Recent Feminist Approaches to Interpreting the New Testament

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-96
Author(s):  
Melanie A. Howard
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Biblical Text ◽  
Female Characters ◽  
Feminist Scholarship ◽  
Broad Definition ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Pauline Epistles ◽  
Definition Of

This article provides an overview of feminist approaches to the New Testament from the period of 2000 to early 2021. Using a broad definition of ‘feminist’ (to include virtually any work focused primarily on women or female issues presented in the biblical text) and a more stringent definition of ‘New Testament’ (including only those texts that are a part of the New Testament canon, but not larger socio-historical studies or extracanonical literature), the article offers an overview of trends in feminist scholarship on the Gospels and Acts, the Pauline epistles, the General Epistles and Hebrews, and Revelation, noting that this body of scholarship may be characterized as being diverse, collaborative, and centered on female characters within the New Testament texts. With open vistas for exploration remaining, the article forecasts a rich future for feminist approaches to the New Testament.

The Text of John and Mark in the Writings of Chrysostom

1980 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 525-547 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gordon D. Fee
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Biblical Text ◽  
Crucial Point ◽  
Crucial Step ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Pauline Epistles ◽  
History Of ◽  
Striking Fact ◽  
Great Mass

Since the publication of Hort'sIntroductionto the Westcott–Hort Greek Testament, the biblical text of Chrysostom has been recognized as a crucial point in the history of the New Testament text. Hort had noted that ‘a glance at any tolerably completeapparatus criticusof the Acts or Pauline Epistles reveals the striking fact that an overwhelming proportion of the variants common to the great mass of cursive and late uncial Greek MSS are identical with the readings followed by Chrysostom (ob. 407) in the composition of his Homilies’.1Furthermore, the lack of this predominantly ‘Syrian’ element in the texts of the Fathers before Chrysostom, and more especially before Nicea, was a crucial step in his own theory of the history of the text.2

scholarly journals ‘These four letters s o l a are not there’: Language and Theology in Luther's Translation of the New Testament

2017 ◽  
Vol 53 ◽  
pp. 146-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Methuen
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Greek Text ◽  
German Language ◽  
Biblical Text ◽  
Open Letter ◽  
German Translation ◽  
Translation Practice ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Justification By Faith ◽  
Definition Of

Luther's 1522 translation of the New Testament is one of the most significant translations in Christian history. In it, he offers a translation of Romans 3: 28 which introduces the word allein: ‘So halten wir es nun, daß der Mensch gerecht werde ohne des Gesetzes Werke, allein durch den Glauben.’ As Luther himself recognized in his Open Letter on Translating (1530), the word ‘alone’ does not appear in either the Greek text of Romans or the Vulgate; nor do other contemporary vernacular translations include it. Luther asserted that the introduction of the word allein arose from his attention to the German language. This claim has often been regarded as specious, since the introduction of allein serves to underline a key aspect of Luther's theology, namely his doctrine of justification by faith. This article examines Luther's translation practice, and particularly his comments on Romans 3: 28 in his lectures on Romans, his preface to Paul's epistle to the Romans and other writings, concluding that Luther was indeed concerned to produce a fluent and coherent German translation of the biblical text, but that he wished also to produce one that was theologically unambiguous. Not only linguistic considerations, but also Luther's theological priorities, and his definition of theological unambiguity, determined his definition of a good translation.

scholarly journals New Testament Anthropology: Conscience as an Anthropological Phenomenon in the Context of the Epistles of St. Paul the Apostle

2021 ◽  
pp. 114-124
Author(s):  
Priest Aleksiy (Razdorov) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Biblical Studies ◽  
Christian Communities ◽  
Cultural Approach ◽  
Christian Worldview ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Pauline Epistles ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Historical Epoch ◽  
Human Awareness

This article examines the New Testament teaching about man in the authentic epistles of Paul the Apostle. In particular, it studies the anthropological phenomenon of conscience as one of the important ethical terms in Christian worldview. In spite of the fact that this topic has been thoroughly investigated by Western biblical science, Russian theological environment has not been paying it sufficient attention. Therefore, from the position of theological and philological research within the framework of the historical and cultural approach, the article dwells on conscience expressed by Paul the Apostle through the term συνείδησις in the epistles to the Corinthians and the Romans, whose authorship as St. Paul’s is unquestioned by modern biblical studies. The research shows that Paul the Apostle used the term συνείδησις in a sense related to human awareness, without any explicit emphasis on morality as in the works by Stoic philosophers. For St. Paul, the term συνείδησις in a general sense means an autonomous anthropological instance of a person’s judgеment/assessment of his/her own behaviour in relation to the norms, laws and rules adopted by him/her. However, depending on the historical circumstances in the life of Christian communities, Paul the Apostle gave this term his own semantic connotations. According to this research, in the text of the Pauline epistles συνείδησις appears not only as a general anthropological phenomenon, but also as an independent (autonomous) personified witness to the truth, as an instance that checks the correspondence between the declared value norms in the mind and the person’s own behaviour. This instance reflects the mental activity of a conscious human as a person in any cultural and historical epoch regardless of his/her religious preferences.

The Church of the Reigning Lord

1948 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-73
Author(s):  
R. Stuart Louden
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Biblical Scholarship ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Pauline Epistles ◽  
History Of ◽  
Four Square ◽  
The Church

We can trace a revival of theology in the Reformed Churches in the last quarter of a century. The new theological interest merits being called a revival of theology, for there has been a fresh and more thorough attention given to certain realities, either ignored or treated with scant notice for a considerable time previously.First among such realities now receiving more of the attention which their relevance and authority deserve, is the Bible, the record of the Word of God. There is an invigorating and convincing quality about theology which is Biblical throughout, being based on the witness of the Scriptures as a whole. The valuable results of careful Biblical scholarship had had an adverse effect on theology in so far as theologians had completely separated the Old Testament from the New in their treatment of Biblical doctrine, or in expanding Christian doctrine, had spoken of the theological teaching of the Synoptic Gospels, the Pauline Epistles, the Johannine writings, and so on, as if there were no such thing as one common New Testament witness. It is being seen anew that the Holy Scriptures contain a complete history of God's saving action. The presence of the complete Bible open at the heart of the Church, recalls each succeeding Christian generation to that one history of God's saving action, to which the Church is the living witness. The New Testament is one, for its Lord is one, and Christian theology must stand four-square on the foundation of its whole teaching.

Poetics or Homiletics? Hearing and Feeling the New Testament in Erasmus’ Paraphrases

2020 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 101-126
Author(s):  
Reinier Leushuis
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Affective Response ◽  
Biblical Text ◽  
Biblical Narrative ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Emotional Aspects ◽  
The Senses ◽  
Over Time

Abstract One of the unique homiletic challenges of the Erasmian paraphrase is the transmission of faith in divine matters from the page to the reader’s mind. By which form of imitation is the acquisition of faith by the disciples and their communities not only cognitively understood by, but also imitated in the reader’s mind? Constituting what can be called a poetics of Erasmus’ paraphrastic writing, questions of literary imitation and transmission are exemplified in his enrichment of the sensorial and emotional aspects of the biblical narrative. This essay examines instances where the biblical text highlights the disciples’ witnessing of Jesus both in earthly life and as a risen but living presence. Such instances lead to paraphrastic developments that exemplify reader-oriented imitation by instrumentalizing the senses, in particular hearing and touch, to steer the reader’s inner affective response, and thus to facilitate the acquisition of faith. Although sight is not neglected, I argue that in this process hearing and feeling (both as touch and emotion) are poetically and homiletically privileged to lodge the holy Word in the innermost affective sanctuary of a community of readers and listeners over time who, unlike the witnessing disciples, can no longer see, hear, and touch Christ.

scholarly journals Messianic expectations in the Old Testament

2001 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Rose
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
Hebrew Word ◽  
Peace And Justice ◽  
God's People ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Definition Of

The New Testament is connected to the Old Testament in a number of different ways. It is not unusual to find the word “messianic” used to categorise all the different ways in which the writers of the New Testament find Christ (and, similarly, Jewish sources of the Second Temple Period later find the future Messiah) in the Old Testament, or to identify the specific passages in the Old Testament which are now seen to point to Christ/the Messiah. In this article I argue that, if one wants to be able to appreciate the diversity, one should abandon this indiscriminate use of the word “messianic”. After a brief discussion of the meaning and use of the Hebrew word xyvm in the Old Testament, I propose a definition of the phrase “messianic expectations” (expectations focusing on a future royal figure sent by God – someone who will bring salvation to God’s people and the world and establish a kingdom characterised by features such as peace and justice). Subsequently, the origin of these expectations is located as in the proclamation of the eighth-century prophets (Amos, Isaiah and Micah). Finally, one special category of messianic expectations, that is, messianic expectations in the Books of the Psalms, is dealt with.

scholarly journals Bultmann se ontmitologiseringsprogram herwaardeer

2000 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gert Malan
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
New Testament ◽  
World View ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Definition Of

Bultmann's demythologising program reevaluated. The kerygma of the New Testament is depicted in the mythological language of a bygone mythological world-view. Bultmann suggested that demythologisation is necessary in order to explore the true Existenzverstandniss contained in the mythological concepts. Reaction to his program of demythologising was mostly negative, especially in South Africa. This article focuses on the necessity for demythologisation as well as Bultmann's definition of myth, in order to re-evaluate his program of demythologisation. Bultmann's demythologising program is considered as a responsible method for interpreting the texts of the New Testament.

scholarly journals The Doctrine of Apostolic Succession in the Church of England

1894 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 171-192
Author(s):  
Henry C. Vedder
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Christian Literature ◽  
Apostolic Succession ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Church ◽  
Adequate Evidence

A definition of terms is essential at the outset of this investigation, but I am not aware of a definition of Apostolic Succession that would be accepted as authoritative by those who profess the doctrine, In this paper the term will be held to mean the doctrine that the order of bishops exists in the Church jure divino; that the first bishops were ordained by the Apostles as their successors, and that these orders have been transmitted by an unbroken succession to the present time; and furthermore, that without bishops there can be no valid orders, no valid sacraments, in short, no Church. It is not proposed in this paper to question the truth of this theory—to inquire whether there is adequate evidence in its favor either in the Scriptures of the New Testament, in the early Christian literature, or in the institutions of the Church of the first two centuries. Assuming that the doctrine rests on the sure foundations of Scripture teaching and institutional Christianity—or, at least, allowing that this may be the case—our task is to trace the effects of this doctrine upon the external history and internal life of the Church of England.

scholarly journals Power Metaphors and Metaphors Power with Paul the Apostle

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-126
Author(s):  
Andrei S. Desnitsky
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
State Power ◽  
The State ◽  
First Principle ◽  
Cognitive Approach ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Pauline Epistles

This article deals, both theoretically and practically, with metaphors from the Pauline Epistles (parts of the New Testament), that have to do with the state power. This theme remains ever important because these texts ate fundamental for all Christian denominations in their attitude towards their existing states. Recently, the cognitive approach to metaphors allowed for better understanding of nuances and hidden scenarios. As the result, in addition to unconditional loyalty modern scholars payed attention to other essential Pauline ideas, such as the hierarchy of values: the main Christian citizenship relates to heaven while the Roman state they obey as long as it does not contradict the first principle. This question becomes yet more important in connection with the modern translations of Pauline epistles.

scholarly journals Herezje wczesnochrześcijańskie – zagadnienia wprowadzające

Vox Patrum ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 68 ◽  
pp. 7-20
Author(s):  
Bogdan Czyżewski
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The Times ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Church

In the times of the Church Fathers the notion of heresy was related to the false doctrine what became the cause of derogations from the unity of the Church. It was a false tenet about God, hence the Fathers of the Church tried to define not only mistakes created within the Church, but also to develop orthodox doctrine. Due to the vastness of the this subject authors and texts defining heresies were se­lected. Firstly, attention was drawn on the Greek term a†resij contained in pagan literature and the writings of the New Testament, which allowed to see what was the impact, especially the biblical definition of heresy, on the understanding of the early Christian writers, especially before the first Council of Nice in 325. It was also necessary to ask about the origin of heresy and its characteristics. Fathers af­firmed unequivocally that their creation were associated mainly with making the wrong choices. The result of this were incorrect relations of heretics to the truth and to the Church, wrong image of God and abiding in stubbornness. Fathers also attempted to define more precisely the scope of meaning of schism and heresy, which are concepts often used as synonyms.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document