The Challenge of Homer

The Norwegian New Testament scholar Karl Olav Sandnes has quite recently published a very interesting book for all of us who are interested in the background of the New Testament and of the Early Christians.

Karl Olav Sandnes,
The Challenge of Homer
School, Pagan Poets and Early Christianity
Library of New Testament Studies,
T & T Clark International. ISBN: 0567426645
336 Pages. $150.00

The volume starts out from the folowwing premise: “The first Christians faced two hermeneutical challenges of fundamental importnce: that of interpreting the Old Testament and how to cope with the Greek legacy embedded in Homer. The latter is not explicitly raised in the New Testament. But since the art of interpreting any text, presupposes reading skills, conveyed through liberal studies, the Homeric challenge must have been of outmost importance.”

Professor Sandnes deals with Philo of Alexandria on pp. 68-78.

A further description of this volume and a List of Contents can be found here.

PhD dissertation on Luke in Finland

There has just been a disputation in Finland, at the University of Helsinki, on the Gospel of Luke. The disputation took place April 25, and its focus was this dissertation by Anni Pesonen:

Luke, the Friend of Sinners.
University of Helsinki, Faculty of Theology, Department of Biblical Studies

The dissertation is available in pdf format on this link.

The author’s abstract of her work runs thus:
“I examine the portrayal of Jesus as a friend of toll collectors and sinners in the Third Gospel. I aim at a comprehensive view on the Lukan sinner texts, combining questions of the origin and development of these texts with the questions of Luke’s theological message, of how the text functions as literature, and of the social-historical setting(s) behind the texts.

Within New Testament scholarship researchers on the historical Jesus mostly still hold that a special mission to toll collectors and sinners was central in Jesus’ public activity. Within Lukan studies, M. Goulder, J. Kiilunen and D. Neale have claimed that this picture is due to Luke’s theological vision and the liberties he took as an author. Their view is disputed by other Lukan scholars.

I discuss methods which scholars have used to isolate the typical language of Luke’s alleged written sources, or to argue for the source-free creation by Luke himself. I claim that the analysis of Luke’s language does not help us to the origin of the Lukan pericopes. I examine the possibility of free creativity on Luke’s part in the light of the invention technique used in ancient historiography. Invention was an essential part of all ancient historical writing and therefore quite probably Luke used it, too. Possibly Luke had access to special traditions, but the nature of oral tradition does not allow reconstruction.

I analyze Luke 5:1-11; 5:27-32; 7:36-50; 15:1-32; 18:9-14; 19:1-10; 23:39-43. In most of these some underlying special tradition is possible though far from certain. It becomes evident that Luke’s reshaping was so thorough that the pericopes as they now stand are decidedly Lukan creations. This is indicated by the characteristic Lukan story-telling style as well as by the strongly unified Lukan theology of the pericopes. Luke’s sinners and Pharisees do not fit in the social-historical context of Jesus’ day. The story-world is one of polarized right and wrong. That Jesus is the Christ, representative of God, is an intrinsic part of the story-world. Luke wrote a theological drama inspired by tradition. He persuaded his audience to identify as (repenting) sinners. Luke’s motive was that he saw the sinners in Jesus’ company as forerunners of Gentile Christianity.”

Philemon readings

I have now posted to Bookreviews.org my review of

Larry J. Kreitzer
Philemon
(Readings: A New Biblical Commentary
Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2008).
It will probably appear there in 2-3 months.

I personally found this book very helpful, and I think it will be useful too as an introduction to the letter to Philemon both for students of the New Testament and for lay people in general. I especially appreciate his integration of scholarly New Testament studies with a presentation of the letter’s ‘wirkungsgeschichte’ in literature and film. The present volume is the seventh in a series called “Readings: A New Biblical Commentary.” The publisher does not state who are the intended readers of the series. If the other volumes are tailored in the same way as this one, they might very well serve a wide range of readers, and spark an interest in a further reading of the biblical text itself. And that, in my view, is no small purpose and reward at all.

The Cambridge Companion to Philo

The long awaited The Cambridge Companion to Philo, edited by Adam Kamesar, seems now to be on its way as the Cambridge University Press announces it on their webpages. It is scheduled to be published in May this year.

Adam Kamesar,
The Cambridge Companion to Philo
Series: Cambridge Companions to Philosophy
Cambridge University Press, May 2009, ca. 280 pp.
The publisher lists the following as contributors and topics:
Introduction Adam Kamesar;
Part I. Philo’s Life and Writings:
1. Philo, his family, and his times Daniel R. Schwartz;
2. The works of Philo James R. Royse;
3. Biblical interpretation in Philo Adam Kamesar;
Part II. Philo’s Thought:
4. Philo’s thought within the context of middle Judaism Cristina Termini;
5. Philo’s theology and theory of creation Roberto Radice;
6. Philo’s ethics Carlos Lévy;
Part III. Philo’s Influence and Significance:
7. Philo and the New Testament Folker Siegert;
8. Philo and the early Christian fathers David T. Runia;
9. Philo and rabbinic literature David Winston.

These authors are all well known as solid Philo scholars, and I presume the volume will be a useful introduction to Philo of Alexandria. I am also especially pleased to see that the volumes is to be published both in hardback and in paperback.

Books on Alexandria

When in Egypt, I found some relevant books on Alexandria. The American University Press in Cairo has an excellent bookstore in Cairo, and publishes regularly a lot of books relevant both for present days and ancient Egypt.

Concerning Alexandria, there is a couple of tourist guides you might want to consult if travelling: first and foremost, there is the Lonely Planet volume on Egypt in general:
Egypt
A Travellers Guide.

Then there is another focusing more on Alexandria:
Jenny Jobbins & Mary Megalli,
Alexandria and the Egyptian Mediterranean.
The American University in Cairo Press, Cairo 1993/2006.

More, relevant perhaps, are these volumes focusing ecplicitly on Alexandria:
Michael Haag,
Alexandria. City of Memory
The American University in Cairo Press, Cairo 2004
and
Anthony Hirst & Michael Silk,
Alexandria. Real and Imagined.
The American University in Cairo Press, Cairo 2006.
This latter volume contains several articles that are very relevant for those interested in Alexandria in Graeco-Roman times.

Eine urchristliche praeparatio ad martyrium

By reading 1 Peter, trying to work out its view on mission, I was struck by its emphasis on what one might call praeparatio ad Martyrium, and the lack of studies dealing with this aspect.

But then I discovered, there is in fact a major study published that deals exactly with this aspekt:

Reichert, Angelika, Eine urchristliche praeparatio ad martyrium

Studien zur Komposition, Traditionsgeschichte und Theologie des 1. Petrusbriefes

Beiträge zur biblischen Exegese und Theologie 22
Frankfurt/M., Bern, New York, Paris, 1989. 624 S.

Abstract
“Der in der Struktur des 1Petr auffallende und oft als crux interpretum empfundene Abschnitt 3,13-4,6 zeigt sich auf synchroner Ebene in thematischer und funktionaler Hinsicht als die eigentliche Mitte des Schreibens: Themen, die den ganzen 1Petr bestimmen (Eschatologie, Weltverhältnis, Leiden), werden hier aufeinander bezogen und in der Funktion einer praeparatio ad martyrium zum Ausdruck gebracht. Zugleich zwingt die synchrone Analyse zur diachronen Rückfrage. Diese führt zu der für das «Paulinismus»-Problem relevanten Hypothese: Die Traditionsverarbeitung spiegelt die kritische Auseinandersetzung des Verfassers des 1Petr mit einem bestimmten Zweig der nachpaulinischen Entwicklung.”