scholarly journals Social-scientific criticism: Perspective, process and payoff. Evil eye accusation at Galatia as illustration of the method

2011 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
John H. Elliott
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Biblical Text ◽  
Evil Eye ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Scientific

This article explores a presentation of the method, emergence and contribution of social-scientific criticism (SSC) as an inter-disciplinary operation of New Testament exegesis. A description of ancient evil eye belief and practice and its appearance in Paul’s letter to the Galatians illustrates how the method contributes to a more accurate translation of the biblical text, a clarification of its logic and a fuller understanding of the social dynamics involving Paul and his opponents.

scholarly journals Armoedekultuur: Die leefwereld van die Nuwe Testament en die situasie in Suid-Afrika vandag

1996 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andries Van Aarde
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Culture Of Poverty ◽  
Economic Statistics ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Social Scientific

Culture of poverty: The world of the New Testament then and the situation in South Africa today. In this article poverty in the world of the New Testament is explained in the  light of the social dynamics of the first century Eastern Mediterranean. The focus is on the sub-culture of the disreputable poor. Features of a culture of poverty are reflected upon from a social-scientific perspective in order to try to understand why poverty is intensifying in South Africa today. The article aims at identifying guidelines for Christians in using the New Testament in a profound way to challenge the threat of poverty. The following aspects are discussed: the underdevelopment of third-world societies over against the technical evolution in first-world societies during the past two hundred years, economic statistics with regard to productivity and unemployment in South Africa, the social identity of the disreputable poor, poverty within the pre-print culture of the biblical period, and the church as the household of God where Christians should have compassion for others.

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.

Future Resurrection of the Dead in Early Judaism: Social Dynamics, Contested Evidence

2011 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 394-421
Author(s):  
C.D. Elledge
Keyword(s):  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Religious Movements ◽  
Scientific Methods ◽  
Early Judaism ◽  
The Social ◽  
Resurrection Of The Dead ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
Epigraphic Evidence ◽  
Sociological Studies

In its significance to both Jewish and Christian studies, resurrection of the dead remains a vital subject of biblical research; and it is now widely recognized that the religious culture of early Judaism (ca. 200 BCE—CE 200) played a crucial role in both its origination and early reception. In the present landscape of study, perhaps the most recent methodological advances arise from sociological studies, which attempt to contextualize resurrection within the social dynamics of the religious movements that advanced this hope. Moreover, at the exegetical level, many vexing pieces of evidence have produced conflicting readings of precisely what individual traditions may say about resurrection. The present article treats these topics, including (1) the application of social-scientific methods to the study of resurrection, and (2) readings of contested literary and epigraphic evidence that remains crucial to the scholarly study of the resurrection hope in early Jewish culture.

scholarly journals ’n Verruimde invalshoek tot die verlede? Die sosiaal-wetenskaplike benadering tot die Nuwe Testament

1991 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
S. J. Joubert
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Scientific Models ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Scientific Approach ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Social Scientific

A broadened perspective to the past? The social scientific approach to the New Testament This paper focuses on the possibilities that the social scientific approach holds out for the understanding of the New Testament. A review of the contributions of the sociological and the cultural anthropological approaches to the New Testament is undertaken before the social-scientific approach as a whole is evaluated. The use of social-scientific models, in particular, in the construction of the possible social contexts of the New Testament documents, is evaluated in terms of the ability of these contexts to establish ‘new’ systems of meaning.

scholarly journals Social-scientific criticism in Nigerian New Testament scholarship

2021 ◽  
Vol 77 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kingsley I. Uwaegbute ◽  
Damian O. Odo ◽  
Collins I. Ugwu
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Multidisciplinary Approach ◽  
Standard Methodology ◽  
The People ◽  
The Social ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The Face ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
Methodological Considerations

The use of the social sciences in the interpretation of the New Testament emerged from the 1970s and has become a standard methodology for interpreting the New Testament. However, it has not been significantly used in the interpretation of the New Testament in Nigeria by biblical scholars. This article discusses what social-scientific criticism is and the need for its application in the interpretation of the New Testament by Nigerian New Testament scholars for a better understanding of the New Testament and the people, beliefs and teachings it presents and contextualisation in the face of changing contexts of Christianity in Nigeria.Contribution: As far as we know, this article is the first one written on using social-scientific criticism to interpret the New Testament in the Nigerian context. It therefore contributes to the need for a multidisciplinary approach to interpreting the New Testament in Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. It therefore contributes also on methodological considerations with regard to interpreting the New Testament.

Social Sciences and the New Testament

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dietmar Neufeld
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Communication Process ◽  
Careful Examination ◽  
Social Dimensions ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
The Social ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Social Scientific

Social-scientific criticism is the stage in the exegetical process that brings scrutiny to bear on the religious, geographical, historical, economic, social codes, and cultural values operative within the world of early Christianity. It does so by utilizing the perspectives, theories, and models generated by the social sciences. Broadly defined, social-scientific criticism approaches the texts of the New Testament from the viewpoint that meaning in language is embedded in a social system that is shared and understood by speakers, hearers, and readers in the communication process. It investigates the social features of the form and content of the texts along with the factors that gave shape to them. It seeks to discover the intended consequences of the communication process. It looks for complementary relationships between the texts linguistic, literary, ideological, and social dimensions—each of which contributes to a proper analysis and understanding of the texts of the New Testament. Social-scientific criticism investigates the manner of textual communication—that texts were strategically designed for effective social interaction that had social, literary, and theological consequence. Most significantly, it seeks to isolate the social data embedded in texts and constructs models that simplify and systematize the data for comparative purposes. Models of social phenomena such as kinship and family, honor and shame, patronage and clientage, collectivism, social status, limited good, evil eye, purity and pollution, ritual, gender and sexuality, landscape and spatiality, ancient economies, healing and health, and social memory permit the careful examination of these issues in biblical texts in socially significant ways.

scholarly journals A case of the evil eye in Genesis 16:4-5: A social-scientific perspective

2017 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zacharias Kotze
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Social Function ◽  
Biblical Literature ◽  
Evil Eye ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
Scientific Approach ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
And Function

The nature and function of Evil Eye Belief and Practice (EEBP) in the world of the Old Testament has been understudied. The majority view has been that the belief was limited to the notion of largesse in this collection of literature. This article demonstrated that the idiom  םינעב  ללק in Genesis 16:4-5, routinely interpreted as a metaphor for scorn on the part of Hagar, could in fact be interpreted as a linguistic vehicle for the concept of the malevolent eye of Sarai. The author argued for an interpretation wherein Sarai, driven by envy, accused Hagar of casting the evil eye on her and used this alleged transgression as an excuse to abuse her slave. The evil eye in the Old Testament was not restricted to the idea of generosity, but was also closely associated with the concept of envy, as has been the case in the majority of ancient and modern cultures in which EEPB has featured. It further confirmed that the social function of the evil eye in the ancient world was not only constrained to the avoidance of envy-related violence but also served as an instrument of oppression in the hands of the rich and privileged. The key method utilised in this study was the social-scientific approach to the interpretation of biblical literature.

scholarly journals Paul’s method of influence in 1 Thessalonians

2016 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Bruce Button
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Historical Data ◽  
Interaction Model ◽  
Good News ◽  
Scientific Models ◽  
Biblical Text ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
In Christ ◽  
Social Scientific

Although the field of leadership in the New Testament and in the Pauline Letters has receiveda great deal of attention, there are still many issues over which scholars disagree. It is proposedin this article that the ongoing use of insights from social-scientific models can help to clarifysome of these issues. Those models should not be used in such a way as to impose themselveson the biblical text or the historical data, but to clarify concepts, create analytical categoriesand sensitise the New Testament scholar to new questions which can be asked of the text in itshistorical context. The article seeks insights from the power/interaction model of French andRaven, and analyses 1 Thessalonians in terms of some categories and concepts coming fromthe model. It is found that the primary way in which Paul sought to influence the Thessaloniancommunity was by preaching the gospel and living a life that conformed to its values. Thegospel as the good news of God’s salvation in Christ is God’s means of creating faith in andtransforming the lives of those whom he calls.

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.

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