Theological Education as <i>Palaistra</i>

Theological Education as Palaistra

Our world, with its pressures and distractions, has succeeded in derailing many would-be students of the Bible and theology. As a former student of theological education and now as a professor who counsels students in these areas, I understand well how life’s pressures and distractions thwart even the best intentions. However, with today’s world becoming more complex—not less—Christians must regain their heritage of methodical, disciplined, and practiced education in the face of these pressures and distractions. Our wider culture tempts us to view theological education as a product to be purchased or consumed from a theological institution. But our heritage teaches something else entirely. Learning comes as a prize to be won through the training of the mind. When it comes to education today we have lost even the proper vocabulary to describe it. We must look to the past to regain it and appropriate it to our situation once again.

Amphilochius, the Bishop of Iconium in the fourth century, wrote a didactic poem, αμβοι πρς Σέλευκον, who was his young nephew, in order to encourage him in his learning. At line 181ff he wrote:

But, you, instead of these, take joy in your lessons,

Out of which you will exercise (σκήσεις) the most excellent way.

Now since you should train (προγυμνάσς) your mind moderately beforehand

As in school (παλαίστρ) with various treatises,

Contend (νάθλει) with the divinely inspired Scriptures themselves

Collecting the great wealth of the two covenants,

On the one hand, the Old, but, on the other hand, always the New.

For the New has been written second

And after it there will be no third.

Allot (νέμε) all diligence (σπουδήν) to these (i.e. the two covenants),

From which you should learn to practice (ξασκεν) the useful way (χρηστν τρόπον)

And to worship (σέβειν) the true and only God.

Amphilochius loads these twelve lines with images from the world of athletics. He encourages Seleukos to “exercise” (ln. 182), “train beforehand” (ln. 183), “contend with” (ln. 185), “allot all diligence” (ln. 190), “practice” (ln. 191), and all of these images would be carried out in the metaphorical palaistra or wrestling school (ln. 184).

In Greece and the surrounding Hellenistic culture, the palaistra (παλαίστρα) referred usually to a wrestling school (the noun is derived from the verb palaiō “to wrestle”) and it also metaphorically referred to a school—no doubt to emphasize the struggle and discipline involved in the learning process that happened there.

In line 186, these activities pertain to and result in the collecting of the great wealth of the Scriptures. Seleucos is not to wrestle with another human, rather he is to train his mind beforehand with many works of literature. These works are to prepare him for engaging in and contending with an object no less worthy of his greatest efforts: the divinely inspired Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. And although the Scriptures are in themselves great wealth, Amphilochius shows that wrestling with them and allotting all diligence to them will cause one to learn how to practice the useful or worthy way of life and how to worship the true and only God—the supreme end to all Christian theological education.

How now shall we view our lessons? Rather than viewing theological education as something to be purchased, we will benefit more from it by envisioning it as a wrestling school where the activities of training, exercising, practicing, and contending with God and his Scriptures take place. Like a wrestler, the theological student should engage the professors, the reading, the writing, and most of all the Scriptures with the same pushing and pulling of mind and thought. At the foundation the student must wrestle with the languages of Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. These subjects build the necessary muscle to do the heavy lifting of biblical exegesis and theology.

This world needs trained, disciplined men and women who are prepared to live the most excellent way and to worship the true and only God. The Christian tradition has always taught that there is no glory except through the way of the cross. The same appears to be true for its theological education. There will be no mastery of the Scriptures or theology without discipline, practice, and training in them and wrestling with them. But the good news is this: the prize of a well fought for theological education far outweighs the struggle to learn them. The hard training gives way to an even greater wealth of knowing the divinely inspired Scriptures for the purposes of practicing the worthy way of life and worshipping the true and only God.




About the Author:
John D. Meade

John D. Meade (Ph.D., M.Div., Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) is Assitant Professor of Old Testament at Phoenix Seminary.

Website:
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Spring Event: "What Has Nicaea to do with Norwich?"

Spring Event: "What Has Nicaea to do with Norwich?"

Join us on Wednesday April 20th from 10-11:30AM for an exciting academic event, along with the Andrew Fuller Center, featuring Dr. Matthew Pinson, President of Welch College in Nashville, Tennessee. This gathering, entitled "What Has Nicaea to do with Norwich: Thomas Grantham and the Ancient Church," features Dr. Pinson speaking on early Baptist reception of the ancient church. 

Thomas Grantham was a 17th century English General Baptist minister during the reign of Charles II. He founded a General Baptist congregation in 1686 in Norwich and was a leading theologian amongst General Baptists in this period. His esteem for the church fathers was well known in his day and today Grantham is remembered for his moderated Arminian theology in the early Baptist tradition. 

Dr. Pinson will highlight the work of Grantham in the transmission of the ancient Christian witness, demonstrating his unique integration of ancient, Reformed, and General Baptist theology.

Make plans to attend this important discussion on Baptist reception of the early church from an esteemed scholar and note-worthy expert! 

When: 20 April, Wednesday, 10-11:30AM
Where: Legacy Center 303 (on the campus of Southern Seminary, Louisville, KY)
Admission: Free

ETS and SBL Presenters

ETS and SBL Presenters

A schedule of the Center for Ancient Christianity's presenters at the upcoming ETS and SBL conferences

Who Was Macrina?

Who Was Macrina?

Born in 327 AD, Macrina was the eldest of 10 children. Born to a wealthy family in Cappadocia, Macrina also inherited a wealth of spiritual treasure. Named after her grandmother, Macrina would grow up on stories of her family’s tradition of faith in Christ and martyrdom for his name. Macrina’s parents, respected leaders in the church, would come to have a great impact on her eventual life of monastic piety. Macrina lived between two worlds. One world was the age of Christian persecution by the likes of emperor Diocletian and others. For many Christians in the three centuries before Macrina’s birth, persecution leading to death was an ever-present reality. At best, Christians were merely tolerated. At worst, they were brutally executed. The second world was the emerging Roman empire of Constantine, an empire in which Christianity was officially recognized and privileges towards churches and leaders grew steadily. With the fear of persecution all but extinct, the course of spiritual fervor in the church shifted. Martyred heroes of the faith were fading memories, recounted in tales and sermons. For the Christianized empire of the mid-to late fourth century, a new breed of hero began to emerge—the monastic spiritual martyr. Macrina has been counted among this class of heroes. What we know of Macrina comes from the account of her life from her brother, Gregory of Nyssa in his Vita Sanctae Macrinœ or Life of St. Macrina.

Gregory recounts her upbringing, fed on Scripture, hymn-singing and prayer. Choosing to take a vow of celibacy from an early age, Macrina would become the spiritual pillar for her entire family which included the likes of not only Gregory of Nyssa but also Basil of Caesarea, Peter of Sabaste and the lesser known Naucratius. Though Gregory’s account is somewhat idealized, readers gain insight into a monastic piety, typified by Macrina, which would become the standard of spirituality for the next millennium. Living both in solitude and in community, Macrina embodied the spiritual life of true philosophia—the Christian faith. Dedicated to work, prayer, contemplation and compassion, Macrina is extoled as a great philosopher and example to emulate. Her intellectual prowess, as described by Gregory, exceeds that of Socrates or Plato. Her ability to fully accomplish the life of virtue demonstrates the dominance of the Christian faith over the Greek philosophical tradition. Macrina ultimately accomplishes the goal of philosophy which is complete union with God, and in Pauline language, fights the good fight of faith and finishes the race to obtain the prize (cf. 2 Tim. 4:7-8). Macrina’s influence upon her immediate family infiltrates the account of her life, but her influence extended to those in her chosen monastic community and indeed to everyone who encountered her. With her death in 379, Gregory describes her last prayer, almost as if describing her life, as one in which “there is no doubt that it came to God and was heard by him” (The Life of St. Macrina, trans. Kevin Corrigan, 41).

Book Review: Augustine's Theology of Preaching

Book Review: Augustine's Theology of Preaching


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On the cover of the book is a picture of Augustine, sitting on his cathedra, Bible in one hand, the other hand raised as he teaches his congregation. It is a picture that would have honored Augustine who saw himself primarily as a preacher. Yet, for all the untold thousands (or millions!) of books, articles, dissertations, and essays that have been written on Augustine since his death, very little work has been dedicated to Augustine’s preaching, a surprising oversight to say the least. Augustine’s Theology of Preaching is a needful step towards correcting this lacuna.

Peter Sanlon, vicar of St. Mark’s Church in Royal Tunbridge Wells, has entered this void. This book had its origin as a thesis at Cambridge University. What makes him uniquely qualified to writing this book, besides his credentials in theology and his experience as a pastor, is the time he has spent as a speechwriter to a peer in the House of Lords. Sanlon studies Augustine as a fellow rhetorician, making him perfectly suited for the task, and this comes across in his writing.

According to Sanlon, the door to understanding Augustine’s hermeneutic in preaching opens on two hinges—interiority and temporality. As Sanlon states, “[Augustine’s] hermeneutic of interiority and temporality is the grammar of his preaching and this is due to his use of Scripture” (p.139). Augustine was a man of the Book. In fact, “the reason Augustine was concerned with interiority and temporality in his preaching was that he used Scripture in an attempt to change people” (p.87). And again, “Augustine preached with a particular regard to interiority and temporality because he wished to use Scripture to change listeners” (p.98). Sanlon repeatedly connects Augustine’s themes of interiority and temporality to Scripture, the fount from which all knowledge and change flows.

The book unfolds in this way. Chapter 1 places Augustine in his historical context, rehashing the familiar ground of Augustine’s upbringing and conversion. Sanlon also uses this chapter to compare Augustine to other preachers of his time, namely Ambrose, Cyprian, and Tertullian. In chapter 2 Sanlon traces five important Greek and Latin orators whose lives and writings shaped Augustine’s own rhetoric—Gorgias (483–375 BC), Plato (424–348 BC), Cicero (106–43 BC), Quintillian (AD 35–98), and Apuleius (AD 123–180). Sanlon notes, though later in the book, “In Augustine’s case, the Platonic architecture of his mindset alerted him to issues of importance, but the doctrinal building erected was definitely Christian and Scriptural” (p.61). Augustine may have been greatly influenced by his first-rate classical education, but that he was fundamentally Christian in his teaching. Chapter 3 examines Augustine’s work De Doctrina Christiana, which details his hermeneutics and homiletics. For Augustine, Scripture is paramount, and every interpretation should lead a person to greater love for God and neighbor.

Chapter 4 forms the heart of the book. It is in this chapter that Sanlon defines and fills out Augustine’s themes of interiority and temporality. Interiority is “self-reflection” promulgated by Christ the “Inner Teacher” in the hearts of people (p.80); temporality is bound up with created matter and the idea that life is a “journey travelled by the affections” (p.84). Those who have studied Augustine know that time plays an important role in his thinking. To state these motifs in a different way, Augustine sought to touch the inner man with his preaching, and this is possible both because of the temporality of biblical events and because they will be lived out in the course of the individual believer’s life. For me, the most important page of the entire book for understanding this book is page 62. Here Sanlon gets at the essence of Augustine’s understanding of interiority and temporality, which is grounded in the incarnation. “Christ who enlightens the inner eyes is the wisdom who became incarnate at a particular point in time” (p.62). The incarnation illustrates Augustine’s use of interiority and temporality perfectly—Christ’s incarnation happened in time and space (temporality), and Christ is the Inner Teacher who changes the hearts of people (interiority).

The final three chapters are case studies that test Sanlon’s thesis, touching on the topics of riches and money, death and resurrection, and relationships. In each chapter, Sanlon demonstrates how Augustine weaves together his concept of interiority and temporality. For instance, preaching on death and the resurrection should transform the listener’s “interior desires and temporal destinations” (p.126). These chapters are critical for helping the reader see Augustine’s homiletical hermeneutic in action.

Sanlon is ambitious in his efforts to summarize the preaching of the great Augustine. Anytime a scholar attempts to reduce a theologian’s practice to two words, let alone arguably the most influential preacher in history—outside of the Bible, it is a tall task. Making the matter more complicated is the fact that Augustine never claims that interiority and temporality are his aims in preaching. In giving a grammar to his homiletics, the reader is persuaded that Augustine’s aim in preaching can in fact be articulated by interiority and temporality. The real test will come as other scholars interested in Augustine’s preaching subject this thesis beyond the Sermones ad Populum. Sanlon does interact with the works of three others who have also attempted to pin down Augustine’s theology of preaching and demonstrates that interiority and temporality have “validity and value” above these previous efforts (p.91). Scholars need this corrective to probe deeper into Augustine’s preaching. Here is the church’s most gifted tongue and brightest intellect—his preaching begs more exploration. Sanlon has done a great service to scholarship not only by helping us understand the inimitable Augustine, but also by providing this study in a way that is accessible to many. Though it reads like a dissertation at times, it is not so esoteric that the average seminary students could not read it and benefit.

A few minor critiques might be suggested. First, I was puzzled about the ordering of the book. We are promised a prolonged discussion on interiority and temporality, and there are flashes of it throughout, but it is not until page 71 that we begin to have these terms defined and exegeted. Clearly, Sanlon thinks the entire foundation must be poured before constructing the walls. It would have been preferred to have the argument stated with greater clarity up front before taking us on the tour of the necessary background.

Second, in the introduction to the work, Sanlon offers five important areas of homiletics that this book could touch upon—the role of secular insights to communication, the role of doctrine, freedom and order, relationship to pastoral ministry, and training preachers. Regrettably, these topics are only glanced off of throughout the book. The book would have been much stronger had Sanlon continuously drawn a line from the past to the present. At one point he even mentions Tim Keller’s eulogy of John Stott’s preaching legacy as a way to talk about the modern state of preaching (p.xxv). I was anxious to see how the Bishop from Hippo, separated by land, culture, and time, could help preachers this Sunday. To be fair, in parsing Augustine’s homiletical hermeneutic, the modern preacher does get an idea of the importance of the interior and temporal in preaching, and so the preacher is not left without dividends. Of course, it is easy to take shots at a book for all the things that are not there. It is a very fine study for what Sanlon sets out to accomplish. However, having raised these issues himself, it would have been nice to have seen them fleshed out.

Sanlon is baffled, as we should be, that so little attention has been paid to Augustine’s preaching. Augustine expounded Scripture to his congregation multiple times a week for decades. The man who set the course of theology for the next millennium (and beyond) saw his chief purpose as a preacher of God’s word. Sanlon offers one of the first sustained looks into his sermons. Hopefully more will follow to help color in more of the picture so that we might once more sit under the preaching of Augustine.

Bibliographical Information

Peter T. Sanlon. Augustine’s Theology of Preaching. Fortress Press, 2014. Pp. xxxii + 211. ISBN 978-1-4514-8278-2. $24.00 [Paperback].



About the Author:
Brian Arnold

Dr. Brian Arnold (Ph.D., M.Div.) is Associate Professor of Theology at Phoenix Seminary. His research interests include second and third century Christianity, Greek and Latin, Wirkungsgeschichte, and Historical Theology.

Twitter:
@BrianJ_Arnold


Book Review: The Epistle to Digonetus (With the Fragment of Quadratus)

Book Review: The Epistle to Digonetus (With the Fragment of Quadratus)


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It has been over 60 years since a critical edition of The Epistle to Diognetus was published in English. That edition, by Henry Meecham, stood the tests of time well. But with the advent of Oxford University Press's Oxford Apostolic Fathers series, Clayton N. Jefford has produced a worthy successor. His volume, as with each volume in the Oxford Apostolic Fathers series, consists of three parts: Introduction, Text, and Commentary. The introduction provides the basis and framework for establishing the Greek text as well as the translation and commentary, and as such will be the primary focus of this review.

Jefford sets the context for his discussion well. Today, only one manuscript is known to contain this material, and it was subsequently lost in a fire. Only three early transcriptions of the text were completed and subsequent Greek editions are based on that material. Based on his evaluations of those transcriptions, Jefford concludes the manuscript itself was even harder to read and decipher and more lacunose than notes in modern editions lead one to believe. The result of this work is immediately apparent in the scope and detail of the apparatus provided for the Greek text. This is valuable information that has not been available in a single edition and is essential knowledge for those doing serious work involving this text.

Jefford next delves into provenance, which is difficult. There is no longer any existing manuscript witness, little is known about where it came from, and only qualified guessing can be done on any of these topics. There have been several possible authors suggested, all of them supposition. Intelligently argued, many of them, but all constrained to the incredibly small pool of names we actually know and settings we actually understand. Jefford does a good job navigating this tension and reviewing the options and the cases for and against them, even including more recent approaches, such as Charles Hill’s thesis of authorship which points to Polycarp. Jefford, cautious here as in his other work, mentions the possibilities, weighs in on some of them, but is rightly hesitant to point to a specifically named person as the author of this work.

The majority of scholars of early Christianity see Diognetus as two parts. Charles Hill has recently and somewhat persuasively argued that these two sections, despite the lacuna, are of the same author and they should be considered as a whole. Jefford upholds the consensus that the two parts are not directly related, using the more developed forms of arguments Hill has largely anticipated in his work asserting their unity. Regarding integrity, Jefford again hints of his development theory, noting that while the latter portion is an edition, he allows for extensive editorial action to conform the first section with the last section more seamlessly.

Regarding the relationship between Epistle to Diognetus and Scripture, Jefford provides an amazing array of intertextual possibilities. He interacts with Michael Bird's recent work on the relationship between Epistle to Diognetus and Paul's epistles, and also with the well-known reflection of Johannine language.

From here, Jefford moves from review of scholarship and development into positing his own ideas on Diognetus. Though his examination of structure, development, integrity, and relation to Scripture in the introduction, Jefford identifies material that he sees as largely secondary and not necessary for the core of the work. He isolates and removes this material, leaving just the core, which he considers “the rough form of what may once have been oral performance” (p.117).

Jefford has defended his proposal well, but this reviewer thinks suggestions like his prompt more questions than they solve. There are questions about any revisions or edits to the text and who might have made them. If oral, did the original author expand the edition for written publication? When did these editorial expansions happen, and why? What source did they come from? In Jefford's defense, he does frame his discussion well. He notes that his proposal is not a certain and he is more convinced of the generalities of it than any specifics he may elucidate in the discussion.

In sum, Jefford's edition has become the essential reference on all things having to do with The Epistle to Diognetus. Scholars working with it or with texts that may share some intertextual relation with it should take the time to consult and benefit from Jefford's work.

Bibliographical Information

Clayton N. Jefford. The Epistle to Diognetus (with the fragment of Quadratus): Introduction, Text, and Commentary . Oxford Apostolic Fathers. Oxford University Press, 2013. Pp. ix + 281. ISBN: 978-0-19-921274-3. $185.00 [Hardback].



About the Author:
Rick Brannan

Rick Brannan is information architect at Logos Bible Software. His research interests coalsce around the Bible, Apostolic Fathers, Hellenistic Greek, and technology. He is the general editor of the Lexham English Septuagint (2012), translator and editor of The Apostolic Fathers in English (2012), and editor of Greek Apocryphal Gospels, Fragments, and Agrapha (2013).

Website:
rickbrannan.com

Book Review: Embodiment and Virtue in Gregory of Nyssa

Book Review: Embodiment and Virtue in Gregory of Nyssa


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One of the most recent offerings in contemporary discourse on the theology of Gregory of Nyssa (CE 335–394) is Hans Boersma’s Embodiment and Virtue in Gregory of Nyssa: An Anagogical Approach, published by Oxford University Press in their Early Christian Studies series. This text represents a critical entry into the ongoing Nyssen discussion on body and gender, as well as broader discussions of the interpretation of Scripture and virtue ethics in a Christian historical perspective.

Boersma approaches Nyssen on his own terms in order to represent the anagogical theology of this fourth century Christian thinker free from notions of a postmodern deconstructionist program. The totality of Gregory’s theology, according to Boersma, is analogical and the theme of virtue is “pervasive throughout Gregory’s writings” (p.4). Boersma argues against those who take embodiment language too far, admitting that recent treatments “do not do justice to his overall thought” (p.11). For Gregory, the move from literal to spiritual readings is related “virtuous ascent away from bodily passions to a proper desire for God” (p.14). Additionally, Boersma highlights the idea of participation in the divine. This virtuous life is participation in Christ, and as Boersma demonstrates, this facet of Nyssen’s theology avoids the pitfall of moralism for which recent treatments have argued.

Boersma uses the concept of the body as a lens for his discussion. Chapter one establishes the idea of the “measured body.” The here and now—including a Christian’s anagogical ascent by means of virtue—is part of temporal extension, and for Gregory, “[does] not properly characterize the human destiny” (p.22). Boersma thoughtfully connects Gregory’s understanding of the eschaton as the “eighth day” to the anagogical approach as a foundation for his understanding of growth in virtue. The resurrection of Christ inaugurates the initial participation, and a life of virtue allows one “to ascend so as to participate more fully in this new mode of life” (p.44). Thus, entry into the “eighth day” for Gregory “is predicated upon repentance and a life of virtue” (p.43). In chapter two, Boersma explores the idea of epistemological humility in the exegesis of Nyssen. While interpreting figuratively based on the taxis of the salvific economy, Gregory does not give himself license to neglect the theologia of Scripture—figurative interpretation does not mean “open-ended” (p.66). Scripture is vital to a virtuous life, requiring humility in approaching the text. No better place illustrates this fact for Gregory than the Psalter. Boersma explains, “[The] aim of the Psalter is to reshape us by means of virtue into the divine likeness, so that Christ may be formed in us” (p.74). The spiritual skopos of the text is key for Gregory and necessary for attuning our lives to virtue like a finely tuned instrument (p.74, 77).

Chapters three and four provide readers with a necessary corrective regarding the concept of virginity in Gregory’s thought. Feminist scholars such as Sarah Coakley, Elizabeth Clark and Virginia Burrhus have led the main discourse on gender in Nyssen. Boersma’s interaction is a welcomed addition. Virginity, for Gregory, provides an image of moral purity and “encompasses all human virtues” (p.120). The virginal life of Macrina “gives us an anticipatory glance into the virginal life of the resurrection” (p.87). As such, bodily existence for Gregory is not unimportant. If growth in virtue is the goal of participation in Christ, then having “tunics of hide” aids in growth by presenting opportunities to choose vice instead of virtue (p.134). The goal is not disembodiment—the goal is total embodiment in the likeness of Christ. In chapters five through seven, Boersma highlights Gregory’s ethical concerns both inside and outside of the church. Slavery is deplorable based on common humanity and the reality of the imago dei. Likewise, Nyssen sharply denounces greed in the face of poverty and homelessness. Concluding the text in chapter seven, Boersma argues against the notion of Gregory as a strict moralist. Responding to the thesis of Werner Jaeger and others, Boersma maintains that a thoroughly theological reading of Gregory rescues him from the charge of moralism. Boersma concludes by affirming the uniqueness of Nyssen as a “thoroughly otherworldly theologian” (p.246).

Boersma offers a corrective to the postmodern reading of Gregory that emphasizes embodiment to the neglect of theology. His theological reading of Gregory dissolves misreadings of Nyssen’s supposed moralism. That being said, Boersma could have clarified certain points of Nyssen’s theology. For example, if Nyssen believes in bodily extension in time and space only in our current state, how can he logically affirm a bodily resurrection? Doesn’t the resurrection assume some sort of extension throughout time and space? Additionally, a tension exists in how growth in virtue is seen as a form of escape from bodily existence. The observation that Gregory is a foremost “otherworldly theologian” helps explain this view of escapism, but Boersma could have done more to explain whether or not this amounts to a kind of dualism in Gregory. Additionally, Boersma could have done more to bring out the “here and now” implications of Nyssen’s thought.

In the preface, Boersma offers a refreshing confession—he did not discover in Gregory what he had set out to find. He was surprised at how little Gregory affirms how the “entire created order—including embodied existence—participates sacramentally in eternal realities” (p.vii). Despite this admission, Embodiment and Virtue is a welcomed addition to Nyssen scholarship. It is an especially helpful text to students of early Christian anthropology and ethics. It should also serve well as a text for courses in Cappadocian theology in general. On his own admission, Boerma’s expectations were only half met, yet his exploration of Gregory, including his anagogical theology and emphasis on virtue, will serve scholarship well for the next generation of Nyssen scholars.

Bibliographical Information

Hans Boersma. Embodiment and Virtue in Gregory of Nyssa: An Anagogical Approach. Oxford Early Christian Studies. Oxford University Press, 2013. Pp. xviii + 283. ISBN: 978-0-199-64112-3. $135.00 [Hardback].



About the Author:
Coleman M. Ford

Coleman is currently a Ph.D. student in Church History and Christian Ethics at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. His research interests lie in the concept of virtue in the patristic tradition, patristic ethics, patristic exegesis, reception history of the church fathers, and Christian ethics.

Twitter:
@colemanford
Website:
https://colemanford.wordpress.com

Book Review: Polycarp's Epistle to the Philippians and the Martyrdom of Polycarp

Book Review: Polycarp's Epistle to the Philippians and the Martyrdom of Polycarp


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With essentially two volumes in one, Paul Hartog provides the entry for Polycarp’s writings in the Oxford Apostolic Fathers Oxford University Press series. For each of Polycarp’s writings, Hartog provides substantial introductions, Greek text with English translation, and commentary. This review consists of interaction with the introductory materials of both The Epistle to the Philippians and the Martyrdom, along with brief notes on the Hartog’s text and commentary.

Before the material on each writing, Hartog sets the tone with an overview of Polycarp the person, his genuine and falsely-attributed writings, and other early Christian literature about Polycarp. Much of the surviving literature about Polycarp is hagiographical in nature, and dubious in its preservation of historical fact. Yet the understanding of how the early church viewed Polycarp is within that material, so it has value for the historian and student of the early church. Other information about Polycarp which is more likely to be valid, such as Polycarp’s location—Smyrna, his status as bishop, and what can be ascertained of his relationship with the Apostle John as well as Irenaeus.

Hartog’s presentation follows the traditional order of composition, with The Epistle to the Philippians first. The introduction is split into 14 sections spanning over 50 pages. He starts with the historical setting and quickly moves into discussions of textual tradition, authenticity, unity of the epistle, and date. The larger questions today revolve around authenticity and unity of the letter. Hartog interacts with all major theories and their development, providing a map to existing literature through discussion in the text and footnotes.

Hartog continues with shorter sections on genre and style, occasion and purpose, and themes of the epistle. Following these is an extensive section on intertextuality. As many readers of Polycarp’s Epistle to the Philippians are quick to discover, the epistle’s language is infused with the language of the New Testament. Yet discerning and tracing the influence of the Bible on Polycarp’s writing is a difficult task. Hartog, well versed in this area due to his previous work on the relationship between Polycarp and the New Testament, provides an expansive overview to the issue of intertextuality in Polycarp’s letter.

Hartog rounds out the introduction with sections on Polycarp and Paul, theology, opponents, avarice and heresy, and influence. These sections provide necessary background to themes within the letter and the scholarly discussion on their significance.

Hartog’s edition, apparatus, and translation of Polycarp’s Epistle to the Philippians is presented next with Greek/Latin and English on facing pages. While the sigla in the apparatus are explained in the introduction, the structure and symbols of the apparatus (e.g. parentheses, angle brackets) are not. Each chapter and verse are given in their own paragraph in both edition and translation, which leaves the reader with no insight from the editor on where discourse-level segmentation such as paragraph breaks may occur.

Hartog’s introduction to The Martyrdom of Polycarp runs over 70 pages. He covers roughly the same sorts of introductory matters—authorship, recipients, text, authenticity, date, and historicity—as he did in the introduction to Polycarp’s Epistle to the Philippians. As with the previous introduction, the section on intertextuality functions as a boundary between historico-critical introductory matters and issues related to content and understanding of the document. This section also highlights the lack of any direct interaction between the Martrydom and canonical Christian texts.

The introduction continues with sections on theology, view of martyrdom, anti-montanism, Jewish-Christian tradition, legal issues, prayer, and influence. As with other sections, this material provides discussion on these issues among current scholarship with several citations for the motivated reader to follow.

The Greek text and apparatus of the Martyrdom is based on Dehandschutter’s critical text; the translation is Hartog’s. It, as well, has each verse (or section) as its own paragraph, leaving any higher level discourse segmentation such as paragraphing as an exercise to the reader.

Hartog’s commentary on both The Epistle to the Philippians and the Martyrdom lead the reader through respective texts, highlighting translation issues and text-critical issues. His interaction with the available literature is significant, providing discussion and reference to further sources through the footnotes at nearly every point possible.

The entire volume is meticulously researched. The bibliography and footnotes as well as the degree of interaction with German literature not readily accessible to most readers are the obvious strengths of this volume. These factors set Hartog’s work apart. Yet at several points this reviewer felt as if Hartog was focused more on presenting what each consulted source reported about a particular fact, feature, or problem and less focused on presenting what Hartog himself concluded regarding the same issue.

Bibliographical Information

Paul Hartog. Polycarp’s Epistle to the Philippians and the Martyrdom of Polycarp: Introduction, Text, and Commentary. Oxford Apostolic Fathers. Oxford University Press, 2013. Pp. xi + 402. ISBN: 978-0-19-922839-3. $275.00 [Hardback].



About the Author:
Rick Brannan

Rick Brannan is information architect at Logos Bible Software. His research interests coalsce around the Bible, Apostolic Fathers, Hellenistic Greek, and technology. He is the general editor of the Lexham English Septuagint (2012), translator and editor of The Apostolic Fathers in English (2012), and editor of Greek Apocryphal Gospels, Fragments, and Agrapha (2013).

Website:
rickbrannan.com