scholarly journals The tenants in the vineyard (GThom 65/Mark 12:1-12): A realistic and social-scientific reading

2007 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernest Van Eck
Keyword(s):  
First Century ◽  
Original Form ◽  
Realistic Interpretation ◽  
Mediterranean Culture ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
Honor And Shame

Kloppenborg’s reading of the parable of the tenants (Mk 12:1-12/GThom 65) can be regarded as the first thoroughgoing realistic interpretation of the Tenants. By using extensive literary evidence on viticulture from 300 BCE to 300 CE, Kloppenborg argues that GThom 65 most probably comes closest to the original form of the parable, calling into question important values of first-century Mediterranean culture. Following a summary of Kloppenborg’s reading of the parable of the tenants, the second part of the article focuses on a social-scientific reading of GThom 65 through the lens of patronage and clientism and that of honor and shame. Finally, the conclusions reached by the social-scientific reading are compared with Kloppenborg’s realistic reading thereof.

scholarly journals In the kingdom everybody has enough – A social-scientific and realistic reading of the parable of the lost sheep (Lk 15:4–6)

2011 ◽  
Vol 67 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernest Van Eck
Keyword(s):  
Kingdom Of God ◽  
First Century ◽  
Historical Jesus ◽  
Cultural Norms ◽  
Realistic Interpretation ◽  
Norms And Values ◽  
The Social ◽  
Mediterranean World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Social Scientific

This article presents a social-scientific and realistic interpretation of the parable of the lost sheep (Lk 15:4–6). Attention is given to the history of the interpretation of the parable, its integrity and authenticity, and verisimilitude. It is argued that the Lukan-version (Q 15:4–6) of the parable represents the earliest layer of the historical Jesus-tradition. Specific attention is given to the social and economic registers presupposed in the parable, as well as certain cultural norms and values of the first-century Mediterranean world in which Jesus told the parable. The conclusion reached is that the parable exemplifies several aspects of the kingdom of God, aspects that are also present in several other parables that Jesus told about the kingdom.

scholarly journals The World of Honor and Shame in the New Testament: Alien or Familiar?

2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-14
Author(s):  
Colin Patterson
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Cultural Anthropology ◽  
Dominance Hierarchies ◽  
Psychological Analysis ◽  
Mediterranean Culture ◽  
The Social ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
Sociological Approaches ◽  
Honor And Shame

During the last sixty or more years, analysis of the New Testament which draws on the social sciences of cultural anthropology and sociology has made great strides in elucidating the cultural assumptions behind many scriptural texts. Prominent among its themes has been the idea that the biblical world can be understood as reflecting a Mediterranean culture with the core values of honor and shame. This, it has been argued, stands in sharp contrast to modern western societies. However, more recent work on the New Testament which exploits research in cognitive science/psychology suggests that it can provide a helpful corrective and complement to anthropological and sociological approaches. In line with this work, the present essay will apply the psychological analysis of social dominance hierarchies to the theme of honor-shame in order to fill out the picture painted by the social-scientific approach and, in doing so, seek to highlight continuities between New Testament and modern cultures. It will conclude by suggesting a reason why it has been the case that scholars employing social-scientific criticism have shown less awareness of these continuities.

scholarly journals When patrons are patrons: A social-scientific and realistic reading of the parable of the Feast (Lk 14:16b–23)

2013 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernest Van Eck
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Realistic Interpretation ◽  
Industrial City ◽  
Social Game ◽  
The Social ◽  
Mediterranean World ◽  
The World ◽  
Social Scientific

This article presents a social-scientific and realistic interpretation of the parable of the Feast. The characteristics of a pre-industrial city are used to determine the realism of the parable. The social-scientific interpretation of the parable considers meals as ceremonies. The cultural values embedded in meals, namely honour and shame, patronage, reciprocity and purity, receive attention. The social dynamics of invitations in the 1st-century Mediterranean world is used as a lens to understand the invitations as an honour challenge, and the social game of gossip is used to obtain an understanding of the excuses in the parable. The conclusion reached is that the parable turns the world in which it is told upside down. As such, the parable has something to say about the injustices that are a part of the society we live in.

scholarly journals ’n Herdefiniëring van Paulus se konflik in Galasië: Die brief aan die Galasiërs deur die bril van die sosiale wetenskappe

1994 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
P. F. Craffert
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
History Of Ideas ◽  
First Century ◽  
Scientific Methodology ◽  
People Of God ◽  
The People ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
History Of ◽  
Social Scientific

Redefining Paul’s conflict in Galatia: The letter to the Galatians through the lense of the social sciences Traditional attempts at identifying Paul’s oppponents in the letter to the Galatians are methodologically stamped by a history-of-ideas approach; this is accompanied by at least two interpretive traditions (one focusing on the Reformation question of righteousness by works or by faith, and the second by the inclusion of Gentiles in the people of God). After a social- scientific methodology is introduced, three facets of Paul’s social realities are discussed: communication in a predominantly oral culture, Judaism as a first-century religious phenomenon, and the household institution. It is suggested that these provide us with an opportunity for redefining the conflict as a conflict on Paul’s honour and authority.

scholarly journals Social description or social-scientific interpretation? A survey of modern scholarship

1991 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Van Staden ◽  
A. G. Van Aarde
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
First Century ◽  
Social Aspects ◽  
Recent Interest ◽  
The Social ◽  
Mediterranean World ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
The One

Recent interest in the social aspects of the first-century Mediterranean world reflected in the texts of the New Testament has taken primarily two directions. The one approach concentrates on social description, and the oth er on social-scientific interp re tatio n . This article surveys the major works of several of the leading exponents of this type of study in terms of the extent to which they make use of the social sciences. It differs from existing surveys by having an in-depth look at the elements of social-scientific theory and method actually employed, and by making a comparative assessment of the importance allocated by different authors to the role of the text as a deliberate construction.

scholarly journals Inleiding tot die sosiaal-wetenskaplike kritiese eksegese van Nuwe-Testamentiese tekste: Die metodologiese aanloop in die navorsingsgeskiedenis

2007 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andries G. Van Aarde
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Social Background ◽  
Social World ◽  
First Century ◽  
Cultural Environment ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Social ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Social Scientific

Introducing the social-scientific critical exegesis of New Testament texts: Methodological initiators in the research history The article is the first of a series of three that aim to introduce social-scientific exegesis of New Testament texts. Aspects of the social background of these writings are analyzed in light of the perspectives which underlie the dynamics of first-century Mediterranean social world. The article shows that social-scientific criticism of the New Testament represents an exegetical approach by means of which the rhetoric of texts is interpreted in light of their cultural environment and the social interaction that determines this context and semeiotic codes. The first article focuses on the initiators in the field of historical-critical exegesis who paved the way to social scientific criticism and explain key facets of the “new” exegetical approach. The second article explains some models and methods of social-scientific criticism. The third article discusses some advantages of social scientific criticism and poses a critique of the approach by reflecting on the positivism that could underlie the epistemology behind some interpretation models used in social scientific criticism. It concludes with an emphasis on cultural criticism as a hermeneutical challenge.

Postquantum: A Tale for the Time Being, Atomik Aztex, and Hacking Modern Space-Time

MELUS ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Derek Lee
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Postcolonial Theory ◽  
Contemporary Literature ◽  
Zen Buddhism ◽  
Space Time ◽  
Knowledge Systems ◽  
First Century ◽  
Original Form ◽  
The Social ◽  
Classical And Quantum Mechanics

Abstract This study identifies the postquantum novel as an emerging subgenre of speculative ethnic fiction that challenges the prevailing logic of Western space-time in contemporary literature. In contrast with archetypal twentieth-century literary modes such as modernism, postmodernism, and science fiction, postquantum fiction strays from classical and quantum mechanics—and Western science more broadly—as default knowledge systems and instead turns to premodern, indigenous, and non-Western epistemes as equally valid intellectual frameworks for representing reality. Drawing from philosophy of science and postcolonial theory, this study reads Zen Buddhism in Ruth Ozeki’s A Tale for the Time Being (2013) and the Meso-American calendrical sciences in Sesshu Foster’s Atomik Aztex (2005) as alternative logics of space-time and argues that the postquantum novel destabilizes many of the physicalist assumptions undergirding temporality and spatiality in twenty-first-century narrative. Postquantum fiction thus constitutes an original form of epistemological critique that decolonizes Western scientific hegemony in literature via ethnoscientific theory and praxis while also expanding the social justice concerns of ethnofuturism to include traditional and marginalized knowledge.

The new family of Jesus and the relativization of the natural family: An exposition on honor and shame (Mark 1:16–20; 2:13–14; 3:13–35)

2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (4) ◽  
pp. 592-601
Author(s):  
Narry F. Santos
Keyword(s):  
Social Values ◽  
Gospel Of Mark ◽  
First Century ◽  
Value System ◽  
Natural Family ◽  
New Family ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Family ◽  
Honor And Shame

In the time of Jesus, the social values of honor and shame were embedded in the family. The Gospel of Mark not only evidences these social values but also radically redefines them through their narrative reversal. The narrative reversal seeks to persuade the readers to view as honorable what they have valued as shameful, and to regard as dishonorable what they have seen as honorable. Although the natural family is important in the Gospel, Mark transforms it and the honor–shame value system by emphasizing the greater value of the new family that Jesus is forming (“fictive family”) over the importance of the natural family. In Mark 1:16–3:35, I see the narrative reversal of the family in two ways: (i) Mark highlights the three instances when Jesus calls to himself his new family with a transformed honor–shame value system; and (ii) Mark relativizes (i.e., takes away the foremost importance of) the first-century concept of family in favor of the new family of Jesus. Specifically, I will explore the three stories of the disciples’ call (1:16–20; 2:13–14; 3:13–19) and the intercalated story of Jesus’ natural family seeking to gain custody of him (3:20–21, 31–35).

scholarly journals Millennialisme, eskatologie en apokaliptiek1

2001 ◽  
Vol 57 (3/4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andries Van Aarde
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Altered States Of Consciousness ◽  
First Century ◽  
Altered States ◽  
Psychological Perspective ◽  
States Of Consciousness ◽  
The Social ◽  
Mediterranean World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Social Scientific

Millennialism, eschatology, and apocalypticism. This aricle consists of four parts. Firstly, it describes briefly and elementarily the origins of millennialism as it manifested in the history of theoligy. Secondly, it reflects on some of the new and challenging ways New Testament scholars nowadays study eschatology and apocalypticism from a social-scientific perspecive on the conception of time in the first-century Mediterranean world and from the cultural psychological perspective on altered states of consciousness. Thirdly, the articile aims at applying the social-political results of the study to the interpretation of the expression "one thousand year reign" in Revelation 20:1-10.

scholarly journals Ekonomie in die tyd van die Bybel as ’n huishouding-gebaseerde ekonomie

2003 ◽  
Vol 59 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
G.J. Volschenk
Keyword(s):  
First Century ◽  
Household Economy ◽  
Scientific Model ◽  
Industrial City ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The Social ◽  
Mediterranean World ◽  
The Family ◽  
Urban Elite ◽  
Social Scientific

Economy in the time of the Bible as a household based economyThe aim of this article is to describe the economy in the time of the Bible as a household economy. Firstly, the results of social scientific research indicated that the family institution was the primary socio-economic and political building block of the first century Mediterranean world. Secondly, the social scientific model of the pre-industrial city is used as interpretation framework for the first century Mediterranean economy. The article concludes with a reflection on the exploitation of peasants by urban elite and aristocrats. They were absent landowners who controlled the land and production on the land.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document