Transforming Historical Objectivism into Historical Hermeneutics: From “Historical Illness” to Properly Lived Historicality

2019 ◽  
Vol 61 (4) ◽  
pp. 490-515
Author(s):  
Thomas Tops
Keyword(s):  
Reception History ◽  
Biblical Studies ◽  
Historical Study ◽  
Necessary Condition ◽  
New Paradigm ◽  
History Of Interpretation ◽  
Critical Methodology ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
History Of ◽  
Biblical Texts

Summary The present study analyses recent criticisms against the use of modern-historical methodologies in Biblical Studies. These methodologies abstract from the historical horizon of the researcher. In order to relate properly to the historicality of the researcher, historical objectivism needs to be transformed into historical hermeneutics. Recent developments in the historical methodology of biblical scholars are unable to reckon with the historicality of the researcher due to the partial or incorrect implementation of Gadamer’s views on reception history. I analyse the views of Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, and Gadamer on historicality and contend that the study of reception history is a necessary condition for conducting historical study from within the limits of our historicality. Reception history should not be a distinct methodological step to study the “Nachleben” of biblical texts, but needs to clarify how the understanding of these texts is already effected by their history of interpretation. The awareness of the presuppositions that have guided previous interpretations of biblical texts enables us to be confronted by their alterity. This confrontation calls for a synthesis between reception-historical and historical-critical methodology that introduces a new paradigm for conducting historical study in Biblical Studies in dialogue with other theological disciplines.

Reception History and the Interpretation of Revelation

2020 ◽  
pp. 375-393
Author(s):  
Ian Boxall
Keyword(s):  
Visual Art ◽  
Textual Criticism ◽  
Reception History ◽  
Biblical Text ◽  
Music Drama ◽  
History Of Interpretation ◽  
History Of ◽  
Biblical Texts

The chapter describes the discipline of reception history as the study of the ongoing use, interpretation, and impact of a biblical text. If the history of interpretation has often focused on the ways biblical texts are understood in commentaries and theological writings, reception history also considers how a book was received in spirituality and worship, in music, drama, literature, visual art, and textual criticism. Criteria for selecting and organizing materials useful for reception history are discussed, and there is a review of recent attempts to provide broad overviews of Revelation’s reception history, along with specific examples of the value of the discipline for interpreting Revelation.

scholarly journals The prophet like Moses (Dt 18:15–22): Some trajectories in the history of interpretation

2021 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoph W. Stenschke
Keyword(s):  
Reception History ◽  
Biblical Studies ◽  
People Of God ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
History Of Interpretation ◽  
Early Judaism ◽  
The People ◽  
Depth Study ◽  
History Of ◽  
Reference Functions

This article traces some of the trajectories of the Deuteronomic announcement of a ‘prophet like Moses’. After examining its meaning in the immediate context, the article first traces references to this figure in early Jewish sources. It then examines how Jesus is portrayed as the prophet of Deuteronomy 18 in the Gospels. What is meant when people ask whether Jesus could be the prophet? Would he himself identify with this figure through word and deed? What implications would such an identification have had for his contemporaries? Why does this designation only appear rarely outside of the Gospels? A further trajectory is the quotation of Deuteronomy 18:15,19 in Acts 3:22–23. What is meant by Peter’s identification of Jesus as the prophet like Moses? What does Peter link with the acceptance and rejection of this prophet? How has Luke altered the text of Deuteronomy in the application of this prediction to Jesus? The article closes with a summary and suggests implications for the understanding of early Christian rhetoric, of Israel’s response and of prophets in today’s church and society.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This article is placed within the discipline of biblical studies and Jewish studies (for the reception history in early Judaism). An in-depth study of the reception of the Deuteronomic prophet like Moses in Acts 3, where the prediction is explicitly quoted and declared to be fulfilled in Jesus Christ, reveals how this reference functions for the Christology of Acts, its proclamation of the Gospel and its understanding of Israel. Those revering Moses must now listen to Jesus. To reject Jesus means to forfeit one’s membership in the people of God. This challenges studies which do not pay sufficient attention to this claim.

Reimagining Hagar

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nyasha Junior
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Black Woman ◽  
The United States ◽  
Reception History ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
Biblical Studies ◽  
Key Points ◽  
History Of ◽  
Race Ethnicity ◽  
Biblical Texts

This book offers a reception history of biblical Hagar. Despite the limited description of Hagar in biblical texts, she becomes an important figure in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. While many interpreters often treat biblical characters as White or as non-Black, this book investigates how, when, and why some interpreters choose to identify biblical Hagar as a Black woman. It centers on treatments of Hagar by African American biblical interpreters and focuses attention on how professional and non-professional interpreters identify and engage issues of difference, including gender, race, ethnicity, and status. Building on the work of African American classicists and biblical scholars, Reimagining Hagar discusses the African presence in biblical texts and issues of race within biblical studies. It details the portrayal of Hagar in nineteenth century pro- and anti-slavery literature in the United States, in African American vernacular traditions, and in religious studies and biblical studies scholarship. Engaging an array of literary and artistic sources, Reimagining Hagar illustrates that interpretations of Hagar as Black emphasize elements of Hagar’s narrative in order to connect her with or disassociate her from particular groups. This book traces some of the key points within the emergence and development of this unique understanding of Hagar as a Black woman.

Epilogue

2019 ◽  
pp. 132-134
Author(s):  
Nyasha Junior
Keyword(s):  
Black Woman ◽  
Biblical Interpretation ◽  
Reception History ◽  
Biblical Studies ◽  
Cultural Appropriation ◽  
Racial Identification ◽  
The Future ◽  
Potential Benefits ◽  
Biblical Texts ◽  
Biblical Scholar

The Epilogue offers the author’s reflections on being a Black woman biblical scholar and writing on issues relating to race, gender, and biblical interpretation. It includes the author’s discussion of hopes for the future of biblical studies, including biblical reception history projects on race. It discusses the desires of reading communities to see themselves reflected in biblical texts and to interpret Hagar in ways that resonate with their experiences and concerns. It addresses the potential benefits and drawbacks of the ethnic and racial identification of and cultural appropriation of biblical characters. It concludes that the story of Hagar offers us a unique opportunity to investigate the ways in which we use biblical texts to illustrate how we see ourselves and others.

scholarly journals The history of the interpretation of Matthew: Lessons learned

2015 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dale C. Allison
Keyword(s):  
Good Reason ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
History Of Interpretation ◽  
Cain And Abel ◽  
History Of ◽  
Biblical Texts ◽  
The Sacrifice ◽  
Commentary Tradition

Scholars pay attention to the history of interpretation of biblical texts and of their reception for multiple good reasons. This essay urges that, in addition to the reasons typically offered, careful Wirkungsgeschichte can sometimes bring to light credible exegetical and historical proposals that were once in the commentary tradition but dropped out for no apparent or good reason. Such proposals need to be restored to the tradition. I shall offer several illustrations, including the old association of Matthew 5:21–26 with the sacrifice of Cain and Abel and the ancient linking of Matthew 9:20–21 and 14:36 with the prophecy of Malachi 4:2 (‘The Son of Righteousness will arise with healing in his wings’). The article also, however, draws attention to some of the limitations of Wirkungsgeschichte for historical exegesis. Die interpretasiegeskiedenis van Matteus: Lesse geleer. Navorsers skenk aan die interpretasiegeskiedenis van bybelse tekste en die ontvangs van die verskillende tekste omverskeie redes aandag. Hierdie artikel toon aan dat, behalwe vir redes wat normaalweg aangebied word, ’n noukeurige ‘Wirkungsgeschichte’ soms geloofwaardige eksegetiese en historiese voorstelle na vore kan bring wat tevore wel tot die kommentaretradisie behoort het, maar gaandeweg in onbruik verval het. Sodanige voorstelle behoort weer tot die tradisie toegevoeg te word. Ter stawing hiervan kan verskeie voorbeelde genoem word soos die bekende assosiasie van Matteus 5:21–26 met die offer van Kain en Abel en die oeroue koppeling van Matteus 9:20–21 en 14:36 met die profesie van Maleagi 4:2 (‘Die son van geregtigheid salverrys met genesing in sy vleuels’). Hierdie artikel vestig egter ook die aandag op sekere beperkings van die ‘Wirkungsgeschichte’ vir die historiese eksegese.

scholarly journals Paul, Inclusion and Whiteness: Particularizing Interpretation

2017 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
David G. Horrell
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Identity ◽  
Biblical Studies ◽  
Whiteness Studies ◽  
What Is Said ◽  
History Of Interpretation ◽  
History Of ◽  
One Step ◽  
Racial Ethnic ◽  
Point Of Departure ◽  
Academic Tradition

This article takes its point of departure from the effort to reflect critically on how my racial/ethnic identity shapes what I (and the academic tradition of which I am a part) see and ask (and do not see or ask) in our interpretative work. Selections from commentaries are used to illustrate the history of interpretation of Gal. 3.28, and the findings are interrogated in the light of questions and issues deriving from the field of ‘whiteness’ studies. For a start, such studies may provoke us to think about how far Christianness – and unspoken assumptions about its superiority – shapes what is said about this text (e.g., in the frequent contrast drawn between Jewish exclusivism and Christian inclusivism). Furthermore, we may ask about the particular location of this interpretative tradition not only in religious terms, but also in racial ones. The changing contours of interpretation help to show how it is, in part at least, shaped by its contexts of production in the white, Christian West: it may thus be ‘particularized’ in both religious and racial terms. Just as whiteness studies has criticized the tendency of the ‘white’ perspective to remain ‘unlabelled’, unspecific, implicitly ‘human’ and universal, so too we may critique the tendency of this tradition of biblical studies to avoid labelling and recognizing its own specificity. Doing so, moreover, may help us not only to acknowledge our own particularity, but also to recognize why we need the insights of differently located and embodied interpreters to reach towards richer insight. Recognizing and labelling the particularity of our own perspective is thus one step towards equalizing the value of the various (labelled and unlabelled) perspectives in biblical studies.

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.

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.

A Review of Craig Koester’s Revelation Commentary (the Anchor Yale Bible) with Special Attention to Revelation 1.1–6.17

2015 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-12
Author(s):  
Melissa L. Archer
Keyword(s):  
Critical Review ◽  
Biblical Studies ◽  
Biblical Literature ◽  
History Of Interpretation ◽  
History Of ◽  
Major Section ◽  
Panel Review

This essay reviews Rev. 1.1–6.17 of Craig Koester’s Revelation commentary (Anchor Yale Bible, 2014). The essay was originally presented as part of a three-person panel review on the commentary presented to the Society for Pentecostal Studies Biblical Studies section at the 2014 Society for Biblical Literature meeting. Koester’s commentary represents a major contribution to Apocalypse studies. Along with a critical review of the commentary proper, Koester’s inclusion of hymns in his introductory chapter is discussed as an important acknowledgement of the role of worship in the Apocalypse. Comment is made on Koester’s history of interpretation sections that introduce each major section of the text of Revelation under consideration. This review seeks to demonstrate the relevance of Koester’s work for Pentecostal readers who have often read and interpreted Revelation from a dispensational perspective.

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