Aune - Westminster Dictionary of New Testament and Early Christian Literature and Rhetoric

Westminster John Knox Press, 2003. – 552 p.

ISBN 978-0664219178

 

This dictionary, in preparation for ten years, is designed to fill a gap in existing reference works that treat the New Testament and early Christianity. The primary focus is on the literary and rhetorical dimensions of early Christian literature from its beginnings, about 50 C.E., through the mid-second century C.E. Since early Christian literary activity cannot be adequately understood in isolation from the literary and cultural traditions of its day, entries are included on various aspects of other important bodies of literature that were part of early Christianity's historical and cultural setting, including Gnostic, Jewish, Greek, and Roman Literature. The contextual historical framework for this enterprise is that of the Hellenistic and Roman periods, about 300 B.C.E. to about 200 C.E. In entries that treat subjects not directly related to the New Testament and early Christian literature, I have attempted to address that issue directly toward the end of the entry.

 

During the 1970s and 1980s, New Testament scholars were increasingly influenced by the kinds of literary methods used by scholars of Western literature (particularly English and French). During that same period, the relevance of Greco-Roman society and culture for interpreting the early Christian literature was increasingly evident in the study of the New Testament. As part of this renewed discovery of the Greco-Roman world, ancient Greek and Roman rhetoric also came to play an increasingly important role in understanding the arguments used by early Christian authors, particularly in early Christian letters. The number of ancient texts that have been edited or reedited in the last decade is enormous, and the secondary literature on many aspects of ancient literature and rhetoric has grown exponentially. The central purpose of this dictionary, therefore, is to synthesize and present the specific ways in which ancient and modem comparative literature, literary criticism, and rhetoric have been and could be applied to the literature of the New Testament. However, since there are several excellent dictionaries and handbooks of modem literary criticism and rhetoric available, the emphasis here is on ancient literature and rhetoric and ancient literary criticism. There is no convincing reason that ancient literary and rhetorical conceptions and methods should not be supplemented with modem perspectives, and for that reason this dictionary does not draw a hard and fast line between ancient and modem literary and rhetorical methods. In an earlier book, The New Testament in Its Literary Environment (Louisville, Ky.: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1987), I mapped out some of the ways in which comparative ancient literature provides insights into the meaning and interpretation of New Testament and early Christian literature. This dictionary continues that program in a more ambitious way, using an alphabetical format to provide easier access to material relevant for the reader.

 

An explanation of some of the features of this dictionary is necessary. Words or phrases that are asterisked indicate that separate entries can be found for those words or phrases. At the end of each entry is a list of related entries found elsewhere in the dictionary. There is a hierarchical relationship among some of these cross-references in that some direct the reader to more general or more specific aspects of the same topic; other crossreferences point to related topics. Most articles have a bibliography with abbreviated entries consisting of the surnames of authors and the dates of publications. These bibliographies will help the reader to find more complete and detailed information than can be included in a dictionary entry. Complete bibliographical information for each short entry can be found in the bibliography at the end of the volume. Throughout the dictionary are a number of tables designed to help the reader to navigate a great deal of information quickly.

 

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Aporia

(pl. aporiai or aporias), a transliterated Greek word meaning "difficulty, problem, question," is used in several literarily relevant ways: (1) Aporia is used as a *rhetorical question (introduced with "how" or "who") in introductory sections of ancient Greek hymns (Bundy 1972, 57-77), as in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo 19, 207: "How shall I sing of you, who are in all ways worthy of song?" See also Iliad 2.484-93; 11.218; 14.508; Callimachus, Hym. Joy. 91-92; Horace, Carm. 1.31.1-2). The incomparability of God in the Jewish tradition is emphasized by hymnic aporiai introduced by the phrase "who is like" (Exod.15:11; Pss. 35:10; 113:5). One of the hymns in magical papyri, found in PGM Xl.244-52 (written in hexameter), contains six occurrences of Ti$ ("who" or "what") in the first four lines (trans. Betz 1986, 163; cf. the commentary in Merkelbach and Totti 1990, 1.16-19):

 

In the NT this device occurs in Rev. 5:2, "Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?" and Rev. 13:4, "Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?"

 

(2) In rhetoric, and particularly in the *exordium of a speech, the speaker feigns to be at a loss as how to begin (Quintilian 9.2.19; Race 1982, 20-21).

 

(3) In the context of philosophical dialectic, aporiai are the problems or questions posed as the starting point for philosophic discussion, followed by reviews and critiques of previous opinions on the subject, and then concluded with a more satisfactory solution (eulrop(a, au6t9); see Aristotle, De anima 1.403; Nichomachaean Ethics 7.1145b.

 

(4) In modern source-critical analysis, the term "aporia" is used of literary inconsistencies, contradictions, interruptions, sudden turns, non sequiturs, and doublets (often collectively designated "seams") in texts that suggest the original order of the text has somehow been interrupted in the editorial process. The detection of aporiai is one method sourcecritical analysis used to separate tradition from redaction. Three examples: (a) Mark 10:46: "And they came to Jericho. And as he was leaving Jericho ..." (b) 2 Cor. 2:13 seems to be continued in 2 Cor. 7:5, suggesting that the intervening text in 2:14-7:4 is a later insertion (Welborn 1996; see *Corinthians, Second Letter to the, and *Interpolation). (c) John 5 confuses the geographical continuity between John 4 and 6 (von Wahlde 1989, 17-20); see *John, Gospel of.

 

*Interpolation, *Source criticism, *Unity, literary

 

Nicol 1972, 27-30; Peters 1967, 22-23; von Wahlde 1989