Pub Date : 2022-11-01DOI: 10.1177/01461079221133446
Jonathan P. Guevara
This paper deploys Jeffery M. Paige’s sociological theory of agrarian revolution to understand the collective violence of the parable of the tenants (Mark 12:1–12, Gos. Thom. 65). I begin with the idea that the parable involves a sharecrop-ping relation. I then use Paige’s theory to highlight that sharecropping systems in agricultural export sectors are not only correlated with revolutionary violence in Paige’s work (with statistical significance), but are part of the parable’s realistic fiction. I argue that the economic infrastructure of early Roman Palestine, including Galilee, and the violence in the parable are well explained by Paige’s theory. I also employ V. N. Voloshinov’s sociolinguistic theory of language-ideology to derive the central thesis of this paper: as a semiotic medium of social life, the parable functions as part of the ideological process that creates a fiction of a world in which agrarian revolution is realistic and acceptable.
{"title":"The Parable of the Tenants as a Sociolinguistic Medium of Agrarian Revolution","authors":"Jonathan P. Guevara","doi":"10.1177/01461079221133446","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01461079221133446","url":null,"abstract":"This paper deploys Jeffery M. Paige’s sociological theory of agrarian revolution to understand the collective violence of the parable of the tenants (Mark 12:1–12, Gos. Thom. 65). I begin with the idea that the parable involves a sharecrop-ping relation. I then use Paige’s theory to highlight that sharecropping systems in agricultural export sectors are not only correlated with revolutionary violence in Paige’s work (with statistical significance), but are part of the parable’s realistic fiction. I argue that the economic infrastructure of early Roman Palestine, including Galilee, and the violence in the parable are well explained by Paige’s theory. I also employ V. N. Voloshinov’s sociolinguistic theory of language-ideology to derive the central thesis of this paper: as a semiotic medium of social life, the parable functions as part of the ideological process that creates a fiction of a world in which agrarian revolution is realistic and acceptable.","PeriodicalId":41921,"journal":{"name":"Biblical Theology Bulletin","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44962549","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-11-01DOI: 10.1177/01461079221133111
P. Moser
Scholars of the Bible have long sought a theme that can identify substantial unity in the various Biblical writings without disregarding their undeniable diversity. In this context, scholars have explored the nature and limits of Biblical inspiration in considerable detail, but the moral inspiration of humans by God has received relatively little attention. This neglect is striking, because such divine inspiration of humans is arguably a silver lining throughout the Bible and a source of robust unity for Biblical theology. This article contends that the moral inspiration of humans by God is a substantial unifier for Biblical theology. It also shows how this approach yields (a) a new understanding of the fruit of the Spirit as divine filial values in human experience and (b) a needed veracity check on the unified Biblical theology offered.
{"title":"Divine Moral Inspiration: Unity in Biblical Theology","authors":"P. Moser","doi":"10.1177/01461079221133111","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01461079221133111","url":null,"abstract":"Scholars of the Bible have long sought a theme that can identify substantial unity in the various Biblical writings without disregarding their undeniable diversity. In this context, scholars have explored the nature and limits of Biblical inspiration in considerable detail, but the moral inspiration of humans by God has received relatively little attention. This neglect is striking, because such divine inspiration of humans is arguably a silver lining throughout the Bible and a source of robust unity for Biblical theology. This article contends that the moral inspiration of humans by God is a substantial unifier for Biblical theology. It also shows how this approach yields (a) a new understanding of the fruit of the Spirit as divine filial values in human experience and (b) a needed veracity check on the unified Biblical theology offered.","PeriodicalId":41921,"journal":{"name":"Biblical Theology Bulletin","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43805709","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-11-01DOI: 10.1177/01461079221133448
Brian Schmisek
In the ante-Nicene era the Quartodecimans (the “fourteeners”) preserved a tradition that was said to go back to “John.” They commemorated 14 Nisan rather than Easter Sunday, the day that the larger Christian community commemorated as the day of the resurrection. For more than a century now, scholars have addressed the ‘Quartodeciman question,’ defined in various ways but essentially, “What did their observance of 14 Nisan mean? What did it commemorate?” This brief paper offers additional support to arguments posited by others that, as theological descendants of Johannine thought, the Quartodecimans preserved a tradition which commemorated Jesus’ death as the paschal lamb, which was simultaneously a glorification, the exaltation of the Christ.
{"title":"The Quartodeciman Question: Johannine Roots of a Christian Controversy","authors":"Brian Schmisek","doi":"10.1177/01461079221133448","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01461079221133448","url":null,"abstract":"In the ante-Nicene era the Quartodecimans (the “fourteeners”) preserved a tradition that was said to go back to “John.” They commemorated 14 Nisan rather than Easter Sunday, the day that the larger Christian community commemorated as the day of the resurrection. For more than a century now, scholars have addressed the ‘Quartodeciman question,’ defined in various ways but essentially, “What did their observance of 14 Nisan mean? What did it commemorate?” This brief paper offers additional support to arguments posited by others that, as theological descendants of Johannine thought, the Quartodecimans preserved a tradition which commemorated Jesus’ death as the paschal lamb, which was simultaneously a glorification, the exaltation of the Christ.","PeriodicalId":41921,"journal":{"name":"Biblical Theology Bulletin","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42491331","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-08-01DOI: 10.1177/01461079221107857
J. Dickie
The story of Jael is interpreted in many different ways; the two main ones are that she is a hero to Israel, or she is a deceitful murderer. An incident that occurred in the Cape Flats, South Africa, some years ago throws light on local women’s interpretation of the Jael story. In the contemporary incident, a woman killed her son, but was viewed by women in the community not as a murderer but as a fellow-sufferer. In this study, women in the community and women in prison (some for murder) read the Jael text, act out the story, and share their views of what was happening in the biblical text. It is clear that contemporary women living in a violent community can contribute to a better understanding of the Jael text through their many parallel experiences.
{"title":"Reading Jael with Women from a Traumatized Community","authors":"J. Dickie","doi":"10.1177/01461079221107857","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01461079221107857","url":null,"abstract":"The story of Jael is interpreted in many different ways; the two main ones are that she is a hero to Israel, or she is a deceitful murderer. An incident that occurred in the Cape Flats, South Africa, some years ago throws light on local women’s interpretation of the Jael story. In the contemporary incident, a woman killed her son, but was viewed by women in the community not as a murderer but as a fellow-sufferer. In this study, women in the community and women in prison (some for murder) read the Jael text, act out the story, and share their views of what was happening in the biblical text. It is clear that contemporary women living in a violent community can contribute to a better understanding of the Jael text through their many parallel experiences.","PeriodicalId":41921,"journal":{"name":"Biblical Theology Bulletin","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45866451","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-08-01DOI: 10.1177/01461079221107563
J. Smith
In this essay, I argue that Jesus’s mastery of the use of questions as a method of public argumentation is a key component of his characterization in the Gospel of Luke. As Douglas Estes has argued convincingly, a bias against questions exists within the Western intellectual tradition, which tends to favor declarative propositions for the negotiation of truth claims. This bias has resulted in the general neglect of the logical, rhetorical, literary, and philosophical role that interrogatives play in agonistic discourse (Estes, 2–9). Reading the questions of Jesus in Luke through a socio-rhetorical lens, I argue that a proper understanding of the social function of questions in the first century reveals a key insight underlying Luke’s theology of the crucifixion, suffering, and death of Jesus that has until recently gone unnoticed: namely, that within an honor/shame social matrix, Jesus’s failure to respond to the questions of his interrogators constitutes a willful submission to the violent principalities and powers of this world.
{"title":"“I Will Also Ask You a Question” (Luke 20:3): The Social and Rhetorical Function of Opposing-Turn Questions in the Gospel of Luke","authors":"J. Smith","doi":"10.1177/01461079221107563","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01461079221107563","url":null,"abstract":"In this essay, I argue that Jesus’s mastery of the use of questions as a method of public argumentation is a key component of his characterization in the Gospel of Luke. As Douglas Estes has argued convincingly, a bias against questions exists within the Western intellectual tradition, which tends to favor declarative propositions for the negotiation of truth claims. This bias has resulted in the general neglect of the logical, rhetorical, literary, and philosophical role that interrogatives play in agonistic discourse (Estes, 2–9). Reading the questions of Jesus in Luke through a socio-rhetorical lens, I argue that a proper understanding of the social function of questions in the first century reveals a key insight underlying Luke’s theology of the crucifixion, suffering, and death of Jesus that has until recently gone unnoticed: namely, that within an honor/shame social matrix, Jesus’s failure to respond to the questions of his interrogators constitutes a willful submission to the violent principalities and powers of this world.","PeriodicalId":41921,"journal":{"name":"Biblical Theology Bulletin","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47683709","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-08-01DOI: 10.1177/01461079221107856
D. Zucker
One way of reading the book of Esther is that parts of the work consciously serve as a subversive sequel to 1 Samuel 25. The plot in Esther “mines and undermines” the episode which features Abigail of Maon meeting with a hot-headed bent-on-revenge pre-monarchic David. Through her actions Abigail successfully neutralizes David, just as Esther neutralizes the hot-headed bent-on-revenge Haman.
{"title":"Reading Esther as Abigail Redux","authors":"D. Zucker","doi":"10.1177/01461079221107856","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01461079221107856","url":null,"abstract":"One way of reading the book of Esther is that parts of the work consciously serve as a subversive sequel to 1 Samuel 25. The plot in Esther “mines and undermines” the episode which features Abigail of Maon meeting with a hot-headed bent-on-revenge pre-monarchic David. Through her actions Abigail successfully neutralizes David, just as Esther neutralizes the hot-headed bent-on-revenge Haman.","PeriodicalId":41921,"journal":{"name":"Biblical Theology Bulletin","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45954488","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-08-01DOI: 10.1177/01461079221102970
Gale A. Yee
Although we have some artifacts of birth equipment from archaeology, this study will argue that the knowledge we have about midwives in ancient Israel, Egypt, and Mesopotamia primarily comes to us from the hegemonic domain of ideologies, myths, ideas, and symbols. Texts about the goddesses of birth relate something about the social roles and practices of midwives in the human sphere. The decline or complete absence of the goddess in these mythic or religious texts may offer clues about gendered, raced, and classed relations among humans in their respective ancient societies. Moreover, midwives will continue to play symbolic and ideological roles in the textual arena of today’s modern world.
{"title":"Midwives in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Ancient Israel: An Intersectional Investigation","authors":"Gale A. Yee","doi":"10.1177/01461079221102970","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01461079221102970","url":null,"abstract":"Although we have some artifacts of birth equipment from archaeology, this study will argue that the knowledge we have about midwives in ancient Israel, Egypt, and Mesopotamia primarily comes to us from the hegemonic domain of ideologies, myths, ideas, and symbols. Texts about the goddesses of birth relate something about the social roles and practices of midwives in the human sphere. The decline or complete absence of the goddess in these mythic or religious texts may offer clues about gendered, raced, and classed relations among humans in their respective ancient societies. Moreover, midwives will continue to play symbolic and ideological roles in the textual arena of today’s modern world.","PeriodicalId":41921,"journal":{"name":"Biblical Theology Bulletin","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"64901107","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-08-01DOI: 10.1177/01461079221107562
C. Ononye, Chizoba H. Ezugwu
Communication between the Bible characters has recently gained ground in recent linguistic scholarship. Hence, linguistic studies on biblical texts have utilised semantic and stylistic tools in exploring the literariness of biblical texts, but the relational features of communication among biblical characters have not been accommodated enough. Therefore, the paper examines the relational work strategies and linguistic forms deployed in conflict-motivated discourses in the Passion of Christ (POC). The data comprises interactions extracted from St. John’s Gospel and subjected to descriptive pragmatic analysis. The findings reveal two major relational strategies: polite and politic/appropriate strategies and non-politic/inappropriate, over-polite and impolite strategies. The polite and politic strategies are exclusively associated with Christ while responding to prompts; non-politic is largely used by the crowd in its insistence to kill Christ; impolite by the Chief Priests in their interrogations, and over-polite by the soldiers while mocking Christ.
{"title":"Relational work strategies in conflict-motivated discourses in The Passion of Christ","authors":"C. Ononye, Chizoba H. Ezugwu","doi":"10.1177/01461079221107562","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01461079221107562","url":null,"abstract":"Communication between the Bible characters has recently gained ground in recent linguistic scholarship. Hence, linguistic studies on biblical texts have utilised semantic and stylistic tools in exploring the literariness of biblical texts, but the relational features of communication among biblical characters have not been accommodated enough. Therefore, the paper examines the relational work strategies and linguistic forms deployed in conflict-motivated discourses in the Passion of Christ (POC). The data comprises interactions extracted from St. John’s Gospel and subjected to descriptive pragmatic analysis. The findings reveal two major relational strategies: polite and politic/appropriate strategies and non-politic/inappropriate, over-polite and impolite strategies. The polite and politic strategies are exclusively associated with Christ while responding to prompts; non-politic is largely used by the crowd in its insistence to kill Christ; impolite by the Chief Priests in their interrogations, and over-polite by the soldiers while mocking Christ.","PeriodicalId":41921,"journal":{"name":"Biblical Theology Bulletin","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49373618","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-08-01DOI: 10.1177/01461079221108093
S. Park
We are unfortunately still living in the midst of an ongoing pandemic, one which required many of us to isolate. As a result, many of us had to improve or find new ways to communicate and stay in contact. Through this shared traumatic experience, we are undoubtedly reminded of the importance of relationships and the value of communication. The articles in this issue fittingly center on relationships. These relationships might be one between characters or between a character or reader and their society. Connected to relationships, the articles in this issue also focus on particular modes and means of communication and their significance in biblical stories.
{"title":"Presenting the Issue: Relationships and Communication","authors":"S. Park","doi":"10.1177/01461079221108093","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01461079221108093","url":null,"abstract":"We are unfortunately still living in the midst of an ongoing pandemic, one which required many of us to isolate. As a result, many of us had to improve or find new ways to communicate and stay in contact. Through this shared traumatic experience, we are undoubtedly reminded of the importance of relationships and the value of communication. The articles in this issue fittingly center on relationships. These relationships might be one between characters or between a character or reader and their society. Connected to relationships, the articles in this issue also focus on particular modes and means of communication and their significance in biblical stories.","PeriodicalId":41921,"journal":{"name":"Biblical Theology Bulletin","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48723862","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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