The Woman at the Well and the Limits of Biblical Scholarship: Maximus the Confessor’s Scholion on Thal. 41

2020 ◽  
Vol 71 (1) ◽  
pp. 258-280
Author(s):  
Adam G Cooper
Keyword(s):  
English Translation ◽  
Reception History ◽  
Test Case ◽  
Original Publication ◽  
Human History ◽  
Biblical Hermeneutics ◽  
Biblical Scholarship ◽  
Original Response ◽  
History Of

Abstract In 2018 Maximus the Confessor’s premier work on biblical hermeneutics, the Responses to Thalassius, finally appeared in English translation. Following its original publication in the early 630 s, Maximus reissued the Responses in a second edition, to which he appended a dedicated prologue and his so-called scholia, an extensive set of annotations or footnoted clarifications. In both Maximus’s prologue and in the reception history of the Responses, these scholia were regarded as intrinsic to the integrity of the whole work. This article focuses on scholion 1 to Thal. 41, in which Maximus comments on the number of husbands belonging to the Woman at the Well in John 4, and why Jesus’ conversation with her took place when and where it did. It treats the scholion as a test case to see whether, how, and to what extent it further enlightens the reader as to the meaning of Maximus’s initial commentary, as he says it should. It argues that the scholion crucially qualifies several insights raised by Maximus in his original response, touching on his anagogical reading of Scripture, the progressive character of human history towards a culminating salvific goal, the limits of learning and discursive reason, and the role of faith and grace in receiving deifying wisdom.

Paratexts and the Reception History of the Apocalypse

2019 ◽  
Vol 70 (2) ◽  
pp. 600-632 ◽  
Author(s):  
Garrick V Allen
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Reception History ◽  
Biblical Studies ◽  
Test Case ◽  
Book Of Revelation ◽  
Biblical Scholarship ◽  
Textual Transmission ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract Biblical scholarship usually engages with reconstructed texts without taking into account the form and material culture of the manuscripts that transmit the texts used in reconstruction. This article examines the influence of paratexts on biblical studies and reception history, using the book of Revelation as a test case, in an effort to rediscover the significance of transmission for comprehending the ways in which past reading communities engaged their scriptural traditions. The liminal features of manuscripts that are often ignored in modern editions are an integral part of the artefact that influence and shape a text’s reading. This study argues that paratexts represent an underdeveloped resource for reception history, insofar as the relationship between text and paratext is rarely taken into consideration by modern interpreters. Material culture, textual transmission, reception history, and exegesis are integrally linked processes.

scholarly journals Is hermeneutiek nog ergens goed voor?

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 128-137
Author(s):  
E. Talstra
Keyword(s):  
Modern Society ◽  
Recent Book ◽  
Biblical Hermeneutics ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Biblical Scholarship ◽  
History Of ◽  
Biblical Texts

Is Biblical Hermeneutics still a meaningful discipline? Modern studies in hermeneutics either try to teach us how we can still speak about God in modern society, or that we should accept our limited abilities to speak about God at all. This article claims that these options separate God from the long history of biblical texts and contexts where He, as ‘I,’ addresses Israel as ‘you’. In his recent book on reading the Bible, Arnold Huijgen concentrates on the soul rather than on the ratio as an instrument for reading the Bible. Though agreeing with Huijgen’s criticism of modern rationalistic hermeneutics, this article does not see why the soul should take over the role of biblical scholarship when reading the Bible.

Narratology

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Genevieve Liveley
Keyword(s):  
Reader Response ◽  
Literary Theory ◽  
Chicago School ◽  
Reception History ◽  
First Century ◽  
Unreliable Narrator ◽  
Affect And Cognition ◽  
History Of ◽  
Ars Poetica

This book explores the extraordinary contribution that classical poetics has made to twentieth- and twenty-first-century theories of narrative. Its aim is not to argue that modern narratologies simply present ‘old wine in new wineskins’, but to identify the diachronic affinities shared between ancient and modern stories about storytelling, recognizing that modern narratologists bring particular expertise to bear upon ancient literary theory and offer valuable insights into the interpretation of some notoriously difficult texts. By interrogating ancient and modern narratologies through the mutually imbricating dynamics of their reception it aims to arrive at a better understanding of both. Each chapter selects a key moment in the history of narratology on which to focus, zooming in from an overview of significant phases to look at core theories and texts—from the Russian formalists, Chicago school neo-Aristotelians, through the prestructuralists, structuralists, and poststructuralists, to the latest unnatural and antimimetic narratologists. The reception history that thus unfolds offers some remarkable plot twists. It unmasks Plato as an unreliable narrator and theorist, and offers a rare glimpse of Aristotle putting narrative theory into practice in the role of storyteller in his work On Poets. In Horace’s Ars Poetica and in the works of ancient scholia critics and commentators it locates a rhetorically conceived poetics and a sophisticated reader-response-based narratology evincing a keen interest in audience affect and cognition—and anticipating the cognitive turn in narratology’s mot recent postclassical phase.

Reception History and Beyond: Toward the Cultural History of Scriptures

2011 ◽  
Vol 19 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 357-372 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Beal
Keyword(s):  
Cultural History ◽  
Cultural Production ◽  
Reception History ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
Historical Approach ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Biblical Scholarship ◽  
History Of ◽  
Biblical Texts ◽  
Cultural Turn

After highlighting the substantial gains made by the reception historical approach, this article proceeds to point out some of its inherent limitations, particularly when applied to biblical texts. In attending to the material-aesthetic dimensions of biblical texts, media, and ideas of the Bible, especially in dialogue with anthropological, material-historical, and media-historical approaches, these limitations become acute and call for a harder cultural turn than is possible from a strictly reception-historical approach. This article proposes to move beyond reception history to cultural history, from research into how biblical texts and the Bible itself are received to how they are culturally produced as discursive objects. Such a move would involve a double turn in the focus of biblical scholarship and interpretation: from hermeneutical reception to cultural production, and from interpreting scripture via culture to interpreting culture, especially religious culture, via its productions of scripture. As such, it would bring biblical research into fuller and more significant dialogue with other fields of comparative scriptural studies, religious studies, and the academic humanities and social sciences in general.

scholarly journals 'n Verkenning van die moontlikhede van 'n resepsieteoretiese benadering tot die lees van Romeine 7:7–25

1986 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Botha
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Approach ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Epistolary Literature ◽  
Biblical Scholarship ◽  
History Of ◽  
Textual Strategies ◽  
Role Of The Reader ◽  
Horizon Of Expectations ◽  
Wolfgang Iser

An exploration of the possibilities of a reception theoretical approach to the reading of Romans 7:7–25 The multiplicity of interpretations of Romans 7:7–25 is well-known in Biblical scholarship. In this article the possibilities of a reception theoretical approach to the different readings of this text is explored. A brief theoretical discussion of this approach is given, focusing on the work of the German literary theorists, Hans Robert Jauss and Wolfgang Iser. When applied to the history of reception of Romans 7:7–25 it seems that Jauss's idea of the reader's 'horizon of expectations' and its influence on the interpretation of a text, is confirmed. It is pointed out how extra-textual influences throughout the history had changed the interpretation of this text, starting right back in the fourth century with the controversy between Augustine and Pelagius, leading up to the differences between exegetes and sistematic theologians in our day. Some preliminary remarks on 'the reader' in Romans 7:7–25 as well as the gaps and textual strategies of this text are also made. The conclusion reached is that, although not necessarily revolutionary new, a reading of this text from the perspective of the role of the reader, definitely offers some fruitful possibilities for the understanding of New Testament epistolary literature.

Exploring Metaphors for the Reception History of the Lord’s Prayer

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-65
Author(s):  
David Clark
Keyword(s):  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Reception History ◽  
Historical Consciousness ◽  
Original Form ◽  
Test Case ◽  
Biblical Text ◽  
Lord's Prayer ◽  
History Of ◽  
Entire History ◽  
Biblical Texts

AbstractIn his work Nomadic Text: A Theory of Biblical Reception History, Brennan Breed argues that texts are nomads which – existing without original form and without original context – have no homeland to claim as their own. Their entire history has been marked by unpredictable movement and variation. He therefore proposes that the study of reception history should primarily be an exploration of the potentiality of textual meanings. The suggestion that meaning progresses without relationship to hermeneutical antecedents, however, runs contrary to Gadamer’s assertion that the contemporary effect (Wirkung) of a text always exists in unity with its historical effects. Following Gadamer, the reception historian may still explore hermeneutical potentiality – but does so with a sense of historical consciousness. In this light, the nature of a biblical text may be more suitably characterized by the metaphor of an emigrant rather than that of a nomad. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the usefulness of these divergent metaphors in our attempt to define both the nature of biblical texts and the task of the reception historian. Our test case will be the early interpretation history of the Lord’s Prayer. Given that the original form and context of this prayer are irretrievable, Breed’s theory is applicable in many respects. Yet it will also be seen that in the early reception history of the Lord’s Prayer there are also patterns of synchronic continuity. Amidst diverse agendas of theology and praxis, we find that interpretations of the Lord’s Prayer were consistently rooted in an inherited conceptualization of Jesus Christ – what we will call a canonical remembrance of his life and proclamation.

scholarly journals Biblical Interpretation in the Russian Orthodox Church: An historical and hermeneutical perspective

2001 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 352-365
Author(s):  
A. Negrov
Keyword(s):  
Biblical Interpretation ◽  
Essential Elements ◽  
Russian Orthodox ◽  
Orthodox Church ◽  
Biblical Hermeneutics ◽  
Russian Orthodox Church ◽  
Russian Orthodoxy ◽  
Biblical Scholarship ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of Biblical Interpretation

for an understanding of biblical interpretation within the Russian Orthodox Church. Its purpose is not to advocate pro or contra Russian biblical scholarship, but to place the emphasis on the history of biblical interpretation in the Russian Orthodox Church and on Orthodox biblical hermeneutics. Two considerations are specifically pertinent to the study of this topic. First, the history of biblical interpretation is surveyed from a sole and specific perspective - from within a· historico-dogmatic development of the Russian Orthodox Church from the Kiev period of its history (9_13th century) till the Synodal period (1721-1917). Second, it is true that once originated, the Biblical Study in Russian Orthodoxy went its own way and developed its own fundamental principles of interpretation. Although many principles correlated and corresponded with general principles of biblical interpretation, in essence they form "Russian Orthodox Hermeneutics". This paper seeks to establish an outline of the essential elements of Orthodox biblical hermeneutics as they developed in the history of interpretation.

The Oxford Handbook of British Romanticism

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Reception History ◽  
British Romanticism ◽  
Romantic Period ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Current Thinking ◽  
Extensive Coverage ◽  
History Of ◽  
International Experts ◽  
The Impact

The Oxford Handbook of British Romanticism offers a comprehensive guide to the literature and thought of the Romantic period, and an overview of recent research. Written by a team of international experts, the Handbook analyses all aspects of the Romantic movement, pinpointing its different historical phases and analysing the intellectual and political currents which shaped them. It gives particular attention to devolutionary trends, exploring the English, Scottish, Welsh, and Irish strands in ‘British’ Romanticism and assessing the impact of the constitutional changes that brought into being the ‘United Kingdom’ at a time of political turbulence and international conflict. It also gives extensive coverage to the publishing and reception history of Romantic writing, highlighting the role of readers, reviewers, publishers, and institutions in shaping Romantic literary culture and transmitting its ideas and values. Divided into ten sections, the Handbook covers key themes and concepts in Romantic studies as well as less chartered topics such as freedom of speech, literature and drugs, Romantic oratory, and literary uses of dialect. All the major male and female Romantic authors are included, along with numerous less well-known names, the emphasis throughout being on the diversity of Romantic writing and the complexities and internal divisions of the culture that sustained it. The structure of the volume, and the titling of sections and chapters, strike a balance between familiarity and novelty so as to provide both an accessible guide to current thinking and a conceptual reorganization of this fast-moving field.

River and Ocean

2019 ◽  
pp. 129-184
Author(s):  
Anthony Ossa-Richardson
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Biblical Interpretation ◽  
The Other ◽  
Biblical Hermeneutics ◽  
Biblical Scholarship ◽  
History Of ◽  
Multiple Meanings ◽  
The One

This chapter looks at Scriptures, whose ambiguity is seen both as a difficulty to shake people out of exegetical complacency and as an inspired involution of multiple meanings on the page. These meanings are not only allegorical, mystical, or typological, but also literal, according to a widespread Catholic idea neglected by previous historians of biblical scholarship. The doctrine of multiple literal senses marked yet another battleground between the company of two armies, Protestant and Catholic—barring two or three defections—in the early seventeenth century. It encapsulated a profound distinction between two views of Scripture: the one a river to be cleansed and traced to the source, the other an ocean in which to swim, even to abandon oneself. Why, then, has this controversy been entirely ignored by scholarship? As modernity encroached, the doctrine became an embarrassment to Catholics, and in 1845 a professor of theology at Louvain, Jan-Theodor Beelen, wrote a treatise against it. But there are deeper reasons for the neglect. The history of biblical hermeneutics as written to date is more than usually Whiggish, seeking the precursors to Schleiermacher and Gadamer; the German and Lutheran backstory has therefore seemed inevitable, and from this perspective Catholic hermeneutics since Luther and Erasmus has been an irrelevance. Subsequently, the occlusion of the Catholic voice was attended by a narrowing of the possibilities of what biblical interpretation could be.

Rationalism versus the Rashi/Rabbinic Axis

2019 ◽  
pp. 150-195
Author(s):  
Eric Lawee
Keyword(s):  
Opposite Direction ◽  
Reception History ◽  
Jewish Literature ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Biblical Scholarship ◽  
History Of

The Book of Strictures, the work of an unknown late medieval rationalist, is the most concentrated assault on Rashi’s biblical scholarship in the annals of Jewish literature. In devoting himself to an often scornful assault on Rashi’s exegesis and ideas, focusing almost exclusively on those of midrashic provenance, the work’s author put himself at odds with powerful intellectual, halakhic, and educational currents pulling in the opposite direction, each buttressing the work’s growing reach and authority. Sefer hassagot occupies a significant place in the reception history of Rashi’s work, especially when viewed in terms of the hermeneutics of canonicity. The author’s literary vehicle is the stricture (hassagah), to which he often appends a corrective to Rashi’s interpretation. In so doing, he insistently contrasts an understanding of scripture grounded in canons of plain sense interpretation and scientific criteria of credibility with Rashi’s more fanciful midrashic methods and fantastical mentality.

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