Sean the Baptist (in the UCA)

The One Poet I Know

I see Paul MItchell pretty often. We both sit around a table with mutual friends every week or so, to eat and drink and talk and pray. Paul writes for a living, and like any writer could do with selling a book or two every now and again.

So it is great to see that Eureka Street published five of his poems on Monday. Jason has already put up the poem that I would also choose as my favourite from these five.

Beatitudes
for Aung San Suu Kyi

Blessed are those who watched
with stormcloud eyes
the ground open to swallow them
while fork-tongue drivers
drove whipcrack highways
on luxury serpents. Blessed
are those run down & flattened
fang-holed & spat on
for good measure of the trade index.
Blessed, those daughters set on high wires
to balance dollar signs, while bored crowds
jeered for another fall in interest rates. Blessed
too those with empty chests, soles ripped
from their shoes, fed to dogs. But most blessed
are those who stole the hound scraps
nailed them to their feet
& kept on marching.

If you liked that, then think about buying one or other of the collections. Details here.

Luke's Use of Matthew: Luke 1:31 as a Test Case

I am no scholar of the synoptic problem, but I was raised a Q sceptic and continue to remain comfortable with the notion of Luke's knowledge and use of Matthew.

But I looked again at one tiny aspect of the evidence that Mark Goodacre draws on in support of that notion: namely that Luke betrays apparent knowledge of the Matthean Birth Narrative at the following point:

Luke 1:31: καὶ τέξῃ υἱὸν καὶ καλέσεις τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ Ἰησοῦν.

Matthew 1:21: τέξεται δὲ υἱόν, καὶ καλέσεις τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ Ἰησοῦν·

See, The Case Against Q, 56–57.

So far, so good. What is puzzling, however, is that Matthew continues as follows:

αὐτὸς γὰρ σώσει τὸν λαὸν αὐτοῦ ἀπὸ τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν αὐτῶν. / and he will save his people from their sins.

The issue is that on the face of it, at least, this further clause would seem eminently in keeping with Luke's redactional interests. While Luke's use of the verb 'to save' is broadly similar to Matthew and Luke, the language of 'salvation' and 'Saviour' is distinctive not least in the following canticles (see Luke 1:47, 69, 77). It might, of course, be suggested that Luke has no interests in Matthew's etymological comment, or that Luke replaces the Matthean clause with the more explicitly Davidic: οὗτος ἔσται μέγας καὶ υἱὸς ὑψίστου κληθήσεται (Luke 1:32). It is also true that the notion of deliverance from 'sin' is always expressed using the verb aphiemi in Luke, rather than sozein. Nevertheless, the Matthean formulation would appear to be conducive to Luke's overall concerns.

I don't have access to Michael Goulder's Luke: A New Paradigm (the library copy is out), so it may well be that he offers an explanation there.

Any thoughts, Mark?

Fellowship for Biblical Studies: August 2012 Meeting

On Thursday August 9th I have the honour of addressing the Fellowship for Biblical Studies. Here is my topic:

The Church Triumphant?
Another Look at 2 Corinthians 2:14–17

Abstract: This paper proposes that the oft-discussed thanksgiving period in 2 Cor. 2:14–17 is to be understood as an inclusive portrayal of the common missional vocation shared by Paul and the Corinthians. This vocation is a participation in the ‘triumph of God’, that has initially taken Paul and the Corinthians captive, through public procession and intentional diffusion of the ‘aroma of Christ’: the gospel. This reading stands in contrast to the dominant reading of the passage (and of 2 Corinthians as a whole) as more narrowly focussed on Paul’s apostolic activity. The paper concludes with a brief consideration of the possible implications of this reading for an understanding of 2 Corinthians in general.

If you want to come you either need to be a member of the FBS or be a guest of a member (our little attempt at SNTS-like exclusivity!). The paper follows on from earlier work on Paul's use of the ambassadorial motif in 2 Corinthians 5:20 and the argument basically goes against the grain of all contemporary 2 Corinthians scholarship. We shall see how it goes.