Social-scientific Criticism Research Articles

Unhiding the voices of women in the Parable of the Good Samaritan: A call for academic inclusion

The parables of Jesus are often susceptible to patriarchal, androcentric interpretations. By using a realistic reading and social-scientific criticism, this article will investigate the voices, roles, and presence of women in the parable of the Good Samaritan, and how the 1st-century audience of the parable would most likely have understood women to be present, even if not mentioned in the parable. Women played critical roles in terms of hospitality, travel, innkeeping, and healing. These roles and voices of women are often ignored by modern interpreters and exegetes. This article not only emphasises the valuable roles that women fulfilled in the time of Jesus but also critiques the lack, or absence, of women as a point of discussion, acknowledgement, and study in most biblical commentaries and books concerning the parable of the Good Samaritan. The aim of this research is to contribute to the unhiding of women voices in patriarchal, androcentric texts thereby reconstructing and deconstructing gender paradigms within biblical scholarship.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The interdisciplinary nature of this article contributes to the debate on the roles and importance of women in the church by investigating the value that women had in the parables of Jesus. By reading women as present in the text, emphasis is given to the voices of women in the Bible and the importance of their representation today. This research is also in line with the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5: Gender equality and women empowerment.

Leadership practices and the ethical values in Deuteronomy

Task-oriented and relationship-oriented leadership styles can also be classified as autocratic or participative. Both types must be understood in terms of the decision-making process they employ. The autocratic style functions autonomously, whereas the participatory style incorporates all team members in decision-making. There are several perspectives on integrated systems in leadership, but a set of shared principles is at the heart of this interconnectedness. However, these common principles strive for people’s holistic development, so family, civic, military, and religious leadership practices coexist with seamless coordination based on integrated systems. This study's endeavor addresses ontological and epistemological problems concerning the reality, being, and function of leadership. Specifically, this work investigates a leadership philosophy with specific reference to the Book of Deuteronomy of the Judeo-Christian Bible. This work argues that what the book of Deuteronomy teaches about leadership techniques is critical and basic to all the learning that can be gleaned from old and new biblical books. This is because the Torah, or Law, serves as the foundation for all teachings in the Bible, and the Torah contains the Book of Deuteronomy. Furthermore, because Moses taught the succession of teachings in the book, the leadership concept coming from the Book of Deuteronomy can be applied to nation-building. The research uses narrative and social-scientific criticism to analyze the characters and content.

The Friend at Midnight: A ‘realistic’ reading as a feminist tool

The voices of women have historically been muted in biblical texts from their ancient to more modern interpretations. This article will attempt to ‘unhide’ the voices of women in the Parable of the Friend at Midnight by using a combination of social-scientific criticism and a ‘realistic’ reading as a methodology to inform an understanding of how 1st-century Mediterranean audiences would have understood women to be present in the parable where modern audiences might not. In the 1st-century Mediterranean world, women were key figures in facilitating group hospitality values, the baking and supply of bread, and caring for children. These women, however, are not directly mentioned in the parable and often excluded in modern commentaries. This contribution aims to pave a way forward for modern New Testament commentaries to not only include but also focus on the roles and importance of women in the parable of the Friend at Midnight.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The interdisciplinary nature of this article contributes to the debate on the roles and importance of women in the church by investigating the value that women had in the parables of Jesus. By reading women as present in the text, emphasis is given to the voices of women in the Bible and the importance of their representation today.

Stephen D. Campbell. Remembering the Unexperienced: Cultural Memory, Canon Consciousness, and the Book of Deuteronomy

In the preface, Dominik Markl suggests this is “the first monograph to systematically apply this notion [of cultural memory] to the textual analysis of Deuteronomy” (p. 11; see Campbell’s similar remarks on p. 242). While this is perhaps a little enthusiastic, it does highlight the rarity of such works. And this rarity is curious considering, on the one hand, the importance Deuteronomy attaches to memory, and, on the other, the burgeoning body of memory scholarship. For this reason, I am grateful for Campbell’s contribution to the small but growing conversation among biblical scholars.Campbell’s work, a slight revision of his 2019 PhD dissertation, takes as its starting point a quotation by Norman Gottwald, which argues for the integration of “social scientific criticism” and “canonical criticism” (p. 19). In pursuit of this, Campbell adopts a key scholar from each realm and draws them together in conversation, applying his approach to Deuteronomy (especially Deut 4). For social science, he leverages Jan Assmann and his notion of cultural memory, and for canonical criticism he uses Brevard Childs.Assmann’s notion of cultural memory explores how communities preserve their foundational memories across generations: “Cultural memory is formal and transmitted through cult, canon, and festival” (p. 45). The distinctive part of Assmann’s view is his focus on canon, and this is what Campbell seeks to develop. A canonized text is important because it “represents the codification of cultural memory” (p. 49), and so, by analyzing such texts, we can discern the processes and logic underlying a community’s cultural memory (see Campbell’s discussion of Textplege and Sinnpflege on pp. 98–99). Yet Campbell rightly takes issue with Assmann’s focus on purely “external forces” (p. 101)—namely, the exile—as the impetus for Israel’s cultural memory. He suggests we must balance the external forces with “internal forces” (p. 102), namely, the community’s enduring hermeneutical and theological impulses. After all, “canonization requires both the external stimuli and the internal theologising impulse of the community” (p. 101). To ensure this, Campbell brings Assmann’s notion of cultural memory into conversation with Brevard Childs’s canonical criticism.Having proposed a complementary approach, Campbell moves to apply it to the Bible’s book of memory par excellence: Deuteronomy. Campbell focuses especially on the feature of Deuteronomy that Gerhard von Rad famously called the “problem of the generations”: Deuteronomy’s desire to ensure the perpetuation of the exodus memories across all future generation.1 Following in the tradition of von Rad and others, Campbell argues the rhetoric is part of an intentional mnemonic strategy to create the Moab experience perpetually: that is, to create both an identification with and distancing from the exodus generation. In this way, Deuteronomy aims to initiate new generations as participants in the covenant from Sinai while also teaching them to avoid the mistakes of the original exodus generation.Considering the space devoted to developing the theoretical groundwork, it was surprising to find Campbell land on a rather traditional position. He does propose a new term for the dynamic at play in Deuteronomy (“generational compression,” p. 25 etc.), and even considers its presence in other parts of the canon, but his view shares much in common with previous scholarship. Perhaps this arises from another surprising feature: for a work that seeks to understand “the actualising effect the rhetoric of generational compression in Deut 4:1–40 has on later generations” (p. 27), there is curiously little interaction with key thinkers on actualization in general and its application to Deuteronomy in particular. For example, the perspective of Gerhard von Rad, considered foundational to the field, was raised only in adjacent ways, and the key work by Gordon McConville and Gary Millar (Time and Place in Deuteronomy [Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 1994]) was absent altogether (both from text and bibliography). This latter case was particularly curious considering McConville’s name appears in the book’s acknowledgments.Even still, this work represents a helpful contribution to a small but growing conversation among biblical scholars. Most helpful, to my mind, is Campbell’s attempt to develop an approach marrying social science and canonical criticism. This provides a promising approach moving forward, and it deserves a place within the growing conversation in biblical studies. Furthermore, Campbell’s treatment of Jan Assmann is quite helpful, for, while important to the field, Assmann is often bypassed due to the difficulty of his writing and ideas. Campbell’s work, then, provides an accessible entry point into Assmann’s work, which, in turn, may provide more interest among biblical scholars.

Social-scientific criticism in Nigerian New Testament scholarship

The use of the social sciences in the interpretation of the New Testament emerged from the 1970s and has become a standard methodology for interpreting the New Testament. However, it has not been significantly used in the interpretation of the New Testament in Nigeria by biblical scholars. This article discusses what social-scientific criticism is and the need for its application in the interpretation of the New Testament by Nigerian New Testament scholars for a better understanding of the New Testament and the people, beliefs and teachings it presents and contextualisation in the face of changing contexts of Christianity in Nigeria.Contribution: As far as we know, this article is the first one written on using social-scientific criticism to interpret the New Testament in the Nigerian context. It therefore contributes to the need for a multidisciplinary approach to interpreting the New Testament in Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. It therefore contributes also on methodological considerations with regard to interpreting the New Testament.

Ancient patronage: A possible interpretative context for Luke 18:18–23?

Against the conventional reading of Luke 18:18–23 as a micro-narrative that revolves around discipleship and the dangers of wealth with regard to inheriting the Kingdom of God, this article reads the text using patronage (and clientism) as a model. It argues that this micro-narrative also mirrors patronal relations in the 1st-century Roman Palestine through which a few elites exploited the majority poor. The description of the chief protagonist in the narrative as a ruler, who was also rich, by Luke casts him in a negative light as a patron who exploited the poor around him who were his clients. From this standpoint, it is therefore argued in the article that the strategy of the narrative is to encourage patrons to move from negative and balanced reciprocity to ‘general reciprocity’ in which giving to the poor without the desire to receive back dominates. This interpretation is still within the framework of the theology of wealth in the Gospel of Luke, which encourages ‘giving without the expectation to receive back’.Contribution: This article argues that the micro-narrative of Luke 18:18–23 mirrors patronal relations of 1st-century Palestine. From Luke’s description of rich ruler, the first hearers of Luke probably thought of him as a patron who exploited his clients, the poor. The call by Jesus to self-divesture therefore is a call for patrons to move beyond negative and balanced reciprocity to practice general reciprocity in which giving to the poor, without the want to receive back, dominates; this is social-scientific criticism of Luke 18:18–23 mostly neglected in Lukan scholarship.

The Parables in Q by Dieter T. Roth

Reviewed by: The Parables in Q by Dieter T. Roth Llewellyn Howes Roth, Dieter T. 2018. The Parables in Q. The Library of New Testament Studies 582. London and New York: Bloomsbury T&T Clark. Hardback. ISBN 978-0567678720. Pp. 471. $110. On Monday, 19 November 2018, I was fortunate enough to attend a session of the SBL Annual Meeting jointly hosted by the Q Section and the Social Scientific Criticism of the New Testament Section, during which two landmark books on the parables of Jesus were discussed. The first book was The Parables of Jesus the Galilean by Ernest van Eck (see my 2016 review of this book in Acta Theologica 37[1]:135–138), and the second was the current book by Dieter T. Roth. The books were first discussed and reviewed [End Page 153] by notable scholars like Paul Foster, Erin Vearncombe and Douglas Oakman, after which Roth and Van Eck deliberated on their own and each other's works. Apart from being a very stimulating and worthwhile session, during which attention shifted at some stage to the parable of the mustard seed in particular, what stood out clearly at the end was the unmistakable impact of preliminary judgments on the direction and outcome of a study. This is particularly true for contested areas of research like the parables of Jesus and the Sayings Gospel Q, where scholars disagree about issues like the existence and nature of Q, the definition of a parable and the layering of the Jesus tradition. No study demostrates this more clearly than the monograph by Dieter T. Roth being reviewed here. It is a real strength of the book that presuppositions and preliminary verdicts are explained at the outset. The Parables in Q is a revised version of Roth's Habilitationsschrift, which was submitted in 2016 at the Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz under the supervision of Ruben Zimmermann. Although there have been articles and chapters on the parables in Q, this is the first book-length publication on the subject, which is surprising given the importance of these two fields in historical Jesus studies and NT research in general. The first three chapters lay the foundation for the rest of the book. The first chapter is a general introduction. Chapters two and three are respectively titled Q Parables and Q Parables, with the italicised word indicating the emphasis of each chapter. Roth follows the parable definition provided by the Kompendium der Gleichnisse Jesu (2007, edited by Ruben Zimmermann; Gütersloh: Gütersloher): A parable is a short narratival (1) fictional (2) text that is related in the narrated world to known reality (3) but, by way of implicit or explicit transfer signals, makes it understood that the meaning of that which is narrated must be differentiated from the literal words of the text (4). In its appeal dimension (5) it challenges the reader to carry out a metaphoric transfer of meaning that is steered by contextual information (6). (p. 17 in Roth; p. 25 in Zimmermann) The most significant consequence of using this definition is that Roth includes much more Q material under the umbrella of "parable" than tends to be the case in Q scholarship. For example, Roth includes in his list of Q parables sayings attributed to both John the Baptist and the centurion who asked Jesus to heal his son. It is in the definition and scope of parables in Q that Zimmermann's influence on Roth is most visible. [End Page 154] Chapter three begins by identifying the two most important questions when it comes to reconstructing the parables in Q: "First, there is the question of which parables, as defined in the previous chapter, were part of the Q document. Second, there is the question related to how one envisions, reconstructs, and 'accesses' the text of those parables" (23). Regarding the first question, Roth considers it most prudent to disregard any Sondergut material that might have been part of Q (e.g., Luke 11:5–8; 12:16–20; 15:8–10). Regarding the second question, Roth expresses considerable doubt about the ability of scholars to reconstruct the precise wording of Q. As a way forward...

The World of Honor and Shame in the New Testament: Alien or Familiar?

During the last sixty or more years, analysis of the New Testament which draws on the social sciences of cultural anthropology and sociology has made great strides in elucidating the cultural assumptions behind many scriptural texts. Prominent among its themes has been the idea that the biblical world can be understood as reflecting a Mediterranean culture with the core values of honor and shame. This, it has been argued, stands in sharp contrast to modern western societies. However, more recent work on the New Testament which exploits research in cognitive science/psychology suggests that it can provide a helpful corrective and complement to anthropological and sociological approaches. In line with this work, the present essay will apply the psychological analysis of social dominance hierarchies to the theme of honor-shame in order to fill out the picture painted by the social-scientific approach and, in doing so, seek to highlight continuities between New Testament and modern cultures. It will conclude by suggesting a reason why it has been the case that scholars employing social-scientific criticism have shown less awareness of these continuities.

Crossing boundaries: Social-scientific reading of the faith of a Canaanite woman (Mt 15:21–28)

Social-scientific criticism refers to an interpretation of the biblical text that takes into cognizance the social system that produced that text. This article presents a social scientific reading of the faith of a Canaanite woman in Matthew 15:21–28. The article outlines models of social systems in Matthew 15:21–28 like landscape and spatiality, gender and sexuality, ethnicity, purity, and social status in order to achieve a social scientific reading. The purpose of this article is to firstly demonstrate that the models of social system in Matthew 15:21–28 served as boundaries to the faith of a Canaanite woman. Secondly, it is to demonstrate that the Canaanite woman crossed such boundaries in Matthew 15:21–28 for her daughter to receive healing. Lastly, the Canaanite woman serves as a model for South African women today who have to cross boundaries like landscape and spatiality, gender and sexuality, ethnicity, purity, and social status.

First Peter’s Identity Theology and the Community of Faith: a test-case in how social scientific criticism can assist with theological ethics via biblical theology

Evangelicals recognise that exegesis must ultimately lead towards ethics, or practical Christian living. Unfortunately, too often the roadmap for that process has been neglected, and the link between the two becomes disjointed. This article discusses SSC, biblical theology, and ethics in 1 Peter, but attempts to contribute to the discussion by showing how the three interrelate, in that the identity theology of 1 Peter represents a reaction to the social-religious circumstances of its audience. This reaction, in turn, naturally allows the author to transition into ethics for the Christian. By being aware of this interrelation (with biblical theology as the ‘hinge’ between SSC and ethics), the modern Christian can properly apply 1 Peter’s theology to their own circumstances and avoid potential abuses.

Discipleship misconceptions: A social scientific reading of James and John’s request for seats of honour (Mark 10:35-42)

This article is a social scientific reading of James and John’s request for seats of honour in Mark 10:35–42. It argues that when James and John made such a request they misunderstood the meaning of discipleship. The argument is established by looking at the literature review on Mark 10:35–42. Discipleship as presented in Mark is described to understand the type of discipleship demanded by Jesus. The discipleship misconceptions are also outlined in detail. The purpose here is to demonstrate that the disciples of Jesus, James and John, in Mark 10:35–42 misunderstood the meaning of discipleship as presented in Mark. The article makes a contribution to the ongoing research on New Testament scholarship by studying Mark 10:35–42 through a social scientific criticism.

Ethnic reasoning in social identity of Hebrews: A social-scientific study

Ethnicity reasoning offers one way of looking at social identity in the letter to the Hebrews. The context of socio-economic abuse and hardships of the audience creates a situation in which ethnicity in social identity becomes an important issue for the author of Hebrews to address. This article is a social-scientific study which explores how the author establishes the ethnic identity of the audience as people of God. While this ethnic identity indicates the more privileged position the readers occupy in relation to the benefits of God accessible to them, it also provides the author with the appropriate social institutions and scripts by which his demand for appropriate response to God and the Christian group becomes appreciable and compelling. The article involves the definition of social-scientific criticism, ethnicity and social identity, and discusses the social context of the letter to the Hebrews. It then explains how some social scripts within specific ethnic institutions give meaning to the demands the author makes from his readers.

Resisting Honor: The Markan Secrecy Motif and Roman Political Ideology

This article builds on the work of David F. Watson, who has recently argued that major features of Mark's so-called messianic secret should not be understood in terms of at all, but rather should be understood in terms of intentional resistance to honor. While I agree with Watsons evaluation of the (as intentional resistance to honor), I find Watsons claim that the Markan evangelist inverts standard honor/shame conventions to be unsatisfactory. The article explores alternative explanations for the Markan Jesus' resistance to honor and proposes that a possible explanation might be found in Roman political ideology. While examples of resisting achieved and proscribed honor are few and far between in the ancient Mediterranean world, they are frequently found in the lives of first-century Roman emperors, particular emperors who were remembered favorably. I propose that this Roman political background might be a useful way forward in understanding Jesus' resistance to honor in Mark's Gospel. To support this argument, three spheres of evidence are considered: (1) the clear presentation in Mark's Gospel of Jesus as a world ruler; (2) the strong possibility of a Roman provenance for Mark; and (3) numerous features in Mark's Gospel suggesting that it is challenging Roman imperial power.(ProQuest: ... denotes non-USASCII text omitted.)Just over a century ago, William Wrede left an indelible mark on the field of NT studies when he demonstrated the presence of a distinct secrecy motif in Mark's Gospel. Yet a century of scholarship has not produced a consensus regarding the motif's meaning and significance. In his recent monograph, Honor among Christians: The Cultural Key to the Messianic Secret, David F. Watson has taken a decisive step forward, a step I attempt to build on here.1 While Watson rightfully reads the text in light of the first-century honor/shame value system, I believe his reading only partially resolves the conundrum of Mark's secrecy motif. This article complements Watson's work by adding a political dimension to his insights. In particular, Jesus' actions will be viewed through the lens of Roman political ideology and will be compared to the actions of Roman emperors. The results will be combined with Watson's insights on the Markan secrecy motif in an attempt to explain the motif's significance for Mark's first-century readers.I. David F. Watson: Honor or Secrecy?Watson uses the tools of social-scientific criticism to explore the meaning of secrecy in the ancient Mediterranean world as well as in the Markan pericopes that are so often associated with secrecy in modern scholarship. Regarding the former, he argues that the language and function of secrecy are virtually absent in Mark's Gospel. Words closely associated with secrecy (particularly in religious texts) such as ... and (... are rare or absent in Mark.2 In fact, Watson demonstrates that in the whole of Mark's Gospel, the language of secrecy occurs only four times, three of which come in two verses of ch. 4. Watson demonstrates that secrecy functioned in three primary ways in the ancient world: to protect from danger, to preserve community boundaries, and to defend an individual's or a group's reputation. According to Watson, none of these prominent functions of secrecy stands out in Mark's Gospel. Ultimately, Watson concludes that what is often described as a motif in Mark is misleading and that the intended readers of the Gospel would not have understood the pericopes that form such a motif in terms of secrecy.But if Mark's readers would not understand these pericopes in terms of secrecy how would they understand them? Watson proposes that these pericopes must be understood in light of the honor/shame value system that dominated the ancient Mediterranean world.3 He first considers pericopes in which Jesus performs a healing and commands the recipient not to report or speak of the healing (Mark 1:40-45; 5:21-24, 35-43; 7:31-37; 8:22-26). …

Social-scientific criticism: Perspective, process and payoff. Evil eye accusation at Galatia as illustration of the method

This article explores a presentation of the method, emergence and contribution of social-scientific criticism (SSC) as an inter-disciplinary operation of New Testament exegesis. A description of ancient evil eye belief and practice and its appearance in Paul’s letter to the Galatians illustrates how the method contributes to a more accurate translation of the biblical text, a clarification of its logic and a fuller understanding of the social dynamics involving Paul and his opponents.

Andries van Aarde’s Matthew Interpretation

This article focused on Andries van Aarde’s interpretation of the Gospel of Matthew. It argues that Van Aarde has changed his approach to Matthew in the course of time. At the beginning of his career he focused on structural analysis and even made a contribution to the Gattung problem from a structural perspective. Then his attention shifted to narrative criticism and social-scientific criticism. Van Aarde’s consistent narratological interpretation of Matthew enabled him to identify Matthew’s ideology and to determine the way in which it took shape on the surface structure. This narratological investigation also shed new light on, amongst others, the parables, the characters and the problem of direct and indirect discourse. To conclude the article, some critical statements with regard to the historical understanding of the Gospel of Matthew were formulated.

Interpreting the parables of the Galilean Jesus: A social-scientific approach

This article proposes a methodology for interpreting the parables of Jesus. The methodology put forward has as starting point two convictions. Firstly, the difference between the context of Jesus’ parables as told by Jesus the Galilean in 30 CE and the literary context of the parables in the gospels has to be taken seriously. Secondly, an effort has to be made to at least try to avoid the fallacies of ethnocentrism and anachronism when interpreting the parables. In an effort to achieve this goal it is argued that social-scientific criticism presents itself as the obvious line of approach. Operating from these two convictions, the method being proposed is explained by using 12 statements (or theses) which are discussed as concisely and comprehensively as possible. It is inter alia argued that the central theme of Jesus’ parables was the non-apocalyptic kingdom of God, that the parables are atypical stories (comparisons), and that the parables depict Jesus as a social prophet.

1 Enoch, 1 Peter, and Social—Scientific Criticism. A Review Article on a Major 1 Enoch Commentary

This first volume of George Nickelsburg's commentary on 1 Enoch is a masterful commentary on a major text of Second Temple Israel. Its attention to the relation of 1 Enoch and 1 Peter and its openness to analysis through Social—Scientific Criticism invite further discussion.

Nazareth's Rebellious Son: Deviance and Downward Mobility in the Galilean Jesus Movement

Using social—scientific criticism, I imagine that Jesus' family and village elders labeled him a “rebellious son” because his kingdom of God agenda threatened their domestic economy and the patriarchal power relations that sustained it. Consequently, Jesus left Nazareth and initiated a movement among Galilean fishing villages that had marked economic impact on a variety of Galileans. The Jesus movement fostered several economic dynamics including exacerbating the downward mobility of peasants alienated from their families, these very families, and even some “wealthy” persons associated with the movement. Passages from Q suggest that new fictive-kin groups quickly emerged and developed their own patron-client economy. By meeting the basic needs of its members, this household-based domestic economy also created a safety-net for its disenfranchised and honored poor. The Jesus movement represented one of the many sub-systems within first-century Galilee, and—with some modification—it resembled later urban Christian households, especially those characteristic of Paul and Luke—Acts.

Social Scientific Approach to the Hebrew Bible

AbstractIn 1979, Cyril Rodd, biblical scholar, predicted the end of social scientific criticism of the Old Testament because its theories cannot be tested. He was wrong. It is currently thriving. It is interdisciplinary: either a biblical scholar who does research in the social sciences who then applies this to the Bible or a social scientist who does research on a biblical text and then applies it to the Bible. Social scientific approaches help fill in gaps that other ways of interpreting the Bible leave behind. For example, have you ever wondered why Cain was not punished with death for killing his brother? The Old Testament commands the death penalty for any murderer. Traditional interpretation emphasizes God's grace because he repented. But an anthropological perspective explains it as due to the fact that Cain was Abel's brother, his kin, and his death would have ended the family line of Adam and Eve. In less developed countries, kinship is very important, and some form of punishments like the death penalty would do more harm than good. Other forms of punishment might include payment, exile, and substitution.

From Social Description to Social-Scientific Criticism. The History of a Society of Biblical Literature Section 1973—2005

The thirty year history of an SBL Section reveals an essential component of the exegetical enterprise coming of age. Focused from the beginning on the social and cultural dimensions of New Testament writings and their social settings, the Section has undergone notable permutations and cleavages while also reflecting the development, refinement, and academic influence of a now standard sub-discipline of the historical critical method.