Words Well Spoken: George Kennedy's Rhetoric of the New Testament

Chapter 8: George Kennedy’s Contribution to Rhetorical Criticism of the Pauline Letters

Black Watson Rhetoric final.indd 124 8/27/08 9:02:08 AM 125 Chapter 8 George Kennedy’s Contribution to Rhetorical Criticism of the Pauline Letters Frank W. Hughes Frank Hughes gives us an eyewitness account from the earliest discussions in the 1980s about Greco-Roman rhetoric and its relationship to the New Testament to current analysis of the Pauline Epistles. He outlines Kennedy’s contribution in bringing rhetorical study of Paul back into mainstream Pauline studies, the resistance to rhetoric’s reemergence among theologians, and the fresh perspective that rhetorical analysis has ultimately created. I am often asked what’s new in the study of the Pauline Letters. I often respond that there are five breaths of fresh air in the study of Paul. These are the development of rhetorical criticism of the letters of the Pauline corpus, the development of criticism based on social-scientific models, the renewed study of Paul in connection with Judaism, the renewed study of Paul in connection with Greco-Roman philosophy, and the renewed study of Pauline theology. Of these, it seems to me, rhetorical criticism is the most important. The contribution that rhetorical criticism has made to the historical and literary interpretation of the Bible has been significant, and it has been well chronicled by two rhetorical critics in recent years.1 In this chapter I want to highlight the important contribution that George A. Kennedy has made to rhetorical criticism of the Pauline Letters. New Testament Interpretation Through Rhetorical Criticism Most New Testament scholars are aware of Kennedy’s small book, New Testament Interpretation through Rhetorical Criticism, published in 1984.2 This book gives an introduction to Greek and Roman rhetoric; provides access to Greek and Roman rhetoric through the ­ rhetorical Black Watson Rhetoric final.indd 125 8/27/08 9:02:08 AM 126 Frank W. Hughes handbooks; and offers a brief analysis of several Pauline Letters, some speeches in the Acts of the Apostles, and the rhetoric of the gospels. In particular, there is an excellent chapter on the three genera of rhetoric (judicial, epideictic, and deliberative) and the arrangement of speeches.3 Kennedy’s book was the first book to challenge Hans Dieter Betz’s identification of the rhetoric of Galatians as judicial, as found in his Hermeneia commentary appearing in 1979.4 Kennedy’s 1984 monograph was an important event in the rhetorical analysis of Pauline Letters. In his gentlemanly way, Kennedy encouraged students of the New Testament to become familiar with the rich and complex tradition of Greek and Roman rhetoric, both in theory (the handbooks) and in practice (actual speeches). Of great importance is the fact that Kennedy’s monograph includes a method for doing a rhetorical analysis of text, which has been briefly summarized by Duane Watson.5 It includes the determination of the rhetorical unit; the definition of the rhetorical situation; the determination of the rhetorical problem or main question at issue and the genus of rhetoric (whether judicial, epideictic, or deliberative); the analysis of the invention, arrangement, and style of the rhetorical unit; and the evaluation of the rhetorical effectiveness of the rhetorical unit in utilizing invention, arrangement, and style.6 The decade of the 1980s was a very exciting time in the rhetorical criticism of Pauline Letters. I remember the early 1980s well, when there was no published analysis of the rhetoric of several Pauline Letters, including 1 or 2 Thessalonians. Wilhelm Wuellner’s highly influential early article on Romans had appeared in 1976, as well as F. Forrester Church’s excellent rhetorical analysis of Philemon which was published in 1978. Wuellner’s article on three passages in 1 Corinthians had also appeared in 1979.7 Perhaps one good thing about that era of scholarship is that we did not have to wade through the large amount of secondary literature of rhetorical criticism of Pauline Letters that we and other scholars have produced in the last twenty years. However, we did have the works of Demosthenes, Aristotle, Cicero, the Rhetorica ad Herennium, Quintilian, and Menander Rhetor. In the 1980s rhetorical criticism was being developed in several centers of graduate study of the New Testament, most notably the University of Chicago, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary/ Northwestern University, Pacific School of Religion, Wycliffe College, and Emory University. Such scholars as Betz, Robert Jewett, Richard Black Watson Rhetoric final.indd 126 8/27/08 9:02:08 AM Kennedy and the...