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59 Paul and the Hermeneutics of the Apostolic Kerygma 2 G There is no small amount of disagreement regarding the degree to which Paul conveys his own principles of scriptural interpretation. For instance, Richard Hays has dismissed the notion that Paul has any systematic hermeneutical principles, let alone ones that are expressly revealed.1 Other scholars forthrightly claim the opposite, that Paul does have clearly defined exegetical principles,2 and some scholars have taken a more cautious centrist position.3 I will argue that Paul does forthrightly point to a hermeneutical center, although he neither unequivocally expresses nor exemplifies any systematic hermeneutical principles. The received apostolic proclamation is the filter through which he reads his ancient Jewish scriptures. In the search for explicit statements by Paul about his own hermeneutical principles, the most heavily studied passage is probably 2 Corinthians 1 Richard B. Hays, Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989), 160, states: “Our account of Paul’s interpretative activity has discovered no systematic exegetical procedures at work.” 2 E. Earle Ellis, Paul’s Use of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1957), 135–36; Scott J. Hafemann, Paul, Moses, and the History of Israel: The Letter/Spirit Contrast and the Argument from Scripture in 2 Corinthians 3 (Tübingen: Mohr [Siebeck], 1995; repr., Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 1996), 452–53; Carol K. Stockhausen, “2 Corinthians 3 and the Principles of Pauline Exegesis,” in Paul and the Scriptures of Israel, ed. Craig A. Evans and James A. Sanders, JSNTSup 83 (Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1993), 143–64, esp. 143–46, identifies five exegetical principles: (1) narrative texts from the Pentateuch are primary, (2) prophetic or wisdom texts focus the narrative texts from the Pentateuch, (3) contradictions are located and resolved, (4) attention to context, and (5) pesher-like contemporization. 3 Steven DiMattei, “Biblical Narratives,” in As It Is Written: Studying Paul’s Use of Scripture , ed. Stanley E. Porter and Christopher D. Stanley, SBLSymS 50 (Atlanta: SBL, 2008), 59–93, esp. 77–93, identifies in Paul just one “contemporized eschatological” hermeneutical principle akin to that operative in the Dead Sea Scrolls. 60 The Hermeneutics of the Apostolic Proclamation 3:1–4:6 (using the key terms “spirit,” “letter,” and “veil”), which has been the subject of numerous independent monographs, followed by Galatians 4:21-31 (on allegory) and 1 Corinthians 10:1-13 (on so-called “typology ”). Although these passages undoubtedly reveal crucial hermeneutical insights, I believe that the intense focus by scholars examining Pauline hermeneutics on these specific passages in many respects has had the deleterious effect of obscuring the more primal kerygmatic framework that Paul elsewhere forthrightly endorses. Thus, in sequencing my chapters, I have chosen to treat passages that announce Paul’s kerygmatic hermeneutic first, and will reserve discussion of “typology,” allegory, the significance of the veil, and several other points for chapter 3. In this chapter, I will contend that Paul’s own declarations about the scriptures suggest that Paul uses certain received christocentric narrative sequences as his fundamental hermeneutical lens. Moreover, these christocentric sequences in Paul contain a relatively stable core of fixed elements. At the center of these narratives stand assertions regarding the salvific death, resurrection, and installation of Christ in a position of power in the heavenly realms. Furthermore, by syntactically extending these protocreedal sequences, Paul hermeneutically maps himself and his audience into the narrative framework provided by these structures. The result is that Paul himself testifies that his scriptural hermeneutic is grounded in christocentric protocreedal narrative sequences that can be identified as both kerygmatic and apostolic in nature. 1 Corinthians 15:3-11:“According to the Scriptures” and Protocreedal Hermeneutics In 1 Corinthians 15:3, Paul uses language that signals the deliberate, intentional transmission of traditional material with the terms “I handed over” (pare,dwka) and “I received” (pare,labon),4 while reminding the audience also of the content of this traditional material: 3 For as a matter of primary import I handed over to you that which also I received: that Christ died in behalf of our sins in accordance with the 4 For paradi,dwmi in the sense of transmitting tradition see: Mark 7:13; Luke 1:2; Acts 6:14; 16:4; 1 Cor 11:2, 23; 2 Pet 2:21; Jude 3. For paralamba,nw, see Mark 7:4; 1 Cor 11:23; 15:1; Gal 1:9, 12; Col 2:6; 1 Thess 2:13; 4:1; 2 Thess 3:6. For...

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