This collection of essays pursues two new approaches to Q, the speeches of Jesus paralleled in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. The essays in Part One suggest that recent work in ethnopoetics, the ethnography of performance, and theory of verbal art (especially that of John Miles Foley) both complements and challenges standard approaches to the teaching of Jesus. They explore how Q speeches might be appreciated as oral performance that resonates with listeners in a community context by referencing Israelite popular tradition. The essays in Part Two examine how the work of anthropologist and political scientist James C. Scott on popular tradition, "the moral economy of the peasant," and "hidden transcripts" may illuminate the social context and political implications of Q speeches. --From publisher's description.

"Embedded in modern print culture, biblical scholars have been projecting the assumptions and concepts of print culture onto the texts they interpret. In the ancient world from which those texts originate, however, literacy was confined to only a small number of educated scribes. And, as recent research has shown, even the literate scribes learned texts by repeated recitation, while the nonliterate ordinary people had little if any direct contact with written scrolls. The texts that had taken distinctive form, moreover, were embedded in a broader and deeper cultural repertoire cultivated orally in village communities as well as in scribal circles. Only recently have some scholars struggled to appreciate texts that later became ""biblical"" in their own historical context of oral communication. Exploration of texts in oral performance--whether as scribal teachers' instruction to their protŽgŽs or as prophetic speeches of Jesus of Nazareth or as the performance of a whole Gospel story in a community of Jesus-loyalists--requires interpreters to relinquish their print-cultural assumptions. Widening exploration of texts in oral performance in other fields offers exciting new possibilities for allowing those texts to come alive again in their community contexts as they resonated with the cultural tradition in which they were embedded."

Synoptic pericopae is a reliable indicator of literary borrowing by the Synoptic Evangelists. In Oral Tradition and Synoptic Verbal Agreement, T.M. Derico presents a critical assessment of that claim through a consideration of the most recent empirical evidence concerning the kinds and amounts of verbal agreement that can be produced among independent performances of oral traditions.

The study analyses the current state of research on the synoptic problem and proves that the Synoptic Gospels were written in the Mark, Luke, Matthew order of direct literary dependence. Moreover, the work demonstrates that the Synoptic Gospels are results of systematic, sequential, hypertextual reworking of the contents of the Pauline letters. Accordingly, the so-called 'Q source' turns out to be an invention of nineteenth-century scholars with their Romantic hermeneutic presuppositions. Demonstration of the fact that the Gospels are not records of the activity of the historical Jesus but that they narratively illustrate the identity of Christ as it has been revealed in the person and life of Paul the Apostle will certainly have major consequences for the whole Christian theology.

Have Western exegetes turned an Eastern book into a Western one? Has our fondness for a fixed printed text capable of being analyzed with precision and exactitude blinded us to other hermeneutic possibilities? Does God require all people to be able to analyze grammar to interpret Scripture? Does God assume all people can interpret Scripture through oral means? The authors recognize the effects of centuries of literacy socialization that produced a blind spot in the Western Christian world--the neglect by most in the academies, agencies, and assemblies of the foundational and forceful role orality had on the biblical text and teaching. From the inspired spoken word of the prophets, including Jesus (pre-text), to the elite literate scribes who painstakingly hand-printed the sacred text, to post-text interpretation and teaching, the footprint of orality throughout the entire process is acutely visible to those having the oral-aural influenced eyes of the Mediterranean ancients. Could oral hermeneutics be the "mother of relational theology"?

This ambitious and engaging book sets itself the task of combining a wide range of approaches to cast new light on the form and function of several ancient Jewish letters in a variety of languages. The focus of The Performance of Ancient Jewish Lettersis on applying a new emerging field of performance theory to texts and arguing that letters and other documents were not just read in silence, as is normal today, but were "performed," especially when they were addressed to a community. A distinctive feature of this book consists of being one of the first to apply the approach of performance criticism to ancient Jewish letters. Previous treatments of ancient letters have not given enough consideration to their oral context; however, this book prompts the reader to "listen" sympathetically with the audience. The Performance focuses close attention on the ways in which the engagement of the audience during the performance of a text might be read from traces present in the text itself. This book invites the audience to hear a fresh reading of a family letter from Hermopolis, concerning ugly tunics and castor oil; festal letters, about issues surrounding the celebration of Passover, Purim and Hanukkah; a diaspora letter on how to live in a foreign land; and also an official letter concerning the building of the Jerusalem temple. These letters will help us understand a text from the Dead Sea Scrolls, namely, MMT. Marvin L. Miller argues for the centrality of performance in the life of Jews of the Second Temple period, an area of study that has been traditionally neglected. The Performanceadvances the fields of orality and epistolography and supplements other scholars' works in those fields.

Journal of Biblical and Pneumatological Research VOLUME THREE FALL 2011 The Journal of Biblical and Pneumatological Research (JBPR) is a new international peer-reviewed academic serial dedicated to narratively and rhetorically minded exegesis of biblical and related texts. Potential topics include theological and pneumatological interpretation, the role of spiritual experience with authorial, canonical, and contemporary contexts, and the contextual activity of Ruach Yahweh, Ruach Elohim, and various identiþcations of the Holy Spirit. JBPR hopes to stimulate new thematic and narrative-critical exploration and discovery in both traditional and under-explored areas of research. CONTENTS: Editor's Overview of Volume 3 ¥ 1 GALEN L. GOLDSMITH The Cutting Edge of Prophetic Imagery REBECCA SKAGGS and THOMAS DOYLE The Audio/Visual Motif in the Apocalypse of John through the Lens of Rhetorical Analysis DAVID SEAL Sensitivity to Aural Elements of a Text: Some Acoustical Elements in Revelation SIMO FRESTADIUS The Spirit and Wisdom in 1 Corinthians 2:1-13 KEITH WHITT Righteousness and Characteristics of Yahweh VANTHANH NGUYEN, S.V.D. Luke's Point of View of the Gentile Mission: The Test Case of Acts 11:1-18 LYLE STORY Luke's Instructive Dynamics for Resolving Conflicts: The Jerusalem Council Review of Christopher L. Carter, The Great Sermon Tradition as a Fiscal Framework in 1 Corinthians: Towards a Pauline Theology of Material Possessions (R. G. Dela Cruz) Review of Robert P. Debelek, Jr., Hidden in Plain Sight: Esther and a Marginalized Hermeneutic (A. Kay Fountain) Review of Richard Feldmeier, The First Letter of Peter: A Commentary on the Greek Text (Rebecca Skaggs and Thomas Doyle) Review of Rodrigo J. Morales, The Spirit and the Restoration of Israel: New Exodus and New Creation Motifs in Galatians (James C. Miller) Review of Robin Routledge, Old Testament Theology: A Thematic Approach (Andrew Davies) Review of John C. Poirier, The Tongues of Angels: The Concept of Angelic Languages in Classical Jewish and Christian Texts (Russell P. Spittler)

Biblical contributors express an oral stage engaging Christianity within a properly basic communal worldview similar to Alvin Plantinga advocates. This approach includes a communal Christian application of common sense realism within a worldview and rhetoric similar to Hillite Pharisaism. Each biblical contributor provided vivid testimony using rabbinic language and thought forms. For example, Jewish-Christian midrash re-appropriates Old Testament quotes and narrative in a new performative pesher manner to present Jesus as the Christ. Moving beyond the word studies of biblical epistemologists, Pharisaic-rabbinic Judaism use of biblical revelation, mystical vision, dream, or audible divine voice frame mystical empiricism similar to William Alston. Non-foundational realism facilitates a communal resilient oral tradition similar to the rabbinics. Additionally, Luke-Acts extensively engages Hellenistic historiographic method and the concept of "witness." When multiple interpretations occur concerning miracles, epistemic dualistic non-foundational Lockean epistemology emerges to contribute to the authority of communal kingdom testimony. Occasionally, this Lockean approach adds an internal transformation much as Jonathan Edwards modified Locke to set forth his religious affections as a divine virtue epistemology confirming the authentic narrow way through Peircean pragmatism. This internal knowledge provides self-referential confirmation for a personal relationship and filial knowledge. Each of these expressions of knowledge fosters an ultimate Kierkegaardian commitment to the Trinitarian Christian God.

This third volume, like its predecessors, adds to the growing body of literature concerned with the history of biblical interpretation. With eighteen essays on nineteen biblical interpreters, volume 3 expands the scope of scholars, both traditional and modern, covered in this now multivolume series. Each chapter provides a biographical sketch of its respective scholar(s), an overview of their major contributions to the field, explanations of their theoretical and methodological approaches to interpretation, and evaluations and applications of their methods. By focusing on the contexts in which these scholars lived and worked, these essays show what defining features qualify these scholars as “pillars” in the history of biblical interpretation. While identifying a scholar as a “pillar” is somewhat subjective, this volume defines a pillar as one who has made a distinctive contribution by using and exemplifying a clear method that has pushed the discipline forward, at least within a given context and time period. This volume is ideal for any class on the history of biblical interpretation and for those who want a greater understanding of how the field of biblical studies has developed and how certain interpreters have played a formative role in that development.

This handbook provides a comprehensive guide to methods, terms, and concepts used by biblical interpreters. It offers students and non-specialists an accessible resource for understanding the complex vocabulary that accompanies serious biblical studies. Articles, arranged alphabetically, explain terminology associated with reading the Bible as literature, clarify the various methods Bible scholars use to study biblical texts, and illuminate how different interpretive approaches can contribute to our understanding. Article references and topical bibliographies point readers to resources for further study. This handbook, now updated and revised to be even more useful for students, was previously published as Interpreting the Bible: A Handbook of Terms and Methods. It is a suitable complement to any standard hermeneutics textbook.