Reading the Bible Intertextually

Contents

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Foreword to the German Edition

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pp. vii-ix

The present collection of essays gathers together presentations delivered on the occasion of the interdisciplinary and international conference “Die Bibel im Dialog der Schriften.” Under the direction of Stefan Alkier, in cooperation with Richard B. Hays, the conference took place 4–6 November...

Foreword to the English Edition

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pp. xi- xv

The term intertextuality , first coined in French by Julia Kristeva forty years ago as intertextualit� , has gained widespread currency in scholarly discourse, not only in studies of recondite scholarly topics but also in the analysis of pop culture. Biblical critics are sometimes a little slow on the...

1: Intertextuality and the Semiotics of Biblical Texts

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pp. 3-22

Texts are relational objects composed of signs. No text is produced and received in isolation from other texts. The concept of intertextuality therefore involves the task of investigating the relationships that a text can have with other texts. The hermeneutical consequence of this insight regarding the unavoidable intertextual composition of every text consists of...

2: Intertextuality and Historical Approaches to the Use of Scripture in the New Testament

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pp. 23-34

Intertextuality is not a method but a theory (or group of theories) concerning the production of meaning. Julia Kristeva is generally credited as the first to introduce the term intertextualit� into literary discussion in 1969. Drawing on the work of Bakhtin, Kristeva ...

3: How Does God Act? Intertextual Readings of 1 Corinthians 10

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pp. 35-52

“How is a sermon supposed to be exciting if the Bible is not experienced as exciting?”₁ This sentence is a “cry for help from a homiletician who can hardly do his work of the teaching of preaching any more in an adequate manner.”2 The homiletician expressing this cry for help, Martin Nicol, asks further: “What should I aim for homiletically if preachers have no...

4: Allegorical Reading and Intertextuality: Narrative Abbreviations of the Adam Store in Paul (Romand 1: 18-28)

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pp. 53-62

The Pauline letters contain a multitude of allusions or explicit references to the content of biblical narratives. My theme springs from the question of how these references are to be interpreted. The Adam story (Genesis 1–3) serves as my paradigm. We understand Paul’s argumentative texts only if we take note of how he refers to biblical narratives and narrative....

5: The Matthean Jesus and the Isaac of the Early Jewish Encyclopedia

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pp. 63-82

As one of the most potent and poignant texts of the Bible, Genesis 22 has possessed great significance for both Jews and Christians. Judah Goldin writes, “. . . the Akedah story, Genesis XXII, is indeed one of the most terrifying narratives in all of Scripture. . . . So profound was the effect of this...

6: Paul as User, Interpreter, and Reader of the Book of Isaiah

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pp. 83-100

In my contribution, I would like to consider the question of how Paul used, interpreted, and read the book of Isaiah. ₁ This approach requires an explanation, given the framework of a presentation on the theme of our conference, “conceptions of intertextual Bible reading.” As Stefan...

7: The Liberation of Israel in Luke-Acts: Intertextual Narration as Countercultural Practice

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pp. 101-118

In the midst of the American Civil War in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln went to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, to dedicate a cemetery in honor of the soldiers who had lost their lives in the bloody battle there four months earlier. His short speech on that occasion, the Gettysburg Address, has entered American civic lore not only as a fitting tribute to the dead...

8: Psalm 113 and the Song of Hannah (1 Samuel 2:1-10): A Paradigm for Intertextual Reading?

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pp. 119-138

The word intertextuality has become a relatively significant term. Definitions range between the poles of an extremely broad concept or an exceptionally narrow one.₁ Nevertheless, intertextuality as a general expression for “the theory of relationships...

9: Canon as Intertext: Restraint or Liberation

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pp. 139-156

Before I talk about canon, I must talk about intertextuality, and in order to talk about intertextuality, I must talk about text. Anyone who has read much by Roland Barthes or Julia Kristeva or Umberto Eco or many other recent semioticians will know that the word “text” is now very problematic...

10: Christian Apocalypses and Their Mimetic Potential in Pagan Education: A Contribution Concerning Lucian's True History

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pp. 157-169

While there can be no doubt that in the Roman imperial period Christians took notice of pagan literature and, conversely, that educated (pepaideumenoi) pagans also took notice of Christian texts, this latter point is seldom reflected in classical philology...

11: Nonnus and His Tradition

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pp. 170-190

While pagan and Christian late antiquity occupies a privileged place in Latin studies today and represents a discrete field of research, its place in Greek studies remains precarious. the Greek literature of the first three centuries of the common era has evolved in the past ten years into one of the liveliest areas of research...

12: Literary Reading(s) of the Bible: Aspects of a Semiotic Conception of Intertextuality and Intertextual Analysis of Texts

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pp. 191-204

When Julia Kristeva employed the term “intertextuality” in an essay in 1967, she gave a name to a phenomenon that could be regarded as an overarching concept uniting various and rather different things. In literary-critical discussions in years following, there was hardly any other concept...

13: Reading the Bible in the Context of “Thick Description”: Reflections of a Practical Theologian on a Phenomenological Concept of Contextuality

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pp. 205-222

Although Christianity is rightly labeled a “religion of the book,” it remains the case that texts per se do not constitute the object of practical theology as a theological discipline. Rather, this discipline generally concerns actual practices in everyday life and the implications of the role of religion...

14: New Testament Studies on the Basis of Categorical Semiotics

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pp. 223-248

In what follows, I shall introduce the basic lines of a semiotic program for New Testament studies.₁ At the outset, I shall list six academic convictions that motivate the decision for the semiotic conception. In the second section, I will present the theoretical basis for this conception. In the third section, I shall...

Notes

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pp. 249-322

Scripture Index

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pp. 323-329

Index of Subjects and Authors

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pp. 330- 334