From Plato to Adam: the biblical exegesis of Walter Benjamin

The article is focused on the recent exegetical trend of “contextual” readings of the Bible, or context-sensitive exegesis in global Biblical scholarship. It is written by three authors from different ethnic and cultural contexts (German, Korean, Ethiopian) in order to emphasize the diversity to be considered. In the first part, the aims, history and relevant factors of contextual reading are described. The second part makes clear that also the traditional historical-critical exegesis is strongly contextual, drawing on Enlightenment thought and Western views of life. Therefore, any claims of “objectivity” or universality are problematic. In the third and fourth section of the article, two different contexts from global Christianity or the Majority World are introduced. first the African, especially Ethiopian context under the label of “vulnerability”, and then an Asian, precisely South Korean context with regard to the understanding of spirits and demons. The Ethiopian author describes how vulnerability has generally shaped the African cultural experience and specifically common language in Ethiopia, including religious attitudes which are characterized by a general openness for the divine. She also shows, that in such a culture, with the danger of naivete and acceptance of many problematic interpretations critical discernment is needed, as has already been stated by an Ethiopian philosopher of the 17th century. The part on Korean interpretation discusses the various views on spirits and demons in Korean Bible translations and the influence of Confucian thought and Shamanism on readings of the Bible. Using the example of the Gerasene demoniac, the author shows readers aware of shamanic ritual including pigs and intended to pacify the restless souls can impact the reading of this particular Biblical text even among modern Koreans. A brief concluding section draws some conclusions. Both examples demonstrate the diversity of contexts and their resonances with the Biblical texts when they are read in these different contexts. It is also obvious that there is not a single clear-cut dualism between Western and “postcolonial” readings. Neither the historical readings nor the contextual are “right” as such. Rather, there should be an open dialogue, on equal footing, that considers the context and also allows for critical interaction in order to prevent abuse of biblical texts, not only in colonial relations, but also within a given context by traditionalists, political powers, and spiritual authorities, so that the liberating power of the gospel can come into effect, for the benefit its readers.

Walter Benjamin tried to get in touch with Panofsky and the Warburg’s circle, but the attempt failed. This article examines the chapter on melancholy of Benjamin’s The Origin of the German Tragic Drama (1928) and his main sources, i. e. Warburg’s essay Pagan-Antique Prophecy in Words and Images in the Age of Luther (1920) and Panofsky-Saxl’s work Durers Melencolia I (1923). Benjamin interpreted the melancholy of the German Tragic Drama as a jump back to the deadly sin of sloth: he saw the saturnine melancholy under the sign of the medieval acedia .

2000s Korean cinema was influenced by capital, so it chose the way of Allegory instead of talking directly about sensitive issues. A representative movie director is Park Chan Wook who directed The Vengeance Trilogy. , The final part of Park Chan Wook`s The Vengeance Trilogy, reflected Baroque Aesthetics. I analyzed focusing on Walter Benjamin`s Allegory notion in this paper. Walter Benjamin said Allegory is different from a symbol which is represented by totality. Allegory means to reconstruct the fragment instinctively and to expose something repressed. The German Tragic Drama during the baroque period reflects this well. It is my argument that Park Chan Wook incorporated these underlying themes from German Tragic Drama into . He deconstructed the liberation and the birth myth of a nation, and he restored the socialist and anarchist who were completely excluded from history.

Putting “Theological Interpretation” in Its Place: Three Models and Their Limits

The History of Bronze and Iron Age Israel

G.A. Boyd proposes an innovative way of looking at divinely sanctioned violence in the Old Testament, viewing it as part of a divine accommodation that can only be understood in light of the Cross. Boyd suggests that just as God allows mankind to “act toward” His Son by crucifying Him and making Him bear the ugliness of sin, so are human beings allowed to act against the Creator by portraying Him in a distorted manner through images of divinely sanctioned violence. Boyd emphasizes that every depiction of God must be examined in light of God’s stooping toward mankind’s sinfulness through the Cross. If a given Old Testament image of God is in line with the divine acquiescence on the Cross, then the image is to be deemed authentic. If not, it must be deemed a divine accommodation, in the sense that it is not an authentic depiction of God but rather a divinely permitted projection of the inspired authors, who could only portray God within the limits of their sinfulness and of the culture in which they were immersed. Boyd’s thesis becomes problematic, though, because it is questionable whether the Cross can constitute the sole hermeneutical litmus test for the authenticity of a given Old Testament image of God. Even more arguable is Boyd’s contention that God’s intention in having inspired the composition of certain Biblical texts could be at cross-purposes with the intentions of their divinely inspired authors. Boyd’s Old Testament exegesis is engaged from a 21st century perspective and does not pay enough attention to the culpability and eternal consequences of human actions. His thesis is further weakened by a biblical exegesis too often steered by speculation and not always rooted in the biblical text itself.

Reviewed by: Scripture as Real Presence: Sacramental Exegesis in the Early Church by Hans Boersma Daniel A. Keating Scripture as Real Presence: Sacramental Exegesis in the Early Church. By Hans Boersma. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic, 2017. Pp. xix + 316. $39.99 (cloth). ISBN: 978-0-8010-1703-2. For some time now, scholars across the theological spectrum have raised their voices in defense of a theological reading of Scripture. Often included in this defense is a renewed appreciation for ancient, and specifically patristic, modes of biblical exegesis. In Scripture as Real Presence, however, Hans Boersma offers much more than simply another account of how Scripture can be read theologically. With the Church Fathers as his primary exemplars, Boersma illustrates and argues for what he calls a "sacramental" reading of Scripture that relies upon a metaphysical understanding of God's action in history. Acknowledging the major shift that has occurred in his own thinking on biblical exegesis, he takes aim not just at nontheological readings of Scripture governed by the historical-critical method, but also at a historically grounded theological reading of Scripture as practiced, for example, by N. T. Wright. While admitting that Wright and other scholars of the new perspective on Paul have given us many valuable insights, Boersma judges that their historical exegesis, which eschews metaphysics, ultimately leaves the Old Testament behind: "For Wright—and for an increasingly large number of evangelical biblical scholars—exegesis is primarily a historical discipline, one that escapes the 'abstract' and 'timeless' theology of Western, Platonized Christianity" (xiv). The result, according to Boersma, is a distancing of the reader from the Old Testament text itself: "Strictly historical readings of Scripture separate the reader from the original event described in the biblical text" (xv). In contrast, Boersma recommends reappropriating a sacramental reading of the Old Testament whereby the text already contains Christ and does not simply point to him externally. On this model, if Christ is already present in the Old [End Page 299] Testament, then believers who are in Christ are also "present" in the text and can find themselves in the text, precisely because this sacramental hermeneutic already places them there. In defense of these claims, Boersma opens with a general study of how the Church Fathers practiced a sacramental reading of Scripture and follows with nine chapters that illustrate this sacramental reading. Following the canonical order, he walks the reader through various themes, beginning with Genesis, moving through Exodus, the historical books, the Psalms, Proverbs, and Song of Songs, and ending with a study of the beatitudes. In these nine sketches, Boersma shows an admirable mastery of the patristic writings—with Origen occupying center stage—and indicates the diversity and complexity of readings found in the Fathers within a common sacramental hermeneutic. He takes pains throughout to assure his readers that he is not simply recommending that we adopt the particular readings of the Church Fathers, which, in any case, are often contrary to one another. Rather, through the variety of patristic readings, he hopes to illustrate the kind of sacramental, participatory hermeneutic that he believes can and should be reappropriated today. Much of Boersma's argument for a sacramental reading of Scripture appears in the opening chapter. A comparison between Origen, Hobbes, and Spinoza sets the stage for his broad claims. From Origen, we learn that attention to metaphysics pays dividends in terms of scriptural interpretation: "good metaphysics leads to good hermeneutics" (5). The point is that the way we understand the relationship between God and the world (and history) is closely linked to the way we read and interpret Scripture. Origen—and the Fathers more generally—saw the world in participatory terms: visible things participate in and are revelations of invisible things. The world itself is sacramental. Boersma locates the crucial shift in biblical interpretation in the Enlightenment's rejection of metaphysics, and specifically with its rejection of a broadly Platonist view of the world. Hobbes and Spinoza both follow Ockham by rejecting the idea that visible things have a real and participatory relationship to invisible things (7). Through fear of an overly dualist view of the world, these Enlightenment thinkers—and with them many thinkers...

Reviewed by: Multiple Teachers in Biblical Texts ed. by B. J. Koet and Archibald L. H. M. van Wieringen Christoph Stenschke Koet, B. J., and Archibald L. H. M. van Wieringen, eds. 2017. Multiple Teachers in Biblical Texts. Contributions to Biblical Exegesis and Theology 88. Leuven: Peeters. ISBN 978-9042935426. Pp. 260. $58.08. Taking clues from recent developments in the science of education, the essays of this collection focus on relations and communication between teachers and pupils in the Bible. They argue that both teachers and pupils appear there in abundance: It is clear that, either implicitly or explicitly, the roles of teacher and disciple are a part of biblical traditions, although often neglected in biblical exegesis. In this volume, we would like to explore the roles of teacher and disciple from a textual perspective. This perspective contains two aspects. Firstly, the relation teacher-disciple is present in the text itself. It indicates the relation between characters acting in the text. Secondly, through the relation teacher-disciple at the textual level of the characters, the author and reader create a similar relationship of teacher and disciple at the level of their communication. Texts, therefore, have a double communication, which is disciple-centred: from the character of the teacher towards the character of the disciple, as well as from the textual author as a teacher towards the textual reader as a disciple. (4) [End Page 204] The opening essay by the editors ("In Search of Teachers and Disciples," 1–7) introduces the theme and the following essays: Five essays are devoted to the communicative relationship between teachers and disciples in the OT: Piet J. van Midden and Archibald L. H. M. van Wieringen, "Moses as a Teacher in the Narration about the Gold Bullock: A Communication-Oriented Exegesis of Exodus 32" (9–28); Christiaan Erwich and Eep Talstra, "The Text as our Teacher: Participant Tracking in Psalm 64" (29–47); Harm W. M. van Grol, "Coping with Hellenistic Neighbours: Psalms 137–145: An Initiation into Royal Warriorship" (49–71); Sehoon Jang, "God as the Wise Teacher in Job" (73–88) and Archibald L. H. M. van Wieringen, "The Triple-Layered Communication in the Book of Amos and its Message of Non-Appropriation Theology" (89–106). Five essays address communicative relationships between teachers and disciples in the NT. Solomon Pasala ("Multiple Teachers and Disciples in Mt 8–9," 107–124) examines how Matthew has constructed the text-immanent author and text-immanent reader in these chapters. Their model readers are constructed through imperatives. The call of the tax collector (Matt 9:9–13) is an example of a text-immanent disciple, who responds to the text-immanent teacher. In his essay, "Multiple Communication Layers and the Enigma of the Last Judgment (Matt 25, 31–46)" (125–146), Lauri Thuren notes that in this mixture of parable and prophecy, fourteen individuals or groups interact on at least six different levels. According to Thuren, the passage plays a crucial role as it prepares the readers for the forthcoming passion narrative. He concludes: The story of the judgment exemplifies Jesus' daring model of teaching. Instead of giving mature, balanced instruction, which would illuminate the case from many sides and suit people in different situations, he tends to utter hyperbolical and extreme ideas and slogans. While later theologians have desperately attempted to domesticate them, Jesus' hearers, on the level of the text, cannot be but shocked by such statements. This may be due to Matthew's or his protagonist's pursuit of maximal rhetorical effect, even at the risk of being misunderstood. (146) Bart J. Koet ("A Tale of Two Teachers: Jesus about Jesus and John the Baptist [Luke 7, 18–35]," 147–168) notes how Jesus uses children's rhymes in his teaching. Luke 7:35 in particular indicates that it is possible [End Page 205] for the audience to become children of Wisdom by joining John, a sober teacher, and/or Jesus who connects teaching with joyful eating together: "Sitting together at table is for Jesus an important way of teaching" (165). In the essay "Education and Teaching in John's Gospel" (169–184), Jan van der Watt surveys the relevant educational terminology...

Abstract: Isaac La Peyrère is one of the most important and yet little-known seventeenth-century intellectuals involved in developing modern biblical criticism. His work on the Bible resembles that of his later contemporaries Thomas Hobbes, Baruch Spinoza, and La Peyrère's friend Richard Simon, all of whom his writings may have influenced. Through his attempt to get behind the biblical texts and his use of comparative extra-biblical historical literature from across the globe, La Peyrère's methods attempted to mould biblical exegesis into historical criticism. His social and political context in seventeenth-century France during the reign of King Louis xiv provides an important glimpse into the historical background that shaped La Peyrère's thought and project. At its core, La Peyrère's work was not scholarship for its own sake, but was politically motivated. His exegesis entailed an elaborate theo-political messianic vision, which his historical method was an attempt to bolster. La Peyrère's biblical exegesis was in service of his French apocalyptic messianic vision, the heart of which supported the political designs of his employer, the Prince of Condé.

In the Religious History Theodoret of Cyrrhus makes extensive allusion to biblical figures and events while narrating the lives of fourth- and fifth-century ascetics in northwest Syria. Typological composition imposes an aesthetic of biblical correspondence which attests to the sanctity of his subjects by showing them to be equal to—and even greater than—Old Testament prophets and New Testament apostles. Theodoret’s hagiographical mode shares both the concerns and the techniques of his biblical exegesis in combat with Jews and Marcionites, demonstrating the links not only between the testaments but between the Bible and his own age. His typological system has implications for his own self-understanding, as he configures his act of composition in imitation of biblical writers, the evangelists and Moses, and his understanding of his product as a biblical text. He also calls the reader to conform to biblical models.

Abstract:

Establishing the identity, and the chronology, of the Persian religious reformer Zarathustra has been of great interest to western scholars since antiquity—but became an urgent question in the early modern era. Scholars trained chiefly in biblical exegesis particularly wished to know if Zarathustra had preached a monotheistic or a dualistic faith. The complexity of the source material, however, made it difficult to decide this question, and impossible to securely place Zarathustra in time. Even after the deciphering of Old Avestan, the question of Zarathustra’s dates has remained enormously fraught, and dependent on inferences from classical or biblical texts. The ongoing quest to date Zarathustra shows us that ‘orientalism’ as a scholarly enterprise exhibits many continuities across the centuries and that chronology continues even today to be a crucial and controversial subject.

This chapter aims to analyze the relationship between the Tractatus theologico-politicus and the Ethics. On the proposed reading, Spinoza carries out his biblical exegesis in the TTP according to the “ex sola Scriptura” principle (adherence to the “letter”) in order to show that even though the biblical texts are interpreted differently, their moral meaning, i.e. the “spirit,” remains unchanged. It is argued that the same spirit that Spinoza finds in his secularized reading of Scripture can also be found in the Ethics, where Spinoza develops a philosophical reflection on the good and on justice, according to principles of love and knowledge, as well as a political reflection on common human salvation and bliss. Spinoza’s insistence on a literal reading of the Bible also offers a model that seeks to avoid the “lucubrations of theologians” and the attribution of mysterious and mystifying meanings to the text. This model of reading will have a profound impact on later literature.

THE CHALLENGE OF RECEIVED TRADITION: DILEMMAS OF INTERPRETATION IN RADAK'S BIBLICAL COMMENTARIES By Naomi Grunhaus. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012. 274 pp.Rabbi David Kimhi (Radak) (1160-1235) lived in Narbonne, Provence. His father, R. Joseph Kimhi, died while Radak was still a young child (approximately ten years old), and it was therefore his elder brother, R. Moses Kimhi, who was principally responsible for his religious education. Radak was a biblical commentator and a grammarian, and also engaged in polemics with Christians. His commentary, which covers most of the Bible, integrates the literalist approach to the text which he imbibed from the Jewish scholars in northern France; philological and philosophical exegesis which he adopted from the Spanish scholars; and midrashic (homiletical) interpretations which were popular in Provence. Over the course of many centuries, he has remained one of the most popular and widely quoted commentators in Jewish biblical scholarship.In recent years, Radak's teachings have become the subject of increased academic interest and many studies have addressed his commentary. Naomi Grunhaus's work joins this welcome trend. Her book focuses on Radak's attitude towards rabbinic midrashic literature. To this end she enlists all of Radak's known biblical exegesis, and undertakes a systematic comparison between his commentaries and his exegetical sources.The first chapter reviews Radak's statements of principles and methodology, scattered throughout his work, concerning midrashic teachings. Grunhaus concludes, on the basis of these statements, that Radak holds the homiletical exegetical tradition represented in the rabbinic sources in high esteem.In the second chapter the author examines the different ways in which Radak makes use of midrashic teachings as exegesis of the biblical text. She makes an important point in this regard, showing that in instances where Radak suffices with quoting the teaching, without offering an additional interpretation that addresses the plain meaning of the text, he views the rabbinic teaching as legitimate exegesis of the text. In so doing, Radak deviates from the path of the Spanish commentators who preceded him, who had denied any possibility that midrashic teachings could serve as legitimate interpretations. Another important observation she makes is that Radak perceives the biblical figures as conducting themselves in accordance with rabbinic law (even though the halakha would be written only many years after the events described in the Bible).The third chapter focuses on Radak's polarized comments, that is, instances where he proposes two alternative interpretations, one addressing the plain level of the text, the other citing a homiletical teaching. This is a most important chapter: Grunhaus shows, in contrast to the conventional scholarly view, that these polarized comments indicate that to Radak's view, midrashic teachings play a critical educational role. She also demonstrates that in many instances the midrashic portion of these polarized comments is closely and integrally bound up with the biblical text. Another important observation she makes is that in most instances where Radak starts with a midrashic teaching and only afterwards explains the plain meaning of the verse, the midrashic element has already been cited previously by Rashi. …

Cardinal John Henry Newman is remembered as one of the greatest preachers of the 19th century. His influence is unrivalled as he drew enormous crowds to hear his Sunday afternoon sermons at St Mary’s at Oxford. Yet many historical accounts of his preaching style reveal what may be labelled as serious defects by modern standards. Eye witnesses report him as having little biblical exegesis, reading from a manuscript with his eyes down, speaking quickly in a monotone voice broken up by long pauses and occasionally not even being loud enough to reach everyone in the room. The question raised, therefore, is: what made John Henry Newman such a great preacher? The comments of his listeners and Newman’s own reflections on preaching reveals that one of the chief characteristics that granted Newman such power from the pulpit was not his ability to exegete and exposit a biblical text, but rather his ability to exegete and exposit his audience. Modern preachers can learn from Newman’s example the ability to exposit an audience on two levels: the general and the particular, and to properly rely upon each when drawing the audience into the biblical text in the preaching event.