The Hermeneutics of the Apostolic Proclamation: The Center of Paul’s Method of Scriptural Interpretation

409 Pages·2012·2.956 MB·English

by  Matthew W. Bates

The Hermeneutics
of the Apostolic Proclamation
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The Hermeneutics of the Apostolic Proclamation
The Center of Paul’s Method of Scriptural Interpretation
Matthew W. Bates
BAYLOR UNIVERSITY PRESS
© 2012 by Baylor University Press
Waco, Texas 76798-7363
All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored
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mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission
in writing of Baylor University Press.
Scripture quotations, where not an author’s own translation, are from the
New Revised Standard Version 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.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bates, Matthew W.
The hermeneutics of the apostolic proclamation : the center of Paul’s method of
scriptural interpretation / Matthew W. Bates
408 p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 357) and index.
ISBN 978-1-60258-328-3 (hardback : alk. paper)
1. Bible. N.T. Epistles of Paul—Hermeneutics. 2. Bible—Criticism, interpreta-
tion, etc.—History—Early church, ca. 30–600. 3. Bible. N.T. Epistles of Paul—
Theology. I. Title.
BS2651.B39 2012
227'.06--dc23
2011051775
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper with a minimum of
30% pcw recycled content.
To my dearest Sarah:
I study Christian theology . . .
You embody it.
(Colossians 3:23-24)
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Contents
Introduction 1
1 Toward the Center of Pauline Hermeneutics 9
2 Paul and the Hermeneutics of the Apostolic Kerygma 59
3 Figuration and the Divine Economy 109
4 Introducing Prosopological Exegesis 183
5 Prosopological Exegesis in Paul’s Letters 223
6 The Implications of Kerygmatic Hermeneutics 329
Bibliography 357
Index of Biblical References 389
vii
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Introduction
Paul is a polarizing figure. For some he is the ultimate saint—the sin-
gular human who best understood the gospel, gave the proclamation of
Jesus its most incisive articulation, and most fully lived it out, dying as
a missionary martyr. For others he is a deluded hack who perpetuated a
deformed gospel that was out of touch with mainstream early Christian
developments, but at the same time he was so influential that he, even
more than Jesus, should be regarded as the true founder of Christianity.
I myself have always been an eager reader of Paul, although I do not
claim that I have always fully comprehended him—especially his inter-
pretations of the ancient Jewish scriptures, called in common parlance the
Old Testament (OT) or Hebrew Bible (HB).1 The following is the result
of my attempt to understand more fully Paul’s scriptural interpretation.
This book puts forward a fresh theory regarding Paul’s basic herme-
neutical procedure—that is, Paul’s motivation and manner of interpreting
the scriptures. The method of exploration combines historical criticism
with a novel intertextual approach that takes early Christian reception
history and parallels to Paul’s exegesis seriously. That is, contrary to earlier
studies of Paul’s interpretative method, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and Ori-
gen are found to be useful resources for understanding Paul’s scriptural
1 Throughout this study the term “scriptures” has been deliberately chosen over the alter-
native “Old Testament,” because the New Testament did not exist at the time Paul wrote his
letters, making the term “Old Testament” anachronistically inappropriate with reference to
Paul. Similarly, “Hebrew Bible” is illegitimate, since Paul preferred to utilize the Greek text.
grafai, grafh,
Finally, in adopting the term “scriptures” ( ) rather than “scripture” ( ), I am merely
echoing the preferred nomenclature of Paul, who favors the plural when making hermeneuti-
cal generalizations but the singular when discussing a specific reading (cf. Rom 1:2; 15:4;
16:26; 1 Cor 15:3-4 with Rom 4:3; 9:17; 10:11; 11:2; Gal 3:8, 22; 4:30).
1