Seeing the word (studies in theological interpretation) : refocusing new testament study

196 Pages·2013·2.1 MB·English

by  Bockmuehl

STUDIES in THEOLOGICAL INTERPRETATION
Series Editors
Craig G. Bartholomew
Redeemer University College
Joel B. Green
Asbury Theological Seminary
Christopher R. Seitz
University of St. Andrews
Editorial Advisory Board
Gary Anderson
University of Notre Dame
Markus Bockmuehl
University of St. Andrews
Richard Hays
Duke University Divinity School
Christine Pohl
Asbury Theological Seminary
Eleonore Stump
Saint Louis University
Anthony Thiselton
University of Nottingham
University of Chester
Marianne Meye Thompson
Fuller Theological Seminary
Kevin Vanhoozer
Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
John Webster
University of Aberdeen
Jim Kinney
Baker Academic

© 2006 by Markus Bockmuehl
Published by Baker Academic
a division of Baker Publishing Group
P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.bakeracademic.com
Ebook edition created 2013
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the
prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
ISBN 978-1-4412-0690-9
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version of the
Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ
in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
“In this important work, Bockmuehl deploys his wide knowledge both of the world of the early church
and of the history of modern New Testament scholarship. His diagnosis of the contemporary state of New
Testament studies is acute, and his recommendations for future directions are suggestive and important.”
Richard Bauckham, professor of New Testament studies,
University of St. Andrews
“Markus Bockmuehl’s Seeing the Word offers fresh possibilities for reading biblical texts in their historic
role as the church’s Scripture. There is something to be learned on every page of this study, but the book
is especially persuasive in arguing the case for an integrated reading of Scripture that overcomes the
specious dichotomy between historical and theological issues and in demonstrating that theological
exegesis can draw from and contribute to both the church and the academy. Whether one’s interests lie
primarily with historical questions or with theological ones, readers will find no guide more capable and
learned.”
Marianne Meye Thompson, professor of New Testament
interpretation, Fuller Theological Seminary
“Witty, sure-footed, and erudite, Markus Bockmuehl’s Seeing the Word is a gift to all who care about the
future of New Testament studies. Though severe in his diagnosis of the field’s present crisis, Bockmuehl
is heartening and enlightening in his account of how scholars today can reconstitute the study of the New
Testament in an intellectually coherent and theologically fruitful way, without sacrificing the genuine gains
of recent decades. By highlighting the integrative potential of New Testament study from the perspective
of its implied readers and Wirkungsgeschichte, Bockmuehl models an approach whose historical interest
is broad enough to encompass the New Testament’s historic identity as Christian Scripture and whose
theological concern is confident enough to dare public conversation about truth.”
R. Kendall Soulen, professor of systematic theology,
Wesley Theological Seminary
CONTENTS
Cover
Series Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Endorsements
Series Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Watching Luke Paint the Virgin
1. The Troubled Fortunes of New Testament Scholarship
2. The Wisdom of the Implied Exegete
3. Humpty Dumpty and the Range of Implied Readings
4. The Icon of Peter and Paul between History and Reception
5. What’s under the Microscope?
6. Living Memory and Apostolic History
7. Seeing the Son of David
Epilogue: Seeing the Word of Life
Works Cited
Index of Scripture and Other Ancient Writings
Index of Authors
Index of Subjects
Notes
SERIES PREFACE
A
s a discipline, formal biblical studies is in a period of reassessment and upheaval. Concern with
historical origins and the development of the biblical materials has in many places been replaced by an
emphasis on the reader and the meanings supplied by present contexts and communities.
The Studies in Theological Interpretation series will seek to appreciate the constructive theological
contribution made by Scripture when it is read in its canonical richness. Of necessity, this includes
historical evaluation while remaining open to renewed inquiry into what is meant by history and historical
study in relation to Christian Scripture. This also means that the history of the reception of biblical texts—
a discipline frequently neglected or rejected altogether—will receive fresh attention and respect. In sum,
the series is dedicated to the pursuit of constructive theological interpretation of the church’s inheritance
of prophets and apostles in a manner that is open to reconnection with the long history of theological
reading in the church. The primary emphasis is on the constructive theological contribution of the biblical
texts themselves.
New commentary series have sprung up to address these and similar concerns. It is important to
complement this development with brief, focused, and closely argued studies that evaluate the
hermeneutical, historical, and theological dimensions of scriptural reading and interpretation for our
times. In the light of shifting and often divergent methodologies, the series will encourage studies in
theological interpretation that model clear and consistent methods in the pursuit of theologically engaging
readings.
An earlier day saw the publication of a series of short monographs and compact treatments in the area
of biblical theology that went by the name Studies in Biblical Theology. The length and focus of the
contributions were salutary features and worthy of emulation. Today, however, we find no consensus
regarding the nature of biblical theology, and this is a good reason to explore anew what competent
theological reflection on Christian Scripture might look like in our day. To this end, the present series,
Studies in Theological Interpretation, is dedicated.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
T
he argument of this book has occupied my thinking for more than a decade, and it remains very much a
work in progress. Nevertheless, I wish briefly to record my thanks to some of the many friends and
institutions who have helped me along the way. Much of this book has repeatedly been “road tested” in
lectures, in conference or seminar papers, and in informal talks to students and church groups. I am most
grateful to these audiences for their patience with my half-formed thoughts and for their stimulating
feedback. These settings have included seminars or symposia at Cambridge; the universities of Aberdeen,
Berne, Durham, Oxford, and St. Andrews; as well as Fuller Theological Seminary, College Church in
Wheaton, and the Center of Theological Inquiry at Princeton. Other valuable settings included the
lunchtime theological discussion group at Little St. Mary’s Church, Cambridge. I want to record my
indebtedness and affectionate thanks to the “Grantchester Meadows Group” of Ph.D. students meeting
fortnightly at my house in Cambridge, who in the Easter and Michaelmas terms of 2004 volunteered to
forgo our regular program in order to offer feedback on draft chapters of this book. Members of the group
at that time included Charles Anderson, Wayne Coppins, Justin Hardin, David Rudolph, Joel Willitts,
Todd Wilson, Stephen Witmer, and John Yates.
Of equal importance have been the many individuals who have assisted in various ways or from whom
I have learned in personal conversation and correspondence. Some may have offered a full critique and
others a single incisive suggestion; some were more and others less sympathetic to my views; but all were
unfailingly patient and constructive in encouraging me with their praise or criticism. Although there are
many others, at least the following may be singled out here: Susanna Avery-Quash, Richard Beaton,
Michael Cain, James Carleton Paget, Sarah Coakley, Brian Daley, Mark Elliott, Christopher Evans,
Richard Hays, Jane Heath, Martin Hengel, William Horbury, Winrich Löhr, Robert Morgan, Werner
Neuer, Aidan Nichols, Gordon Plumb, Kavin Rowe, Michael Scott-Joynes, Kendall Soulen, Graham
Stanton, Peter Stuhlmacher, John Sweet, Marianne Meye Thompson, Peter Tomson, Benedict Viviano,
Francis Watson, and Rowan Williams.
During research and writing stints away from home, I have repeatedly enjoyed the peace and quiet of
Steve and Rachel James’s cottage in the lovely Welsh village of Rowen; and I am equally grateful for the
generous hospitality offered at Tübingen by the Haizmann family and by the staff of the Theologicum,
University Library, and Evangelisches Stift. Among the many providers of small mercies, I would like
especially to mention Frau Specht of the document delivery unit at Tübingen’s University Library for her
swift and generous help in emailing an otherwise elusive journal article. For much of the research
underlying chapter 6, the British Academy generously assisted me through one of its Research
Readerships (1999–2001).
Parts of the first five chapters have appeared elsewhere, although in its present form all of this material
is extensively revised and (I trust) improved. The relevant original publications are listed in the
bibliography as Bockmuehl 1998a, 1998b, 2000c, 2003b, 2004b, and all are reused by permission of the
respective copyright holders.
The quotations from Eusebius’s Ecclesiastical History, which appear in chapters 6 and 7, are reprinted
by permission of the publishers and the Trustees of the Loeb Classical Library from Eusebius: Volume I,
Loeb Classical Library® Volume 153, translated by Kirsopp Lake, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
University Press, Copyright 1926 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. The Loeb Classical
Library® is a registered trademark of the President and Fellows of Harvard College.
Every attempt has been made, too, to secure reproduction rights for the illustrations in this book. The
picture on the cover and in the introduction is included by permission of the British Library, while the
icon in chapter 5 appears by permission of Mondadori Electa Photoservice, Milan, Italy. The etching in
chapter 2 is reproduced from the frontispiece of Thomas Aquinas 1966 by permission of St. Scholastica’s
Priory, Petersham, Massachusetts.
M.B.
Princeton
Easter, 2006
INTRODUCTION
Watching Luke Paint the Virgin
A Fifteenth-Century Clue
In 2003–4 London’s Royal Academy of Arts, in partnership with the British Library and the Getty
Museum of Los Angeles, mounted an unprecedented and extraordinarily successful exhibition entitled
“Illuminating the Renaissance.” It was designed to document the final flourishing of manuscript
illumination in the fifteenth century and for the first time ever brought together the greatest works
produced by Flemish illuminators during this period. Among the 130 items were works ranging in size
from a monumental genealogy to the tiniest of private prayer books and miniature parchment altarpieces.
In one corner of the exhibition, easy to miss, was a miniature of St. Luke Painting the Virgin and Child,
produced in the 1460s at Valenciennes by Simon Marmion or members of his workshop. While touring the
exhibition with my family, I thought little of this small page at first and passed it by, but later I returned for
a second look. I discovered an arresting image that has continued to occupy me ever since. It is
reproduced below and on the front cover of this book, and will provide a useful backdrop for my concern
in these pages.[1]