Forward Thinking about ‘Reading Backwards’— Part One

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 10:46 pm by Ben Witherington

Forward Thinking about ‘Reading Backwards’— Part One 2015-03-13T22:46:18-04:00 Ben Witherington

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

I’ve been reading my friend Richard Hay’s NT offerings for close to 40 years now. I read his dissertation involving Galatians when he was still writing the chapters, and I would send him comments and suggestions. Following this review, which like the book will not be lengthy, but in several parts, you will get to read the dialogue or exchange we had about the book in future posts.

Let’s start with the disclaimers. From the outset Hays stresses that he is not suggesting “that the Evangelists were engaging in fanciful Promethean poetic creativity” (p. xi). Hays would have us think of a dialectic between a sacred text and the thoughts and witness of the Evangelist with the sacred text having at least as much impact on the Evangelist as vice versa.

Hays then stresses that it is “just this sort of dialectical interaction [which] is hard-wired into the practice of figural interpretation that is characteristic of the hermeneutics of the Evangelists” (p. xi). The Gospel narratives are not then simply artful and edifying works of fiction, they are rather testimony.

Hays, for the record assumes a modified version of the usual solution to the Synoptic problem. After having affirmed it for some years, he now thinks the idea of a sayings collection called Q to be less likely than that Luke knew and used both Mark and Matthew, and that Matthew knew Mark. He continues to agree with the notion of Markan priority, as do I.

In addition, Hays wants to stress that what he is arguing for should not be seen as some sort of supersessionist enterprise that turns the OT into a Christian book. The “sort of figural interpretation practiced by the canonical Evangelists is not a rejection but a retrospective hermeneutical transformation of Israel’s sacred texts” (p. xv), which remain Israel’s sacred texts, written by Jews, for Jews.

Richard lists a series of luminaries who have influenced his thinking about these matters, and especially figural interpretation including C.H. Dodd, B. Lindars, Nils Dahl (his old teacher at Yale), Donald Juel, Hans Frei (also from Yale days), Joel Marcus )a colleague at Duke div school), N.T. Wright, Larry Hurtado, and Richard Bauckham. It is the last of these that has influenced his thinking about how all the Evangelists see Christ as part of the divine identity, such that distinctions between low and high Christology in these Gospels seem overdrawn, unhelpful, and in fact wrong.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

February 18, 2015

The Animals went in Two by Two-- Yet Another Flood Account

Next Post

February 20, 2015 Forward Thinking about Reading Backwards-- Part Two

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month November 2026 October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz