Friday, May 29, 2009

John 8.33 Freedom and Slavery

Most commentators agree that in John 8.33 the Jews (Ἰουδαίους) are talking about spiritual freedom/slavery and not political freedom/slavery when they say, “We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone.” Both Barrett and Keener dismiss the idea that the Jews are talking about political subjugation as absurd.[1] Brown thinks the Jews have misunderstood Jesus’ words taking them in a political sense rather than in the spiritual sense.[2] Brown doesn’t explain how it is the Jews could makes what seems like a blatantly false claim even in their misunderstanding.

Is the political understanding that absurd? Warren Carter in his excellent book John and Empire argues that such a reading is in fact possible. Drawing upon social-scientific research Carter explores imperial negotiation in terms of social identity construction. In the ancient world antiquity was king. Groups turned to the past as a way of constructing identity. Remembering the past was always selective, constructing the past in life giving ways for the present. “This reconstructive process… comprises ‘a form of vital self-presentation and prideful self-assertion’ vis-à-vis other groups and powers with other interests who shape a different present.[3]

This look to the past provides the basis for Carter’s short investigation. Carter looks at two ways of remembering Abraham. The first way emphasizes Abrahams obedience to God and Torah and the covenant identity that separated the Jewish people from the nations. Carter points to Sirach, Jubilees, and the Apocalypse of Abraham as examples of this first type of remembering.[4] Sirach for example says:

Abraham was the great father of a multitude of nations,

and no one has been found like him in glory.

He kept the law of the Most High,

and entered into a covenant with him;

he certified the covenant in his flesh,

and when he was tested he proved faithful.

The emphasis is placed on Abraham’s observance of the Law even before the time of Moses and the giving of the law.

The second way of remembering Abraham focuses on Abraham as a means of integrating with Hellenistic and Roman culture. Carter points to 3 examples of this way of remembering: Artapanus, Philo, and Josephus. Artapanus taught the Egyptians to study the stars.[5] Philo remembers Abraham as the foreigner who left astrology and polytheism to seek truth and the one God. Abraham lives not just according to Torah, which is an image of the law of nature, but also according to the higher law of nature in good Stoic fashion. For Josephus, Abraham is a ideal statesmen, a platonic philosopher-king. He “engages in natural theology to be a monotheist.”[6] He exports culture to other people teaching the Egyptians arithmetic and astronomy. Abraham opposes the Sodomites because they hate foreigners, while he welcomes foreigners.[7]

With these two ways of remembering the past, Carter asks whether the Jews are associating themselves with the Abraham who is father of the Jewish nation, responsible for customs like circumcision which marked Jew out from Gentile? Or do the Jews associate themselves with the Abraham who is an exporter of culture, open to participation in Gentile culture?[8] Carters conclusion is that the Jews take the second route finding in this tradition:

a means of bridging Jewish and non-Jewish worlds that empowers their engagement with and significant accommodation to the imperial present. That is, they are descendants of Abraham, who was open to and an active participant in the Gentile world. They construct Abraham in their own image. Though under Roman rule, they are essentially free in most ways from Roman restraints but able to observe Jewish distinctive without interfering with significant degrees of societal interaction.[9]

While Carters’ argument is hardly comprehensive it at least suggests that the “spiritualized” understanding favored by most commentators might not be as obvious as most commentators have thought.


[1] Barrett, The Gospel According to St. John; An Introduction With Commentary and Notes on the Greek Text (New York,: Macmillan, 1962). Keener, The Gospel of John: A Commentary (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Publishers, 2003).

[2] Brown, The Gospel According to John (Garden City, N.Y.,: Doubleday, 1966).

[3] Alcock, Susan as quoted in Carter, John and Empire: Initial Explorations (New York: T & T Clark, 2008), 94.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid., 103.

[6] Ibid., 104.

[7] Ibid.

[8] Ibid.

[9] Ibid., 105.

Monday, May 18, 2009

The Prophet-King?

Anyone seen a reasonably priced copy of Wayne Meek's The Prophet-King? I've yet to see a used copy, let alone a reasonable priced copy. Any leads would be helpful.

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Friendship and Philippians


Been a while since I've last blogged. School has kept me more than busy this year, but now with summer rolling around it time to start blogging again. I took a class on Philippians and Philemon in the short term with the very fine Ross Wagner. For our final project we broke into group and researched an aspect of Philippians or Philemon and created an internal class wiki. The group I was working with dove into ancient concepts of friendship. Surprising there is a rather large amount of literature relating to Philippians and friendship. Since the Wikis aren't available for anyone outside of the class blackboard site, I've decided to take the bibliography my group created and post it here.

Bibliography: Philippians and Friendship

  1. Aristotle and Terence Irwin, Nicomachean Ethics. Indianapolis, Ind.: Hackett Pub. Co., 1985.
  2. Cicero, Marcus Tullius and William Armistead Falconer, Cicero. De Senectute, De Amicitia, De Divinatione. The Loeb classical library. London, New York: W. Heinemann; G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1923.
  3. Engberg-Pedersen, Troels. "Gift-Giving and Friendship: Seneca and Paul in Romans 1:8 on the Logic of God's χάρις and Its Human Response." Harvard Theological Review 101,01 (2008): 15-44.
  4. Epicurus. "On Friendship," Pages xxvi, 627 p. in The Stoic and Epicurean Philosophers; The Complete Extant Writings of Epicurus, Epictetus, Lucretius [and] Marcus Aurelius. Edited by Whitney Jennings Oates, Cyril Bailey, P. E. Matheson, H. A. J. Munro, and George Long. New York,: Random House, 1940.
  5. Fee, G. D. "To What End Exegesis? Reflections on Exegesis and Spirituality in Philippians 4:10-20." Bulletin for Biblical Research 8 (1998): 75-88.
  6. Fitzgerald, John T. "Christian friendship: John, Paul, and the Philippians." Interpretation 61,3 (2007): 284-296.
  7. Fitzgerald, John T., Friendship, Flattery, and Frankness of Speech: Studies on Friendship in the New Testament World. Supplements to Novum Testamentum, 82. Leiden ; New York: E.J. Brill, 1996.
  8. Fitzgerald, John T., Greco-Roman Perspectives on Friendship. Resources for biblical study no 34. Atlanta, Ga.: Scholars Press, 1997.
  9. Fitzgerald, John T. "Paul and Friendship," Pages 319 - 343 in Paul in the Greco-Roman World : A Handbook. Edited by J. Paul Sampley. 2003.
  10. Gill, Christopher, Norman Postlethwaite, and Richard Seaford, Reciprocity in Ancient Greece. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.
  11. Harrison, James R., Paul's Language of Grace in its Graeco-Roman Context. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament. 2. Reihe 172. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2003.
  12. Herman, Gabriel, Ritualised Friendship and the Greek City. Cambridge [Cambridgeshire] ; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987.
  13. Jaquette, J. L. "A Not-so-Noble Death : Figured Speech, Friendship and Suicide in Philippians 1:21-26." Neotestamentica 28,1 (1994): 177-192.
  14. Johnson, L. T. "Making Connections : The Material Expression of Friendship in the New Testament." Interpretation 58,2 (2004): 158(171).
  15. Joubert, Stephan, Paul as Benefactor : Reciprocity, Strategy and Theological Reflection in Paul's Collection. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament. 2. Reihe 124. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2000.
  16. Konstan, David, Friendship in the Classical World. Key themes in ancient history. Cambridge ; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
  17. Konstan, David. "Patrons and Friends." Classical Philology 90,4 (1995): 328-342.
  18. Lyons, George and William H. Malas, Jr. "Paul and his Friends Within the Greco-Roman Context." Wesleyan Theological Journal 42,1 (2007): 50.
  19. Malherbe, Abraham J., David L. Balch, Everett Ferguson, and Wayne A. Meeks, Greeks, Romans, and Christians : essays in honor of Abraham J. Malherbe. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1990.
  20. Marchal, J. A., Hierarchy, Unity, and Imitation : A Feminist Rhetorical Analysis of Power Dynamics in Paul's Letter to the Philippians. 2006.
  21. Marchal, Joseph A. "With Friends Like These...: A Feminist Rhetorical Reconsideration of Scholarship and the Letter to the Philippians." Journal for the Study of the New Testament 29,1 (2006): 77.
  22. Marrow, Stanley B. "Parrhasia and the New Testament." Catholic Biblical Quarterly 44,3 (1982): 431-446.
  23. Meyer, Susan Sauvé, Ancient Ethics: A Critical Introduction. London ; New York: Routledge, 2007.
  24. Millett, Paul "Patronage and its Avoidance in Classical Athens " Page 255 p. in Patronage in Ancient Society. Edited by Andrew Wallace-Hadrill. London ; New York: Routledge, 1989.
  25. Mott, S. C. "The Power of Giving and Recieving," Page 377 p. in Current Issues in Biblical and Patristic Interpretation. Edited by Merrill Chapin Tenney and Gerald F. Hawthorne. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1975.
  26. O'Brien, P. T. "The Fellowship Themes in Philippians." Reformed Theological Review 37 (1978): 9 - 18.
  27. Peterman, Gerald W., Paul's Gift from Philippi: Conventions of Gift-Exchange and Christian Giving. Cambridge [England] ; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
  28. Peterman, Gerald W. ""Thankless thanks": the Epistolary Social Convention in Philippians 4:10-20." Tyndale Bulletin 42,2 (1991): 261-270.
  29. Plato, Benjamin Jowett, and Irwin Edman. "Lysis, Or Friendship," Pages xlvii, 555 p. in The Works of Plato. New York,: Simon and Schuster, 1928.
  30. Plutarch, Plutarch's Moralia. The Loeb classical library. London New York: William Heinemann G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1927.
  31. Reumann, J. H. P. "Philippians and the Culture of Friendship." Trinity Seminary Review 19,2 (1997): 69(83).
  32. Reumann, John. "Contributions of the Philippian Community to Paul and to Earliest Christianity." New Testament Studies 39,03 (1993): 438-457.
  33. Saller, Richard. "Patronage and Friendship in Early Imperial Rome," Page 255 p. in Patronage in Ancient Society. Edited by Andrew Wallace-Hadrill. London ; New York: Routledge, 1989.
  34. Sampley, J. P. "Paul and Frank Speech," Pages 293 - 318 in Paul in the Greco-Roman World : A Handbook. Edited by J. P. Sampley. 2003.
  35. Sampley, J. Paul, Pauline Partnership in Christ: Christian Community and Commitment in Light of Roman Law. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1980.
  36. Unnik, W. C. van. "The Semitic Backgound of ΠΑΡΡΗΣΙΑ in the NT," Pages v. <1-2> in Supplements to Novum Testamentum. Vol. 29-<30>. Leiden,: Brill, 1973.
  37. Wallace-Hadrill, Andrew, Patronage in Ancient Society. Leicester-Nottingham studies in ancient society v. 1. London ; New York: Routledge, 1989.
  38. White, L. M. "Morality between Two Worlds: A Paradigm of Friendship in Philippians," Pages xv, 404 p. in Greeks, Romans, and Christians: Essays in Honor of Abraham J. Malherbe. Edited by Abraham J. Malherbe, David L. Balch, Everett Ferguson, and Wayne A. Meeks. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1990.
  39. Witherington, Ben, Friendship and Finances in Philippi: the Letter of Paul to the Philippians. The New Testament in Context. Valley Forge, Pa.: Trinity Press International, 1994.