely conform to the classical rules of rhetoric for a judicial speech (genus iudiciale). Paul is under accusation by opponents. The Galatians play the role of judges. The letter contains a speech in which Paul, following all the rules of the art, defends himself before the jury.

24 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper gave an impressive list of the stylistic features and rhetorical devices that are to be found in Hebrews and showed that Hebrews is the most accomplished writing in the New Testament.
Abstract: Hebrews is the most accomplished writing in the New Testament. The unknown author's command of the art of rhetoric is universally recognized. He was evidently well educated by the standards of Hellenistic education of the time. His use of Greek is more cultivated than that of Paul, and he makes greater use of rhetorical devices than Luke. Spicq gives an impressive list of the stylistic features and rhetorical devices that are to be found in Hebrews. But every reader can appreciate the fine style and persuasive power of the author's writing.

19 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: T Tyson's The Death of Jesus in Luke-Acts and Robert Tannehill's The Narrative Unity of Luke-acts, published in 1986, are good examples of the interpretive wealth being mined by scholars who are adopting literary-critical methods for approaching the Lukan writings as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Joseph Tyson's The Death of Jesus in Luke-Acts and Robert Tannehill's The Narrative Unity of Luke-Acts, published in 1986, are good examples of the interpretive wealth being mined by scholars who are adopting literary-critical methods for approaching the Lukan writings. What most distinguishes these critics' approaches from older, more familiar ones is the claim that the Bible's historical narratives are imaginative re-enactments of history – thus, in form, more akin to fiction than to theology, biography, or history. Robert Alter called the Biblical stories ‘historicized fiction’, meaning in our case that the author of Luke and Acts employed the artifices of fiction-writing, among others, supplying feeling and motives and creating speeches and dialogue for his characters. Professors Tyson and Tannehill, and other literary scholars like them, are helping us better discern how these techniques were used in Luke and Acts, thus opening new windows to the characters, the way that the author ascribes intentions to them, the plot, themes, nuances, points of view, uses of irony, and word-plays and associations in the writings.

19 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors ask: "Hatte die Jesusbewegung revolutionare Zuge? Eine Antwort auf diese Frage hangt davon ab, was wir unter ‘Revolution verstehen".
Abstract: Hatte die Jesusbewegung revolutionare Zuge? Eine Antwort auf diese Frage hangt davon ab, was wir unter ‘Revolution’ verstehen. Der im folgenden verwandte ubertragene Begriff von ‘Revolution’ setzt zwei allgemeine (etwas triviale) Annahmen uber die Geschichte voraus:

17 citations



Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors argued that the exordium of the Areopagus speech clearly conforms to conventions of Hellenistic rhetoric in regard to exordia, and that this exORDium functions as an introduction to a deliberation on the topic of religion.
Abstract: Martin Dibelius long ago described the oration on the Areopagus as ‘… a hellenistic speech about the true knowledge of God’. In this paper it will be argued that the exordium of the Areopagus speech clearly conforms to conventions of hellenistic rhetoric in regard to exordia ; secondly, that this exordium functions as an introduction to a deliberation on the topic of religion; and finally, that both the exordium and the speech as a whole bear witness to what Frederick Danker has aptly described as the author's ‘broadly ranging rhetorical competence’.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors have described Rom 13 as a test case for New Testament interpretation and the test is whether New Testament hermeneutics is able to handle a passage as difficult and controversial as Rom 13. 1. 7.
Abstract: It is hardly necessary to emphasise the problematic nature of this passage. Its tragic misuse, in past and present, in the interests of supporting oppressive regimes and suppressing protest can neither be denied nor condoned. It is easy to lay the blame for such abusesat the door of non-contextual literalism, with its hidden agenda of endorsement of the status quo. Liberal interpreters, however, also work with a hidden agenda and cannot be allowed to assume that they know from the outset the ‘right’ interpretation of the passage.That is why we have described it as a test case for New Testament interpretation. It is not simply that the passage is being tested. Thetest is whether New Testament hermeneutics is able to handle acase as difficult and controversial as Rom 13. 1–7 while remaining true to its principles and without resorting to emergency procedures, such as drastic surgery!

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In Gal 3.2 and 3.5 the apostle Paul sets ἔργα νόμου, "works of (the) Law" over against ἁκοη πίστeως in two rhetorical questions with which he begins his attack against the position of his nomistic opponents in the Galatian churches as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: At Gal 3. 2 and 3. 5 the apostle Paul sets ἔργα νόμου, ‘works of (the) Law’, over against ἁκοη πίστeως in two rhetorical questions with which he begins his attack against the position of his nomistic opponents in the Galatian churches. One hopes that this phrase άκοη πίστeως was less puzzling to the Galatian Christians than it has been to modern interpreters. The problem of interpretation is compounded by the fact that both words of the phrase can have quite different meanings. 'Ακοή can mean either the faculty or act of hearing or a message or report (that is, what is heard). Πίστις can name either a ‘subjective’ human act or attitude or the object of believing (that is, the Christian proclamation). Two important recent studies of Galatians have added their support to the view that by aκοη Paul means not ‘hearing’ but ‘proclamation’. In his Galatians commentary Hans Dieter Betz translates άκοη πίστeως as ‘[the] “proclamation of [the] faith”’. In The Faith of Jesus Christ, Richard B. Hays argues at some length that Paul means either ‘the message that evokes faith’ or ‘the message of faith (= the gospel-message)’.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the vierte Makkabaerbuch wurde nach Ausweis der alten Codices und einiger Kanonsverzeichnisse zumindest fur eine kurze Zeitspanne zum christlichen Kanon der Septuaginta gezahlt.
Abstract: Eher am Rande des Blickfeldes exegetischer Forschung steht das vierte Makkabaerbuch. Keine Disziplin fuhlt sich, wie schon Freudenthal anmerkte, dafur so recht zustandig. Dabei wurde es nach Ausweis der alten Codices und einiger Kanonsverzeichnisse zumindest fur eine kurze Zeitspanne zum christlichen Kanon der Septuaginta gezahlt.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In the case of the Christ hymn in Col 1.15.20, the second part of the hymn cannot speak of anyone else than Christ as mentioned in this paper, which is the soteriological part.
Abstract: Ernst Kasemann's theory that the Christ hymn in Col 1. 15–20.is an adapted pre-Christian hymn about the Gnostic Urmensch-Erloser, who had both a cosmological and a soteriological significance, has not fared well. Even with the deletion of the words δι⋯τοu αἴματος τοu σταυροu αύτοu in v. 20, the sentiment persists that the second part of the hymn – which is soteriological – cannot speak of anyone else than Christ. More importantly, evidence for the existence of a Gnostic Urmensch-Erloser is lacking until Mani's time. As a matter of fact, even pre-Manichean Gnosticism, in which we find both various Urmensch figures and redeemers, cannot be proven to antedate Christianity.


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: According to John 6.52-59, participation in the eucharistic meal is necessary for "life" as discussed by the authors, and this conclusion has found reinforcement in what looks like a close parallel from Ignatius, whose writings are presumably contemporaneous with the Fourth Gospel.
Abstract: According to John 6.52–59, participation in the eucharistic meal is necessary for ‘life’: ‘Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you’ (v 53). The manifest allusion here to the Lord's Supper, together with the insistence on its indispensability for Life, has led a majority of interpreters to conclude that this passage is ‘sacramentalist’. This conclusion has found reinforcement in what looks like a close parallel from Ignatius, whose writings are presumably contemporaneous with the Fourth Gospel:

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The Johannine Epistles of the New Testament remain unanalyzed from a rhetorical perspective as discussed by the authors, and they exhibit a knowledge of and even a mastery of Greco-Roman rhetoric.
Abstract: Regarding the biblical authors, St. Augustine the rhetor remarks, ‘Thus there is a kind of eloquence fitting for men most worthy of the highest authority and clearly inspired by God.’ Whatever we may think of this bold statement, the NT does indeed contain numerous portions which exhibit a knowledge of and even a mastery of Greco-Roman rhetoric. Many of these portions of the NT remain unanalyzed from a rhetorical perspective, including the Johannine Epistles.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, it was shown that Paul expected to be alive at the parousia of 1 Cor 15.50 and v. 57, and that he himself will not be among the dead, but among the living.
Abstract: 1 Cor 15.50–57 is frequently cited as evidence that Paul expected to be alive at the parousia, chiefly on the basis of the distinction in v. 52 between ‘the dead’ who ‘will be raised imperishable’ and ‘we’ who ‘will be changed’. Paul ‘expects that at the parusia he himself will not be among the dead (of whom he speaks in the third person), but among the living (of whom he speaks in the first person)’. There are, however, a number of factors that persuade us to question this conclusion.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, Kenny put forward a conclusion phrased in terms which reflect the judicious caution of one well versed in philosophy, that there is no reason to reject the hypothesis that twelve of the surviving Pauline epistles are the work of a single, unusually versatile author.
Abstract: It is well known that earlier ways of measuring the style of Paul's epistles have in recent years been supplemented by specific tests based on calculations of the frequency of certain particles, sentence lengths, use of the subjunctive, use of specific tenses and the like. Two prominent works using such methods reach very different conclusions. In an important recent book Anthony Kenny puts forward a conclusion phrased in terms which reflect the judicious caution of one well versed in philosophy. He does not boldly assert that it is probable that Paul wrote twelve of the surviving epistles, merely that on the evidence which he collected he saw ‘no reason to reject the hypothesis that twelve of the Pauline epistles are the work of a single, unusually versatile author’.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors have attempted to indicate that the ask-logion of Matthew 7.7a, 8a is an independent saying (probably of Jesus himself) which originally called for or described a response within the context of the earliest, eschatological preaching of the Kingdom of God.
Abstract: SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS: We have attempted to indicate that the ask-logion of Matthew 7. 7a, 8a is an independent saying (probably of Jesus himself) which originally called for or described a response within the context of the earliest, eschatological preaching of the Kingdom of God. The uncontrolled and volatile possibilities inherent in this independent saying led the church to begin a process of ‘definition’ of the saying. In this process the context in which the saying is found changes and often its form undergoes changes in order to bring the saying within the church's understanding of what was possible and permissible. The pressures of the ecclesiastical and the eschatological ethical traditions are both present in the Matthean version. A very sketchy suggestion (arising from our study) for the plotting of this development is offered in the accompanying diagram.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The 1 Corinthians passage in which Paul insists that a woman praying or prophesying in the Christian assembly should have her head covered (11.2-16), has been said to be hardly one of Paul's happier compositions.
Abstract: The 1 Corinthians passage, in which Paul insists that a woman praying or prophesying in the Christian assembly should have her head covered (11.2–16), has been said to be ‘in its present form hardly one of Paul's happier compositions. The logic is obscure at best and contradictory at worst. The word choice is peculiar; the tone peevish.’ On an earlier occasion I addressed myself to the interpretation of one of the difficult phrases in this passage, and I now turn to another one in v. 3 because some recent discussion of this verse may be obscuring its basic thrust and because some evidence relevant to its meaning has not been considered. It has to do with the sense in which Paul uses κeφαλή in this verse, which reads:

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In the 3rd corrected edition of the Greek New Testament (UBS3) in 1 Cor 13.3, four variants are listed in the apparatus of the UBS3 in this article.
Abstract: Four variants are listed in the apparatus of the 3rd corrected edition of the Greek New Testament (UBS3) in 1 Cor 13. 3. They are:κανχήσωμαi (P A B 048 pc)κανθήσωμαi (K ψ majority text)κανθήσομαi (C D F G L pc)κανθήσeταi (1877 2492 pc)Of these variants κανθσομαi seems to be the most popular, occurring in texts such as the 2nd edition of the British and Foreign Bible Societies, Vogels, Kilpatrick's Diglot, Von Soden, Tischendorf's 9th edition and the 25th edition of Nestle-Aland. It is also favoured by Elliott, De Boor, Grosheide, Godet, Morris, Bachmann, Billerbeck, Wolff, Weiss, Robertson and Plummer, Pop, Groenewald, Lietzmann, Barrett and Kieffer. Κανθήσωμαi seems to be the second most popular reading, occurring in amongst others the Textus Receptus, Alford, The Greek New Testament according to the Majority Text, Souter and Scrivener.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The Second Gospel of Mark as mentioned in this paper has been used as a literary device for foreshadowing the Crucifixion of the Christ in Greek tragedy, which has been argued to be essential to the development of mnemonic structures in oral epic.
Abstract: Discussions on the possibility that Mark's Gospel may have been modelled, either consciously or subconsciously, on Greek tragic drama have gathered momentum in recent years. It has also been shown that a most important feature of Greek tragedy is the repetitive device of ‘foreshadowing’, a technique which has rightly been seen as essential to the development of mnemonic structures in oral epic. The use of this device in the Bible, it may be argued, is no less pronounced than in Greek drama. C. H. Lohr, in particular, has argued strongly for the presence of foreshadowing in Matthew's Gospel, and it is our purpose here to enquire whether the writer of the Second Gospel, too, was aware of this dramatic device. Matthew achieved the desired effect by means of dream episodes (Matt 1. 20; 2. 12, 13, 19, 22; 27. 19) and the repetition of divine names, especially ‘Son of David’, at strategic points (Matt 9. 27; 12. 23; 15. 22; 20. 30, 31; 22. 43). There are certainly no dream narratives in Mark's Gospel, and even the references to divine titles may seem to have been arranged in a somewhat arbitrary fashion at first glance. On the other hand, it can hardly be denied that we find in Mark's vivid account an inexorable drift towards death: the inevitable shadow of the cross falls across the text even as early as Mark 2. 20 – the disciples may not fast until ‘that day’ when the bridegroom is taken from them. And there is the hint of opposition to Jesus even prior to that! There is little doubt in my mind that Mark was keenly aware of the effective use to which the device of foreshadowing could be put, but his technique differs from that which Lohr has ascribed to Matthew. In true tragic style he wants to emphasise the inevitability of the cross as the omega point of Jesus' destiny, and to do that he uses not dreams or prophecies, but actors who engage Jesus in controversy or conflict at strategic points within the gospel story. It matters to Mark who these actors are, what role they play, and precisely when and where they make their entrances on stage. We shall thus be concerned to show, in the remainder of this paper, how the Evangelist treats the various groups of Jewish opponents as a literary device for foreshadowing Jesus' crucifixion.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, it is argued that, though independent of the Synoptics, John has made use of Synoptic-like tradition and that chapter 6 provides evidence of a developing and yet unified interpretation of that tradition.
Abstract: That John 6 was intended as a self-contained unit is clearly signalled by the evangelist, who has commenced chapters 5, 6 and 7 with μeτά ταuτα, a formula that marks a new beginning. Yet there has long been controversy regarding the unity and integrity of the chapter and its present place in the Gospel. In this paper it is argued that, though independent of the Synoptics, John has made use of Synoptic-like tradition and that chapter 6 provides evidence of a developing and yet unified interpretation of that tradition. The tradition was the basis of two editions of the chapter. Recognition and characterization of the tradition is an important beginning in the attempt to understand John 6. A second step is to note the signals indicating changes of time, place and audience which coincide with changes of literary genre. Changes are signalled from the crowd at Capernaum (6. 22–36) to the Jews in the synagogue at Capernaum (6. 41–59) to the disciples and ‘the twelve’ at some unspecified location (6. 60–71). There are two references to each audience in the narrative of these sections (6. 22, 24, 41, 52, 60, 66, 67, 71) and a Son of Man saying in each of Jesus' responses, to the crowd (6. 27), the Jews (6. 53), and the disciples (6. 62). Changes of genre from quest (6. 1–36) to rejection (6. 41–59 and 6. 60–66) to commendation (6. 67–71) stories confirm these divisions. There is also a transition from the emphasis on the emissary christology in the quest story to the soteriology of the rejection stories.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Le jeu de mots " etre eleve " (sur la croix et en gloire) se trouve en 3, 14| 8, 28| 12, 32.34.
Abstract: Le jeu de mots " etre eleve " (sur la croix et en gloire) se trouve en 3, 14| 8, 28| 12, 32.34. Il se trouve aussi dans l'hebreu (NS') de Gen 40, 19 (mais pas dans la LXX) avec les riches connotations qu'evoque la racine et un echo significatif en Is 52, 13


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, weist ihr matthaisches Gegenstuck zahlreiche Widerspruche und Ungereimtheiten auf.
Abstract: Wahrend die lukanische Kindheitsgeschichte im ganzen recht zusammenhangend konzipiert erscheint, weist ihr matthaisches Gegenstuck zahlreiche Widerspruche und Ungereimtheiten auf. Dies gilt besonders fur die im zweiten Kapitel geschilderten Vorgange. Ohne plausible Erklarung bleiben z.B. das verhangnisvolle Zusammentreffen der Magier mit Herodes und die merkwurdigen Himmelsbewegungen des Wundersterns. Engelserscheinungen im Traum dienen wiederholt dazu, entscheidende Handlungsmomente notdurftig zu motivieren. Doch in der Situation nach dem Tode des Herodes versagt selbst diese Erzahlfigur. Nachdem ein ἃγγeλος κυρίου Josef versichert hat, die Verfolger des Kindes seien gestorben (2. 20), verlast die Hl. Familie Agypten und kehrt zuruck in das ‘Land Israel’. In Judaa aber stellt sich heraus, das die todliche Gefahr nach wie vor besteht, denn nunmehr regiert dort Archelaus, ein Sohn des Herodes (2. 22).