Historical-critical Reading Research Articles

The Disposition of Christians to Political Governance in Nigeria in Relation to Romans 12:14 - 13:10

There have been controversies about Christians’ disposition towards political leadership or civil authorities. The Apostle Paul (Romans 12:14-13:1-10) instructs Christians to submit to political authorities; given that certain Christians had shunned all restraint because of their heavenly calling and lost respect for earthly authorities. The burden of this study is the appropriate attitude required from adherents of Christianity towards unfair, ungodly, and despotic leaders. Christians are facing high-level of opposition and marginalization in Nigeria especially in recent times. For instance, most scholars usually treat Romans 13:1-10 thus neglecting Romans 12:14-21. Whereas Romans 12:14-21 is the preceding part of Romans 13:1-10. Therefore, the study employed a historical-critical reading of Romans 12:14-13:10 as a composite unit and its applicability to Christians’ socio-political responsibilities in Nigeria. Primary data is elicited from the Bible with the aid of exegetical tools, while secondary data were sourced from works referencing the selected biblical text and on political governance in Nigeria. Data was content-analysed within the ambit of a phenomenological approach whereby attention is placed on Christians’ disposition towards political leaders and civil authorities. Political obligation theory has been found appropriate and deployed for this study. Hence, the paper recommends that Christians should avoid contemptuous or indifferent disposition to civil authorities and political leaders. Christians occupying political offices should enliven their Christian virtues amidst persecution and repression.

Fundamentalismo

This paper seeks to reflect on how fundamentalism hinders the process of actualizing divine Revelation in human history. Based on eminently bibliographical research, this work, after approaching the Schillebeeckxian understanding of divine Revelation realized in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, presents how the phenomenon of fundamentalism, which arises, among its functions, as a confrontation with secular culture and also as an element of resistance to the processes of historical-critical reading of the contents of faith, is configured as a challenge or obstacle to the actuality of Christian Revelation in history.

Convergences: Canon and Catholicity

Convergences: Canon and Catholicity

Villa Nani Mocenigo in Canda. Critical Reinterpretation of the Construction and Trasformation Phases of the Building

Villa Nani Mocenigo in Canda represents one of the most important works of architecture of the alto-Polesine, but, at the same time, one of the least noted historiographically. The villa, in the centre of a large complex comprising a park and service buildings, is distinguished by its exceptional position along the banks of the Canalbianco and by its architecture. From the earliest studies carried out, two important construction phased have come to light: the first, performed in the second half of sixteenth century, and a later expansion, contemporary with the new southern facade, whose features suggest a later period of construction dating to the eighteenth century. Such assessments, pervasively accepted in the subsequent literature, are not fully consistent with the significantly more numerous transformations evidenced by direct analysis. The result of the research presented here aim to offer an historical-critical reading through the vital constant comparison between indirect sources and the direct analysis of the building in its several components. The comprehensive reinterpretation of the construction and transformation phases has widened the field of this research into contextualising historical events, the family who were proprietors, and the craftsmen who laboured there. The result, partly heretofore unpublished, allow the villa to be placed in a wider architectural and historical context than is traditionally presented.

Christopher Seitz and the Priority of the Christ Event

While Seitz’s The Elder Testament: Canon, Theology, Trinity shows some sympathy for historical-critical readings of the Old Testament, he rightly insists on a theological starting point: he maintains that the Old Testament itself provides providentially inserted clues that demand a Trinitarian reading, and so he maintains that the Old Testament itself “pressures forth” a Christian reading of the text. We should keep in mind, however, that it is only through the acknowledgement of the ontological priority of the Christ event (and of the church’s identity within the Christ event) that the Spirit enables us to recognize the hidden, deeper meanings of the text.

The Elder Testament: Canon Theology Trinity

The Elder Testament: Canon Theology Trinity

“That the Works of God Should Be Made Manifest”

ABSTRACT Traditional historical-critical readings of John 9 have tended to overlook the story’s potential for missional readings. Through an analysis of John 9 as a narrative about vocation rather than a purely socio-historical source of information on the implied community, this study places this passage firmly within the theological vision of the Fourth Gospel. A close study of the passage reveals a sophisticated “doubling” of Jesus and the man born blind. Though Jesus is largely absent, the man testifies on his behalf and takes up Jesus’ role as the “sent” one, thereby experiencing a kind of qualified “divinization.” The passage, therefore, equips and empowers would-be disciples for testimony even as it orients such testimony to Jesus’ lordship in his absence. The article concludes with reflections on the implications of the analysis for notions of epistemology in theological perspective.

The Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge: The Role of Esthetics in Ancient and Modern Interpretations of Paul

ABSTRACTS This article explores the effect of basic hermeneutical commitments on biblical interpretation, both historical-critical and theological. First, it examines a recent and controversial historical-critical reading of Rom 1, found in Douglas Campbell's The Deliverance of God, by placing it in conversation with St. Augustine's own exegesis of the same passage in De Trinitate. Campbell sees Paul to be enacting in the opening chapters of Romans a parody of an opponent's preaching and performing a Socratic reduction to absurdity of the argument, clearing the way for his own message. Although many critiques of Campbell's reading note its novelty with some frustration, I suggest that the complex of interpretive moves St. Augustine performs on Rom 1:18–32, and especially on 1:20, constitute a weighty recognition from tradition in support of Campbell's thesis that the passage is ripe for rereading. Campbell's unintentional sympathy with Augustine is found owing to a similarity in approach between Campbell's Polanyist hermeneutic and Augustine's fides quaerens intellectum, both of which admit the effect of readers' own commitments on a text while preserving a meaningful way to arbitrate between competing readings. For both readers, I suggest, competing construals of a text depend for their validity on their ability to negotiate all the features of a text on multiple interpretive planes with simplicity and ease, an admittedly esthetic criterion that ancient theologians would call "fittingness." I conclude that esthetic modes of inquiry may be especially fruitful in discovering other sympathies such as those of Campbell and Augustine.

The Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge: The Role of Esthetics in Ancient and Modern Interpretations of Paul

ABSTRACTS This article explores the effect of basic hermeneutical commitments on biblical interpretation, both historical-critical and theological. First, it examines a recent and controversial historical-critical reading of Rom 1, found in Douglas Campbell's The Deliverance of God, by placing it in conversation with St. Augustine's own exegesis of the same passage in De Trinitate. Campbell sees Paul to be enacting in the opening chapters of Romans a parody of an opponent's preaching and performing a Socratic reduction to absurdity of the argument, clearing the way for his own message. Although many critiques of Campbell's reading note its novelty with some frustration, I suggest that the complex of interpretive moves St. Augustine performs on Rom 1:18–32, and especially on 1:20, constitute a weighty recognition from tradition in support of Campbell's thesis that the passage is ripe for rereading. Campbell's unintentional sympathy with Augustine is found owing to a similarity in approach between Campbell's Polanyist hermeneutic and Augustine's fides quaerens intellectum, both of which admit the effect of readers' own commitments on a text while preserving a meaningful way to arbitrate between competing readings. For both readers, I suggest, competing construals of a text depend for their validity on their ability to negotiate all the features of a text on multiple interpretive planes with simplicity and ease, an admittedly esthetic criterion that ancient theologians would call "fittingness." I conclude that esthetic modes of inquiry may be especially fruitful in discovering other sympathies such as those of Campbell and Augustine.

The Deus Absconditus of Scripture: An Apophatic Hermeneutic for Christian Contemplatives

The profusion of conflicting images of God in the Bible are often effectively categorized and segregated by historical-critical readings of the text in which some images are accepted at the expense of others. The result, however, is the establishment of a “canon within a canon” comprised of more palatable images of the divine while effectively ignoring those deemed to be vulgar or offensive. However, when we read through a hermeneutic rooted in a negative theology (i.e., an “apophatic hermeneutic”), conflicting images of God in the Bible may be understood as a necessary aspect of the verbal profusion that leads the contemplative not to logical contradiction, but to “linguistic self-subversion” (Turner). This can serve to dismantle our secret attachments to our preferred images which are themselves exposed as falling infinitely short of the God revealed in Christ precisely as the Deus absconditus.

The Bible and the believer: how to read the Bible critically and religiously

Preface Introduction: The Historical-Critical Reading of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Chapter One: My Bible: A Jew's Perspective - Marc Zvi Brettler Response by Daniel J. Harrington, S.J. Response by Peter Enns Chapter Two: Reading the Bible Critically and Religiously: Catholic Perspectives - Daniel J. Harrington, S.J. Response by Peter Enns Response by Marc Zvi Brettler Chapter Three: Protestantism and Biblical Criticism: One Perspective on a Difficult Dialogue - Peter Enns Response by Marc Zvi Brettler Response by Daniel J. Harrington, S.J. Postscript Notes Glossary Index

Recent Johannine Studies: Part One: Commentaries

The ongoing growth in Johannine studies is reflected in the number of new and important commentaries on the Gospel that have appeared in the past decade. Renewed interest in literary theory has led to commentaries that explain the Gospel of John in terms of John. They see John 1:1-20:31, or 21:25, as a single literary utterance that must be interpreted as such. However, the focus of the bulk of commentaries across the second half of the Twentieth Century has not been lost. Narrative commentaries must continue to ask historical questions, as well as literary ones, and a steady flow of outstanding commentaries that search out the historical, literary and theological background that produced the text as we now have it continues to be published. Historical-critical readings and attempts to trace the tradition history of the Fourth Gospel are still part of recent Johannine commentary.

Studies of the Book of Isaiah in the Korean Church since its Beginning

The history of the Korean Church is marked by its unfailing enthusiasm toward the Bible in general and the OT Prophets in particular. Well before Protestant Christianity was introduced to Korea, Korean nobility had already read the Bible in the late 18th century through their contact with French Roman Catholic missionaries working in China. Some Korean trading merchants participated in the translation of the Bible into Korean by helping John Ross, a Scottish missionary to China and Manchuria, in his translation of the Bible into Korean. Even a Confucian noble man like Yi Soo-Jung himself translated the Gospel of Luke as early as the late 19th century in Japan. No wonder Korean Christianity has been called a Bibleloving or Bible-committed one. Faced with the decline of their mother country, Korean Christians (both Roman Catholic and Protestant Christians) specially put their trust in the OT and its bountiful promises and prophecies designed to sustain the people of Israel in many national crises and tribulations. The OT provided them with many inspiring lessons and convictions because of its apparently nationalistic tone and universal vision of a peaceful world full of freedom, justice, and equality. The book of Isaiah, among others, has for several reasons been one of the most widely read OT books in Korea since Christianity was introduced to Korean people in the late 19th century: its messianic hope, its sociopolitical oracles, and its frequent quotations in the NT. A survey of the uses and interpretations of the book of Isaiah illustrates how Korean Christians and Bible scholars have appropriated its message in close response to their contemporary sociopolitical challenges. The present essay reviews how both the Korean Church and academia have read and interpreted the book of Isaiah these two past two centuries. It also pays special attention to how the socio-religious milieu of Korea influenced Korean people s reading and interpretation of the book. To this end, the present article examines commentaries, monographs, articles, and important books of sermons which deal with the book of Isaiah with attention to themes and methods. For this reason the present essay takes a historical approach to major works on the book of Isaiah and categorizes them into several types in accordance with their exegetical method, focus, and targeted reader. Through its diachronical analysis of major works on the Book of Isaiah, the present essay categorizes all Korean works on Isaiah into three types of interpretation: pre-critical and over-Christological (supercessionistic) interpretation, historical-critical interpretation, and historical-canonical interpretation. The initial stage of the Korean people s reading of Isaiah has been marked by its supercessionistic and spiritualizing tendency. The middle stage of Korean churches and Christians has moved a bit toward the historical-critical reading with relatively insufficient attention to the pastoral and devotional function of the Book of Isaiah. The latest stage seeks to steer a middle road between Christological and spiritualizing reading on the one hand and historical and canonical reading on the other hand. The present essay concludes that the interpretation and reading of the Book of Isaiah in Korea has been undergoing various stages of change in accordance with the societal and cultural environments they have faced.

Uniquely Human: The Ethics of the Imago Dei in Genesis 1–11

Abstract: Wentzel van Huyssteen proposes an intriguing reinterpretation of the biblical symbol of the imago Dei, according to which the purpose of humankind as created in the image of God is “to set forth the presence of God in this world.” It is not one particular aspect of human life that is associated with the imago Dei, such as rationality and reason; rather, van Huyssteen invites us to consider the complexity of human life in its evolutionary, biological, social, and ethical dimensions as an expression of the imago Dei. This article explores how his ideas resonate with a historical-critical reading of the pertinent passages in Genesis 1–11. It has often been overlooked that the imago Dei in primeval history is deeply embedded in the priestly account of how life—human and other—is created and how it unfolds. As such, the imago Dei appears in contexts that describe the relationships between humans and animals, men and women, parents and children, and, in a general ethical sense, between neighbours. Humans are called images of God because they are capable of creating, shaping, and changing the networks of relation that connect them with each other and with the rest of creation. It is in these networks that humans fill the world with the kind of life that sets forth divine presence in the world.

Uniquely Human: The Ethics of the <i>Imago Dei</i> in Genesis 1–11

Wentzel van Huyssteen proposes an intriguing reinterpretation of the biblical symbol of the imago Dei, according to which the purpose of humankind as created in the image of God is ''to set forth the presence of God in this world.'' It is not one particular aspect of human life that is associated with the imago Dei, such as rationality and reason; rather, van Huyssteen invites us to consider the complexity of human life in its evolu- tionary, biological, social, and ethical dimensions as an expression of the imago Dei. This article explores how his ideas resonate with a historical-critical reading of the pertinent passages in Genesis 1-11. It has often been overlooked that the imago Dei in primeval history is deeply embedded in the priestly account of how life—human and other—is created and how it unfolds. As such, the imago Dei appears in contexts that describe the relationships between humans and animals, men and women, parents and children, and, in a general ethical sense, between neighbours. Humans are called images of God because they are capable of creating, shaping, and changing the networks of relation that connect them with each other and with the rest of creation. It is in these networks that humans fill the world with the kind of life that sets forth divine presence in the world.

The Way according to Luke: Hearing the Whole Story of Luke‐Acts. By Paul Borgman

Pp. 404 , Eerdmans , Grand Rapids MI , 2006 , $23.00 . The historical-critical method seems weary these days, and scholars are looking for other ways of reading the texts of the New Testament, not because they want to retreat from the gains that the older methods have made for us; it is simply that these methods are feeling their age, and do not succeed in showing us how Scripture can come alive. This book is a notable example of what literary critics have to teach exegetes. Borgman's insistence on ‘Hearing the Whole Story’ (in the words of his sub-title) reminds us importantly that i) Luke, like all the NT authors, wrote primarily to be heard (most readers of the NT have always been illiterate, and therefore all the more able to pick up his clues); ii) Luke-Acts comes in two volumes. You will go the length and breadth of any biblical conference nowadays without hearing anyone wanting to argue a separate author for Luke and Acts; but we still tend to read and teach them separately; iii) Luke-Acts is a story, and needs to be read as such. Among many other things, a story invites the reader aboard. In narrative, especially oral narrative, Borgman frequently points out, repetitions are of immense importance. Luke-Acts needs to be read as a dramatic script, with attention given to what he calls the ‘ear-clues’. In this connection, one claim that may raise a few eyebrows is his estimate of no less than 37 ‘we-passages’. Another is Borgman's identification of no less than twelve ‘clustered poems’ in the first two chapters of Luke; but take these clues, and see how they help you to read the work. Borgman confidently unveils chiasms everywhere, which will cause many an exegete to reach for his gun; but he is very persuasive. The central message of Luke-Acts comes down, according to Borgman, to a clash of two ways, Jesus' radical way against the ‘normal’ way, love as opposed to self-interest. Readers who suppose themselves all too wearily familiar with the exegesis of Luke may find themselves reanimated by his talk of the ‘poem on the plain’, which is separated from Jesus' ‘Nazareth poem’ by five healings and two healing-summaries. There is a freshness in Borgman's reading of the text that answers the question raised by all too many acts of historical-critical reading, ‘why should I bother with this?’ Borgman will not allow us to scissor the text into pericopae, although occasionally, it must be said, he drifts into the territory of historical-critical exegesis, and makes claims about what went on ‘in those days’ which he does not really trouble to defend. Borgman is especially effective when he points out ‘echoes’ as indicators of what Luke is about; for example the way in which Simeon's ‘light for the Gentiles’ is echoed in Acts. And to prevent us from getting lost in the jungle, each chapter begins and ends with a useful (and thoroughly nuanced) summary of where we have been and where we are going. Borgman's account of how the speeches in Acts (that old chestnut of an essay-topic) hang together is remarkably persuasive, and his account of Cornelius as a paradigm of the changed allegiance to which the story invites us, is most illuminating, as is his affirmation that God is the central character of the whole two-volume story. Most intriguing of all was Borgman's version of how the three accounts of Paul's ‘repentance’ work together. Borgman shows himself very sensitive to the intertextuality of the three accounts, and demonstrates that their mounting rhetorical effect is to highlight the Jesus who is ‘light to the Gentiles’. Finally Borgman brings the whole thing quite beautifully together by way of a concluding reflection on the jailer at Philippi. Read this book for the breath of fresh air that it brings.

What Makes Glory Glorious? Reading Luke’s Account of the Transfiguration Over Against Triumphalism

A literary-critical analysis of narrative voice(s) in Luke’s account of the Trans-figuration leads to a reading over against triumphalism. Historical-critical readings of this passage view its tandem visions as mutually reinforcing a triumphal view of Jesus. This article puts forward a reading of these visions as, instead, antithetical. In this alternative reading, the epiphany of the transfigured Jesus is an inappropriate vision of the glory of the Messiah Jesus. Luke’s version sees messianic glory not as exaltation, but as humiliation. This is shown by reading the Transfiguration as the culmination of three themes: Jesus’ identity, ‘hearing’ Jesus and the ‘glory’ to be fulfilled in Jesus. The first two themes come to clear conclusions in the Transfigu-ration. However, the third refuses to be held by the visions, and the story forces us to the remaining pericopes of ch. 9 for an answer to the question of what makes glory glorious.

Jesus de Nazareth, Christ et Seigneur: Une lecture de l'Evangile, vol. 2

de Nazareth, Christ et Seigneur: Une lecture de l'Evangile, vol. 2, by Pierre Grelot. LD 170. Paris: Cerf; Montreal: Novalis, 1998. Pp. 553. F280 (paper). This is the second volume of a two-volume work, the first volume having been published in 1997 as number 167 in the Lectio Divina series. Together the two volumes constitute an impressive study totaling more than a thousand pages. Significantly, Grelot ends his extensive project with a five-page (vol. 2, pp. 523-28), which he composed only after having reread the entire work. His reflections in these brief pages best characterize the study. In the first paragraph of the Postface, Grelot wonders whether it is possible to determine the genre of his most recent product. Indeed, it is easier to describe this study on than to slot it in a specific category. The work is divided into three parts of varying lengths. The Prologue, containing two chapters and covering just under one hundred pages (vol. 1, pp. 17-103), sets the stage by presenting and evaluating the sources for a study of and then sketching the geographical, political, and religious milieu in which he lived. Part 1 is entitled Jesus of Nazareth. Comprising seventeen chapters extended over nearly seven hundred pages (vol. 1, pp. 105-441; vol. 2, pp. 11-344), it represents the bulk of the study in which Grelot undertakes an interpretative reading of all the passages in the four Gospels dealing with Jesus' public ministry from his baptism to his death and burial. The passages are gathered according to themes and are organized on a plausible Synoptic-inspired chronology, with interspersed chapters discussing John's version of Jesus' public life. Part 2, containing six chapters stretching over the remaining two hundred pages (vol. 2, pp. 345-522), bears the title Jesus, Christ and Lord. Here Grelot presents and interprets the stories of the discovery of the empty tomb, the several appearances of the risen Christ, the birth of the church according to Acts, the infancy stories in Matthew and Luke, and a selection of NT hymns reflecting Christ in glory. The short Postface concludes the study. If the genre of the work is difficult to establish, its fundamental aim is clear: to evoke as concretely as possible the person of of Nazareth, as understood by the first proclaimers of the good news and as expressed in the four canonical Gospels, without dissimulating their differing viewpoints (Postface, vol. 2, p. 523). To achieve this portrait, Grelot engages in a mainly historical-critical reading of the Gospels and of selected passages from the apostolic writings, ever careful to explain and show how these texts filter their presentation of and the events of his life (hence, the of Nazareth in the title) through the revelation of post-Easter faith (hence, the Christ and Lord of the title). …

Foul Spirits, Fornication and Finance: Revelation 18 From an Old Testament Perspective

The implications of the fact that the book of Revelation has been composed in intimate conversation with the Old Testament have not been fully appreciated. This article explores such implications in terms of the literary shape of ch. 18 and in terms of what can be deduced from it about the author's attitude to Roman economics or even to Rome in general. The main conclusion is that the kind of material we find in Revelation 18 does not lend itself to the kind of historical-critical reading of the chapter to which it has so often been subjected. It is the generalities of the chapter and of the book as a whole. rather than the peculiarities, that are important and to which the literature in fact gives the reader access.

Die sogenaamde Bybelse kultuurmandaat (Gen. 1:28 en 2:15) en ontwikkeling ’n Ou-Testamentiese perspektief

The so-called Biblical (Gen. 1:28 and 2:15) and development - a perspective from the Old Testament In the Reformed tradition Genesis 1:28 and 2:15 are combined and regarded as the so-called cultural mandate, This so-called is seen in traditional Reformed circles as the basis of man's responsibility to cultivate nature thus transforming nature into culture. This traditional view of the cultural ”is questioned in some circles, while other scholars link the present ecological crisis to this traditional view of the cultural mandate. After a discussion of different evaluations of the cultural mandate the hermeneutical problem relating to the interpretation of the relevant material from Genesis 1 and 2 is discussed. This is followed by a discussion of different readings of the texts, viz., traditional Reformed readings, historical critical readings, an anti-cultural reading and an ecological reading. The texts are then interpreted from the perspective of a contemporary South Africa. In conclusion some implications of the discussion which could be developed within the South Africa n context are indicated. Human development and job creation receive the main emphasis.