Being Interpreted by the Parables

2015 ◽  
Vol 13 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 232-254 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald L. Denton
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Historical Jesus ◽  
Bernard Lonergan ◽  
Biblical Hermeneutics ◽  
The World ◽  
New Testament Studies ◽  
Mode Of Being

N.T. Wright’s historical Jesus work, along with his approach to New Testament studies generally, is informed by a hermeneutic grounded in a critically realistic epistemology. This latter can appropriately be considered a hermeneutical epistemology, and its impact on both Jesus studies and parables interpretation is evident in Wright’s work. It is of course grounded in the cognitional theory of Bernard Lonergan, but may be furthered by the holistic historiography derived from observations of R.G. Collingwood, as well as the phenomenological-hermeneutical tradition represented by Heidegger and Gadamer, and ultimately the application to biblical hermeneutics by Ricoeur. Lonergan’s ‘world mediated by meaning’ and Heidegger’s ‘mode-of-being-in-the-world’ both make knowledge radically hermeneutical; Ricoeur’s world-projection in the narrative sees the narrative parable’s function as world-encompassing, similar to Wright’s worldview-subversion. All of these have in common that they are irreducibly participatory or hermeneutical.

A Response to Porter and Pitts’ ‘Wright’s Critical Realism in Context’

2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 186-193
Author(s):  
Jonathan Bernier
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Critical Realism ◽  
Historical Jesus ◽  
Bernard Lonergan ◽  
New Testament Studies

In The Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus 13 (2015) Stanley Porter and Andrew Pitts contributed an article in which they sought to situate N.T. Wright’s critical realism in its philosophical context. Although they correctly identify the philosophical context for this critical realism as the work of Bernard Lonergan, particularly as mediated for New Testament studies by Ben F. Meyer, this response will argue that they fail to adequately address the Lonerganian context. Reasons will be identified for this failure. An effort to better, albeit succinctly, present the rudiments of Lonergan’s critical realism will round out the article.

scholarly journals Medical anthropology as an antidote for ethnocentrism in Jesus research? Putting the illness–disease distinction into perspective

2011 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pieter F. Craffert
Keyword(s):  
Side Effects ◽  
Medical Anthropology ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Historical Jesus ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
The World ◽  
The New Testament

Medicine often has side-effects or unintended consequences that are more harmful than the original disease. Medical anthropology in general and the illness–disease distinction in particular has been introduced into historical Jesus research with the intent to protect it from medicocentrism and thus to offer ways of comprehending sickness and healing in the world of Jesus and his first followers without distorting these phenomena by imposing the biomedical framework onto the texts. In particular the illness–disease distinction is used for making sense of healing accounts whilst claiming to cross the cultural gap. Based on an analysis of the illness–disease distinction in medical anthropology and its use in historical Jesus research this article suggests that instead of protecting from ethnocentrism this distinction actually increases the risk of ethnocentrism and consequently distorts in many instances the healing accounts of the New Testament.

scholarly journals A Comparative Study of to Alfa Kai to Omega in the Greek New Testament (Revelation 1:8) and Asante-Twi Bible

2020 ◽  
pp. 70-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Foster Asamoah
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Biblical Hermeneutics ◽  
Bible Translation ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The World ◽  
Greek New Testament ◽  
Future Revision ◽  
The Church

Bible Translation has been a means the Church uses to bring the Gospel into the language of the recipients to help improve the quality of life of the indigenes. Nonetheless, it must be noted that all over the world most Bible translation materials have experienced numerous revision exercises. An example of this is the Asante-Twi versions of the Bible which has witnessed two revision works; one on the whole Bible in 2012 since its publication in 1964, and a revised New Testament version published in 2013. Even with the recent revised ones, there still exist translation problems, for some words are strange or foreign to the Asante-Twi speaking people; clear example is Revelation 1:8 which is the focus for this study. Using Mother-tongue Biblical Hermeneutics methodology, this thesis delves into the meaning of the Alfa ne Omega no in the Asante-Twi context and its usage in Revelation 1:8; vis-à-vis an exegesis of the Greek word to alfa kai to omega to find its equivalence in the Asante-Twi. It was found from the study that Ahyεaseε ne Awieeε no is the best rendition of to alfa kai to omega . This work has thus added an Akan translation and interpretation of Revelation 1:8 to the knowledge of the field of mother-tongue hermeneutics; and it is being recommended that in the future revision of the Asante-Twi Bible, the Bible Society of Ghana should consider using Ahyεaseε ne Awieeε no to translate to alfa kai to omega (to alpha kai to omega) in Revelation 1:8.

‘More Ingenious than Learned’? Examining the Quest for the Non-Historical Jesus

2019 ◽  
Vol 65 (4) ◽  
pp. 443-460
Author(s):  
Justin J. Meggitt
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Critical Reflection ◽  
Turn Of The Century ◽  
Historical Jesus ◽  
New Testament Studies

This paper seeks to scrutinise the debate about the historicity of Jesus and identify aspects that merit critical reflection by New Testament scholars. Although the question is regularly dismissed, it is a salient one that was formative in the development of the discipline, and has become increasingly visible since the turn of the century. However, the terminology employed by the protagonists is problematic, and the conventional historiography of the debate misleading. The characteristic tropes evident in the contributions are also indicative of substantive issues within the discipline of New Testament studies itself.

Can Study of the Historical Jesus Escape its Typographical Captivity?

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-65
Author(s):  
Richard A. Horsley
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Oral Communication ◽  
Biblical Studies ◽  
Comprehensive Approach ◽  
Historical Jesus ◽  
Alternative View ◽  
Oral Performance ◽  
Communications Media ◽  
Cultural Assumptions ◽  
New Testament Studies

Abstract As part of the deepening diversification of biblical studies, several lines of research are now undermining the print-cultural assumptions on which New Testament studies developed. The first section offers summaries of important inquiries into ancient communications media: the dominant oral communication and the uses of writing; revisionist text-criticism of manuscripts of texts later included in the Hebrew Bible; the oral-written cultivation of their cultural repertoire by Judean scribes; the parallel oral cultivation of Israelite popular tradition; revisionist criticism of Gospel texts; and the learning and oral performance of Gospel texts. These separate but related lines of research are undermining the standard print-cultural assumptions, concepts, and approaches of Jesus studies. The second section explores the implications of these researches that open toward an alternative view of what the sources are, a more comprehensive approach to the historical Jesus appropriate to ancient communications media, and a reconceptualization of Jesus studies.

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