{"title":"Paul's Contestation of Israel's (Ethnic) Memory of Abraham in Galatians 3","authors":"Philip F. Esler","doi":"10.1177/01461079060360010302","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01461079060360010302","url":null,"abstract":"This essay proposes an explanation for the prominent role of Abraham in Galatians 3. While the view of existing scholarship that Paul is responding to a case being made by his opponents is accepted, there are difficulties with the current proposals. Paul's opponents are not likely to have invoked Abraham as part of a theological case, or because of his connection with circumcision or with blessings. An explanation is needed which focuses on the question of Abrahamic descent in the totality of its dimensions. By adopting aspects of theories of ethnicity, social identity and, above all, collective memory, it is argued, firstly, that Abraham was central to the ethnic identity and collective memory of first century Judeans and that Paul's opponents were offering his converts the exalted status of Abrahamic descent as a reward for becoming Judeans through circumcision. Secondly, Paul's argument in Galatians 3 represents a fundamental contestation of this memory. He formulates a counter-memory for installation in the hearts and minds of his audience. He does this by arguing that the ‘seed’ or descendants of Abraham to whom God had made promises were not Judeans but rather Christ and those who were one with him in baptism. Thus he wrenches the prize that was Abraham from the Judeans and lodges it among his mixed congregations of non-Judean and Judean Christ-followers. The audacity of Paul's enterprise is evident in his leaving no room for Judeans who had not found faith in Christ to be Abraham's descendants, a radical position from which he would later withdraw in Romans 4.","PeriodicalId":227137,"journal":{"name":"Biblical Theology Bulletin: A Journal of Bible and Theology","volume":"39 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2006-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124839654","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}
{"title":"Social Memory and the Didachē","authors":"Ritva H. Williams","doi":"10.1177/01461079060360010303","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01461079060360010303","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":227137,"journal":{"name":"Biblical Theology Bulletin: A Journal of Bible and Theology","volume":"42 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2006-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122496551","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}
{"title":"Book Reviews: PAUL BEYOND THE JUDAISM/HELLENISM DIVIDE. Edited by Troels Engberg-Pedersen. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2001. Pp. x + 355. Paper, $39.95","authors":"R. Cook","doi":"10.1177/014610790303300408","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/014610790303300408","url":null,"abstract":"now fight Israelites, not foreign enemies. McCann has done a good job of handling the popular appeal of these earthy stories. This may be seen in the names given to several of the characters, e.g., Eglon the fat cat, Ehud the lone ranger, Gideon the hacker, and Mr. Barley Corn. The author also capably depicts the bathroom humor in the Ehud story and the sexual innuendoes in Jael’s dispatching of Sisera and Samson’s riddle to the wedding guests. The author deftly underlines the roles of women in Judges. He points out at least twenty-two individuals or groups of women and notes that the major roles played by","PeriodicalId":227137,"journal":{"name":"Biblical Theology Bulletin: A Journal of Bible and Theology","volume":"52 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2003-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131704070","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}
{"title":"Gainful Reappraisal","authors":"D. Bossman","doi":"10.1177/014610790303300401","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/014610790303300401","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":227137,"journal":{"name":"Biblical Theology Bulletin: A Journal of Bible and Theology","volume":"41 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2003-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133200130","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}
{"title":"Who Should Be Called Father? Paul of Tarsus between the Jesus Tradition and Patria Potestas","authors":"S. Bartchy","doi":"10.1177/014610790303300403","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/014610790303300403","url":null,"abstract":"According to the family values that characterized the cultures in which Jesus of Nazareth and Paul of Tarsus were socialized, the authority of fathers over their children was unquestioned and almost without limits. All children were taught that filial piety was essential to life; obedience was expected of even grown sons and daughters as long as their fathers were alive, including acquiescing to the marriages that fathers were expected to arrange to increase their family's honor. The historical Jesus undermined the authority of fathers in general and rejected the obligations of blood-family ties. Paul of Tarsus then sought to put into effect Jesus' strategy, including ignoring completely the authority of fathers when advising his readers regarding marriage, divorce, and celibacy. For both Jesus and Paul, rejecting patriarchal authority was the first step toward their creating a new kind of family: faith-related brothers and sisters—without a traditional father.","PeriodicalId":227137,"journal":{"name":"Biblical Theology Bulletin: A Journal of Bible and Theology","volume":"43 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2003-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123230732","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}
{"title":"Of Eunuchs and Predators: Matthew 19:1-12 in a Cultural Context","authors":"C. Bernabé","doi":"10.1177/014610790303300402","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/014610790303300402","url":null,"abstract":"In this essay I hold the view that the point at issue in Matthew 19:1-12 is less one of divorce and more of a contrast between two forms of wife-husband relationship within a marriage: one, the traditional form, and the other, an alternative form deriving from the values of the forthcoming Kingdom that Jesus proposes to his disciples. In that cultural context, male honor depended, among other things, on the type of relations men might have with theirs wives, something that was defined by the general code for masculinity. Deviations from the male role would lead to doubts about an individual's \"manliness,\" and even to his \"social or symbolic castration,\" and thus dishonor. In my opinion, Jesus' final paradoxical words (vv 10-12) must be understood in that light.","PeriodicalId":227137,"journal":{"name":"Biblical Theology Bulletin: A Journal of Bible and Theology","volume":"96 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2003-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127594653","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}
{"title":"Book Reviews: JUDGES. By J. Clinton McCann. Louisville, KY: John Knox Press, 2002. Pp. x + 146. Cloth, $28.95","authors":"John F. Craghan","doi":"10.1177/014610790303300407","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/014610790303300407","url":null,"abstract":"entire theological enterprise. Formula theology unfortunately limits itself to a form of reductionism, i.e., a quest for concepts and notions stripped of their literary expression. Form criticism, while certainly necessary to understand the Psalms, focuses on life setting and literary type. In W P Brown’s view scholars have overlooked the imagery of the Psalter at great theological loss. Instead of rejecting the form-critical approach, Brown asserts: &dquo;Driving this study is the conviction that familiarity with both the ancient setting and contemporary poetics is essential to understanding the Psalter’s theological landscape&dquo; (p. x). In his introduction the author presents","PeriodicalId":227137,"journal":{"name":"Biblical Theology Bulletin: A Journal of Bible and Theology","volume":"31 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2003-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129329562","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}
{"title":"\"Outside Are the Dogs and the Sorcerers ...\" (Revelation 22:15)","authors":"Rick Strelan","doi":"10.1177/014610790303300404","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/014610790303300404","url":null,"abstract":"Scholars usually understand the \"dogs.\" listed among those outsiders to the holy city in Revelation 22:14-15, as a metaphor for false teachers or immoral practitioners. I suggest that they might also be understood in relation to the next category on the list, the \"sorcerers\" who, in fact, can be understood as scapegoats. The article examines the role of dogs in rituals of purification, especially those used in the cult of Hecate, an underworld goddess often associated with dogs. I suggest that Revelation 22 rejects her cult and claims that purification is only through those who have washed their clothes in the blood of the Lamb.","PeriodicalId":227137,"journal":{"name":"Biblical Theology Bulletin: A Journal of Bible and Theology","volume":"27 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2003-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115804128","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}
{"title":"Scripture and Interpretive Method: Why Read Scripture as Canon?","authors":"Ken Stenstrup","doi":"10.1177/014610790303300405","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/014610790303300405","url":null,"abstract":"This article presents the practical benefits of interpreting Scripture as a composite or collection. Based upon Comparative Midrash and Intertextuality, the work of James A. Sanders suggests most fundamentally that Scripture can serve as a paradigm for how one understands the divine working through the world. The study provides a brief overview of this method and then through a critical assessment presents general implications that result from employing the method.","PeriodicalId":227137,"journal":{"name":"Biblical Theology Bulletin: A Journal of Bible and Theology","volume":"4 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2003-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121349839","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}
{"title":"Book Reviews: SEEING THE PSALMS: A THEOLOGY OF METAPHOR. By William P. Brown. Louisville, KY/London, UK: Westminster John Knox Press, 2002. Pp. xiii + 274. Paper, $24.95","authors":"John F. Craghan","doi":"10.1177/014610790303300406","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/014610790303300406","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":227137,"journal":{"name":"Biblical Theology Bulletin: A Journal of Bible and Theology","volume":"84 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2003-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127127881","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}