Paul the Ancient Letter Writer

D. Weima Jeffrey A.

Description

This clear and user-friendly introduction to the interpretive method called "epistolary analysis" shows how focusing on the form and function of Paul's letters yields valuable insights into the apostle's purpose and meaning. The author helps readers interpret Paul's letters properly by paying close attention to the apostle's use of ancient letter-writing conventions. Paul is an extremely skilled letter writer who deliberately adapts or expands traditional epistolary forms so that his persuasive purposes are enhanced. This is an ideal supplemental textbook for courses on Paul or the New Testament. It contains numerous analyses of key Pauline texts, including a final chapter analyzing the apostle's Letter to Philemon as a "test case" to demonstrate the benefits of this interpretive approach.

Sujets

• Lettres et linguistique

Informations

• Publié par: Baker Publishing Group
• Date de parution: 15 novembre 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781493405794
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Copyright Page
© 2016 by Jeffrey A. D. Weima
Published by Baker Academic
a division of Baker Publishing Group
P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.bakeracademic.com
Ebook edition created 2016
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
ISBN 978-1-4934-0579-4
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture translations are by the author.
Scripture quotations labeled The Message are from THE MESSAGE. Copyright © by Eugene H. Peterson 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
Scripture quotations labeled NIV are from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com
Scripture quotations labeled NLT are from the Holy Bible , New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations labeled NRSV are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1989, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Endorsements
“Weima has written a very timely and important book on how to analyze the apostle Paul’s letters. A growing number of scholars, myself included, have had serious questions about the over-rhetorization of Paul’s letters. Weima presents a useful and helpful alternative in returning to a robust form of epistolary analysis. We may have some differences of opinion on whether there are four or five major parts to the Pauline letter, but we are in agreement that analysis of the epistolary form of Paul’s letters is central to their interpretation. I strongly endorse the approach of this book and Weima’s attempt to exemplify it, and I think that other interpreters of Paul’s letters will benefit as well.”
— Stanley E. Porter , McMaster Divinity College
“ Paul the Ancient Letter Writer is an overdue book that needed to be written. Readers of this comprehensive study will no longer be able to escape the reality of Paul having written real letters. Weima shows how the essential components of ancient letters appear in each of the thirteen texts in the New Testament’s collection of Paul’s letters.”
— Raymond F. Collins , Brown University
Dedication
To my parents, David & Hinke Weima, who from infancy made known to me the holy Scriptures (2 Tim. 3:15)
To my parents-in-law, Jan (John) & Dieuwke (Joanne) Zwier, who even before our marriage welcomed me into their family as a son
Contents
Cover i
Title Page iii
Copyright Page iv
Endorsements v
Dedication vii
Preface xi
Abbreviations xiii
1. Introduction 1
2. The Opening 11
3. The Thanksgiving 51
4. The Body 91
5. The Closing 165
6. Epistolary Analysis in Practice: The Test Case of Philemon 205
Works Cited 237
Index of Modern Authors 249
Index of Scripture and Other Ancient Sources 253
Index of Subjects 263
Back Cover 268
Preface
The origin of this book began over thirty years ago. It was in the early 1980s, during my days as a student at Calvin Theological Seminary, when my Old Testament professor, John Stek, first showed me the importance of looking carefully at not just the content of the biblical text ( what the author says) but also the form of the biblical text ( how the author says it). My first reaction was skepticism as he employed the method of literary criticism to the book of Ruth. When Professor Stek applied this same method in a subsequent course dealing with Hebrew poetry and the book of Psalms, I became a bit more convinced about the importance of form and how a formal analysis of the biblical text can aid interpretation. Yet I still failed to see the implications of literary criticism for the interpretation of a different genre—letters.
A few years later, as I was working on a PhD degree at the Toronto School of Theology, I took a course with John C. Hurd Jr. dealing with letters in early Christianity. It was then that I began to take seriously the form of Paul’s letters and how deviations in the apostle’s typical or expected letter structure and his skillful adapting of various epistolary conventions were important for a correct reading of his correspondence. This recognition led me to do a formal analysis of Paul’s letter closings for my doctoral dissertation, which was later published as Neglected Endings: The Significance of the Pauline Letter Closings (Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1994).
In subsequent years, I published essays on the letter closing of Galatians, the epistolary framework of Romans, and the epistolary conventions in Philemon. The research connected with these publications clearly demonstrated (at least to me) that the method of epistolary analysis—the term commonly used for the literary analysis of letters—provided rich insights into not just the letter closing but the opening, thanksgiving, and body sections of Paul’s letters as well. This conviction compelled me to include a section on literary analysis in my commentary on 1 and 2 Thessalonians for the Baker Exegetical Commentary series, in which I examined the epistolary form and function of each passage before commenting on it more specifically. My teaching of New Testament letters over the past twenty-four years has also long included an introductory unit on how to read an ancient letter.
This brief historical overview reveals how I have moved from my early skepticism to being a strong advocate for the importance of literary criticism in general and of epistolary analysis in particular. The purpose of this book is to introduce the reader to both the method and the interpretative value of epistolary analysis. Although others have written on this method, their treatment of the four major sections of Paul’s letters (opening, thanksgiving, body, and closing) and the diverse epistolary conventions found within each of these four sections is too brief. A bigger weakness of previous studies, however, is their tendency to highlight only the form and epistolary conventions of Paul’s letters without demonstrating how this knowledge can help us better understand the purpose and content of the apostle’s writings. By contrast, this book provides numerous examples of the exegetical payoff from detailed epistolary analysis. Merely being able to identify epistolary conventions in Paul’s letters is not enough. We must also understand the function of these epistolary conventions and how Paul skillfully uses them to aid his persuasive purposes.
I gratefully acknowledge the help of others in completing this book. Péter Balla, rector and professor of New Testament at Károli Gáspár University in Budapest, and Neil Martin, my former student and current doctoral candidate at the University of Oxford, graciously read the entire manuscript and offered helpful suggestions for its improvement. Wells Turner at Baker did an excellent job of editing the book, saving me from embarrassing errors and enhancing the volume’s overall quality. Elisabeth (Betsy) De Vries, my teaching assistant for several years, drafted the various tables found in the book and also compiled the indexes. Calvin Theological Seminary, both its administrators and board of trustees, kindly granted me a sabbatical and a publication leave to focus on the writing of this book. I am most thankful to my wife, Bernice, for her constant support of me and my various ministries outside the classroom; she continues to be my best friend and partner in ministry. Finally, I am pleased to recognize the key role that my parents, David and Hinke Weima, as well as my parents-in-law, John and Joanne Zwier, have played in my life and academic career, and so it is to them that this book is gratefully dedicated.
Abbreviations
General and Bibliographic BDAG A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature , by W. Bauer, F. W. Danker, W. F. Arndt, and F. W. Gingrich, 3rd ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000) BDF A Greek Grammar of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature , by F. Blass, A. Debrunner, and R. W. Funk. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961) chap. chapter e.g. exempli gratia , for example esp. especially i.e. id est , that is lit. literally LXX Septuagint (the Old Testament in Greek) NIV New International Version (2011 revision) NIV 1984 New International Version (1984) NLT New Living Translation (2015 revision) NRSV New Revised Standard Version (or its versification) NT New Testament OT Old Testament TDNT Theological Dictionary of the New Testament , edited by G. Kittel and G. Friedrich, translated and edited by G. W. Bromiley, 10 vols. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1964–76) trans. translation, translated by v(v). verse(s)
Old Testament Gen. Genesis Exod. Exodus Lev. Leviticus Num. Numbers Deut. Deuteronomy Josh. Joshua Judg. Judges Ruth Ruth 1–2 Sam. 1–2 Samuel 1–2 Kings 1–2 Kings 1–2 Chron. 1–2 Chronicles Ezra Ezra Neh. Nehemiah Esther Esther Job Job Ps(s). Psalm(s) Prov. Proverbs Eccles. Ecclesiastes Song Song of Songs Isa. Isaiah Jer. Jeremiah Lam. Lamentations Ezek. Ezekiel Dan. Daniel Hosea Hosea Joel Joel Amos Amos Obad. Obadiah Jon. Jonah Mic. Micah Nah. Nahum Hab. Habakkuk Zeph. Zephaniah Hag. Haggai Zech. Zechariah Mal. Malachi
New Testament Matt. Matthew Mark Mark Luke Luke John John Acts Acts Rom. Romans 1–2 Cor. 1–2 Corinthians Gal. Galatians Eph