Politics of Parousia: Reading Mark Inter(Con)Textually (Biblical Interpretation Series)

206 Pages·1999·14.27 MB·English

by  Tat-Siong Benny Liew

POLITICS OF PAROUSIA
BIBLICAL
INTERPRETATION
SERIES
Editors
R. ALAN CULPEPPER
ROLF RENDTORFF
Associate Editor
DAVID E. ORTON
Editorial Advisory Board
JANICE CAPEL ANDERSON · MIEKE BAL
PHYLLIS A. BIRD · ERHARD BLUM · ROBERT P. CARROLL
WERNER H. KELBER · EKKEHARD STEGEMANN
ANTHONY C. THISELTON · VINCENT L. WIMBUSH · JEAN ZUMSTEIN
VOLUME 42
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Ό
7Γ-"
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'6 8"* '
POLITICS OF PAROUSIA
Reading Mark Inter (con) textually
BY
TAT-SIONG BENNY LIEW
BRILL
LEIDEN · BOSTON · KÖLN
1999
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Liew, Tat-Siong Benny.
Politics of Parousia : reading Mark inter(con)textua11y / by Tat
-Siong Benny Liew.
p. cm. — (Biblical interpretation series, ISSN 0928-0731 ;
v. 42)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 9004113606 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Bible. N.T. Mark—Social scientific criticism. 2. Politics
in the Bible. 3. Second Advent—Biblical teaching. I. Title.
11 Series
BS2585.6.P6L54 1999
226.3Ό6—dc21 98-19920
CIP
Die Deutsche Bibliothek - GIP-Einheitsaufnahme
Liew, Tat-Siong Benny:
Politics of Parousia : reading Mark inter(con)textua11y / by Tat-Siong
Benny Liew. - Leiden ; Boston ; Köln : Brill, 1999
(Biblical interpretation series ; Vol. 42)
ISBN 90-04-11360-6
ISSN 0928-0731
ISBN 90 04 11360 6
© Copyright 1999 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in
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PRINTED IN THE NETHERLANDS
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS vii
PREFACE ix
I. REASONS AND DIRECTIONS 1
Postmodern Sensibilities 2
Problematizing and Politicizing Deconstruction 7
Biblical Criticism and Social Change 16
Summary 21
II. INTER(C0N)TEXTUALITY:
QUESTIONS OF TEXTUALITY, SUBJECTIVITY,
AND AGENCY 22
Using "Western" Theory: Pragmatism Over Purism .. 23
Blurring Texts and Contexts 25
Intertextual Studies of Biblical Texts 30
From Inter(con)textua1ity to Intersubjectivity 33
Agencies of Writing and Reading 38
Reading as an Inter(con)textua1 Dialogue 40
Summary 44
III. BRIDGING THE GREAT DIVIDE:
THE POLITICS OF MARK'S APOCALYPTIC 46
Mark's Non-Apocalyptic, Colonial Politics 48
Mark's Non-Colonial Apocalyptic 51
Apocalyptic as a Product of Colonial Politics 55
Apocalyptic as a Production of Colonial Politics 60
Summary 63
IV. SUBJECTS OF AUTHORITY:
BETWEEN ROMAN RULE AND MESSIANIC
REIGN 64
Attacking Jewish Authorities 65
Assaulting Roman Authorities 81
Apocalyptic, Anti-Authority and Barrier-Breaking 86
New Authority and Colonial Mimicry 93
Summary 108
V. SUBJECTS OF AGENCY:
WAITING TO BE SAVED, AND LIVING LIFE AS
IT IS NECESSARY 109
Jesus, God's Agent in Action 109
From "Hard Heads" to "Mission Impossible" 111
Hindrances of Human Agency to Change 115
From Being Sent to Being Saved by God 119
Human Mobility and Human Autonomy 126
Politics of Time and Time of Politics 130
Summary 132
VI. SUBJECTS OF GENDER:
WOMEN AT THE CROSS(ROADS) OF A
TRAFFICKING ACT 133
Home Matters and Family Subjects 134
Mark's "Model Minority"? 140
The Tragedy of Trafficking Women 144
Summary 147
VII. CONCLUSION 149
The Inter(con)texts of Chinese American Narratives .. 150
Switching Metaphors: Swiss Cheese or Unraveling
Tapestries? 158
Gospels, Socio-Political Reading, and
Cultural Politics 164
BIBLIOGRAPHY 169
INDEX OF AUTHORS 189
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book is a revision of my Ph.D. dissertation (Vanderbilt University,
1997). I am grateful to the members of my dissertation committee—
Jay Clayton, Peter Haas, Daniel Patte, Fernando Segovia, and Mary
Ann Tolbert—for teaching me many invaluable lessons both inside
and outside the classroom. I would like to express my appreciation
in particular to the Co-Directors of my project: Daniel Patte and
Mary Ann Tolbert. They have been supportive of my work from
the first day I stepped on the campus of Vanderbilt University, and
they have been patient and understanding when my writing of the
dissertation was interrupted by a serious illness in the family. Without
their able and untiring guidance, their faith in my potential as a
scholar, and their personal interest in me as a human being, I rather
doubt if this first-generation college graduate would ever accomplish
what was previously nothing more than a dream.
I also need to thank Jay Clayton, who has gone way beyond the
normal duties of a "minor" advisor. This dissertation is certainly bet-
ter because of the courses, discussions, and a wide-range of biblio-
graphical reference he blessed me with before my candidacy.
Finally, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to two people who
have been most important in my life. I want to thank Wai-hua Hung,
my mother, and matriarch of her immediate family. Although she
has never had the opportunity to finish grade school, she has wisdom
and determination that I admire. She has always made education
for her children the highest priority; because of that commitment,
she has supported me financially (more than once) through my many
years of formal education. I want to thank Pamela Kay Liew, my
wife, who is also my intellectual partner and best friend. She has
been an unending and unbending source of strength and support.
In addition to reading, critiquing, and editing this entire manuscript,
she has recently given birth to our first child. For all of that, I am
most grateful.

PREFACE
When I was still a high school student in Hong Kong, I met a
schoolmate who was three or four years my senior. I was very
impressed by his charisma and his knowledge. Every time we got
together, he would tell me about Chinese literature, Chinese history,
and people like Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping; he would tell me
about politics.
My friend told me that his goal—and this was some twenty years
before 1997—was to become the first Chinese chief executive officer
of the Hong Kong government.
On one occasion, after he learned about my interest in the Bible
and in theology, he told me I should give it up and pursue politics
with him. "Politics," he said, "that's where the real battles are fought."
Twenty years later, I realize that what my friend said was both
true and false. I never gave up studying the Bible; and in doing that,
I have also been involved in politics. Cultural politics may be a differ-
ent kind of politics, but it is there also that real battles are being fought.
(My friend? He never did become the first Chinese chief execu-
tive officer of Hong Kong [Tung Chee-wah holds that position].
Although my friend did go into politics for a while, and won an
elected office on the regional level, he has since left politics to enroll
in the money-battle of the business world.)
This project is part of that "real battle"; it is also part of the
development that has come to be known as literary criticism of the
New Testament. Reading the Gospel of Mark with insights from
contemporary literary theory, I intend to probe the relationship
between Mark's story of Jesus and colonial politics, and more spe-
cifically, the relationship between Mark's emphasis on the parousia
(or the return of Jesus) and his constructions of colonial subjects.
To begin, I will situate my project as one that involves Gospel
studies in the socio-political struggles for liberation, and delineate
reasons for such a direction (Chapter I). Then I will explain the
methodology that underlies my study, and justify my coining of the
term "inter(con)textua1ity" (Chapter II). Before I venture into Mark,
I will also clarify why I see a connection between ancient Jewish
apocalyptic and colonial politics (Chapter III).