The Rhetoric of the Gospel, Second Edition: Theological Artistry in the Gospels and Acts

By C. Clifton Black

While most books on biblical rhetoric focus primarily on the epistles, this volume from prominent scholar C. Clifton Black considers the variety of rhetorical critical approaches now being applied to the Gospels (including Lukeâ€"Acts). This updated edition takes into account recent research since the first volume was published in 2001 and features two brand new chapters. Black provides an overview of the different forms of rhetorical criticism, with examples from the Gospel of John; studies of characterization in Matthew and Luke; an analysis of classical rhetorical criteria found in Mark and Lukeâ€"Acts; and an analysis of the rhetoric of the parables with implications for contemporary preaching.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
• Release date: Jul 29, 2013
• ISBN: 9781611643176

C. Clifton Black

C. Clifton Black is Otto A. Piper Professor of Biblical Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary. He is a member of the editorial advisory board for WJK's highly esteemed New Testament Library series and the author or coauthor of numerous books and articles, including Mark (Abingdon New Testament Commentaries) and Anatomy of the New Testament (seventh edition).

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Praise for The Rhetoric of the Gospel

"Black explores the rhetoric of the New Testament in an original and insightful way. He does not limit his treatment to the standard handbooks nor does he confine his insights to the most obvious places in the New Testament. He guides readers through a wide range of ancient theory—including the Characters of Theophrastus and On the Sublime by Longinus—and shows their relevance in unexpected places, such as the Lukan parables, the last supper discourses of the Fourth Gospel, and a mysterious narrative in Acts. With an eye to his audience, he finally focuses on the parabolic rhetoric appropriate to preaching, using the ancient masters Augustine and Quintilian. Any Christian orator, a.k.a. preacher, will find this work enormously helpful."

—Harold Attridge, Sterling Professor of Divinity, Yale Divinity School

Here is a book for all who appreciate the power of language. Written for those charged to communicate the faith of the New Testament witnesses, it is also to be commended to those who may be suspicious of either rhetoric or the Bible. With understated grace, Clifton Black’s updated 2001 collection of essays instructs and charms, and embodies what it is getting at.

—M. Eugene Boring, I. Wylie and Elizabeth M. Briscoe Professor of New Testament Emeritus, Brite Divinity School, Texas Christian University

This revised, updated, and expanded edition of Clifton Black’s book of incisive essays on rhetorical study of the Gospels and Acts illumines the rhetorical—and theological—artistry of these writings through a series of selective probes. Readers gain perspective on the diverse contemporary approaches to rhetorical analysis of the New Testament. Seven chapters refresh and update treatments in the 2001 edition. New chapters bring Luke’s parables spinning into dialogue with Theophrastus’s delightfully biting character sketches and then mine the wisdom of Quintilian, the first-century Roman jurist and teacher of rhetoric, with the aim of informing and inspiring the craft of preaching today. These are gems, alone worth the price of admission. Clifton Black, intrepid and astute biblical interpreter, is at his best here; while leading readers to renewed and deepened appreciation of the rhetorical, literary, and theological artistry of the Gospels and Acts, he never fails to entertain the reader with elegant word crafting, literary artistry, and theological acumen of his own. It’s a very good read and a useful resource for preachers, theological students, and their teachers.

—John T. Carroll, Harriet Robertson Fitts Memorial Professor of New Testament, Union Presbyterian Seminary

"Is it possible for a volume on ancient rhetoric and the gospel to be scholarly, wise, pertinent, and witty all at once? When it’s in the hands of Clifton Black, the answer is clearly yes. This welcome revised and expanded edition of Black’s excellent Rhetoric of the Gospel is a magnificent resource for the student and the preacher alike. The chapter where Black brings the old lawyer and rhetorician Quintilian into the homiletics classroom, just to name but one of many delicious morsels in this volume, crackles with intellectual electricity, humor, and insight."

—Thomas G. Long, Bandy Professor of Preaching, Candler School of Theology, Emory University

Rhetorical criticism rarely penetrates New Testament narrative material in the Gospels and Acts, and C. Clifton Black’s book is therefore somewhat of a rarity, and that is what makes his book both remarkable and valuable. Equipped with a complete rhetorical toolbox, Black uses the full range of classical and ‘New Rhetorical’ approaches to probe the theology that shapes the characters, orations, and sermons in this narrative world. In this book, a skilled rhetorician collects a colloquy of voices ‘within a kind of New Rhetorical framework, baptized into the service of Christian theology and practice.’ In this colloquy, history and rhetoric cooperate in the belief that in Jesus Christ, God ‘was and remains personally at work for the redemption of all humanity and creation.’ Like the pearl of great price, this gem of a book will enrich ‘all those interested in the artistry and argument by which the Gospels and Acts attempt to convince readers of the truth of Christianity.’ Highly recommended!

—Troy W. Martin, Professor of Biblical Studies, Saint Xavier University

This book is a delight. Clifton Black shares his unique capacities for wit and clarity in coherent theological appreciations of New Testament narratives, read through the eyes of classical rhetoric. His final chapters on preaching may shock—and educate.

—Francis J. Moloney, SDB, Senior Professorial Fellow, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, Australia

C. Clifton Black enthralls us as our guide on a tour of the rhetoric of the Gospels and Acts. As we visit these works, Black helps us to appreciate their artistic and structural features. We get the inside scoop on the creation of these works, and their purpose and message. This tour is not given in isolation, for traditional questions and methods of interpretation are engaged all the way along. Black’s own rhetorical flare, which is as skilled as the works he describes, makes for a delightful tour!

—Duane F. Watson, Professor of New Testament Studies, Malone University

Clifton Black has spent his academic life loving Scripture. In this book Black marvels at the creative artistry of these early Christian preachers who produced literature that changed the world. Something about the truth of Jesus Christ called for an unprecedented outburst of literary artistry. We could have no better guide through the art that is Scripture than Clifton Black.

—William H. Willimon, United Methodist Bishop and Professor of the Practice of Christian Ministry, Duke Divinity School

The Rhetoric of the Gospel

SECOND EDITION

C. CLIFTON BLACK

The Rhetoric of the Gospel

Theological Artistry in the Gospels and Acts

SECOND EDITION

© 2013 C. Clifton Black

Second edition

Published by Westminster John Knox Press

Louisville, Kentucky

First edition

Published by Chalice Press

St. Louis, Missouri

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22—10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Westminster John Knox Press, 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, Kentucky 40202-1396. Or contact us online at www.wjkbooks.com.

Unless otherwise identified, Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and used by permission. See the list of abbreviations for other versions occasionally cited.

See acknowledgments, pp. xiii–xiv, for additional permission information.

Book design by Sharon Adams

Cover design by Dilu Nicholas

Cover illustration: abstract orange background © Attitude/shutterstock.com;

Paper on wood background or texture © Piotr Zajc/shutterstock.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Black, C. Clifton (Carl Clifton), 1955–

The rhetoric of the Gospel: theological artistry in the gospels and Acts / C. Clifton Black. — Second [edition].

pages cm.

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

ISBN 978-0-664-23822-3 (alk. paper)

978-1-611-64317-6 (ePub)

1. Bible. N.T.—Language, Style. 2. Rhetoric in the Bible. 3. Rhetorical criticism. I. Title.

BS2575.2.B54 2013

226'.066—dc23

2013003070

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.

Most Westminster John Knox Press books are available at special quantity discounts when purchased in bulk by corporations, organizations, and special-interest groups. For more information, please e-mail [e-mail].

For my brother

James Franklin Black, M.D.

Contents

Preface to the Second Edition

Preface to the First Edition

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Introduction

1. Rhetorical Questions in New Testament Study

The Gospels

2. Matthew’s Characterization of Faith

3. An Oration at Olivet

4. Theophilus, Meet Theophrastus

5. The Words That You Gave to Me I Have Given to Them

The Acts of the Apostles

6. The Case of the Feckless Ficelle

7. The Rhetorical Form of the Early Christian Sermon

Preaching

8. Four Stations en Route to a Parabolic Homiletic

9. For the Preacher: Counsel from an Old Lawyer

Conclusion

10. Peroration

Bibliography

Index of Scripture and Other Ancient Sources

Index of Ancient Terms

Index of Modern Authors and Subjects

Preface to the Second Edition

By dominical precept we know that new wine doesn’t belong in old wineskins (Mark 2:22). What of old wine in new wineskins? Since Jesus does not directly address that question, the agents of Westminster John Knox Press have apparently reckoned it seemly to reissue this book, first published in 2001. For that kindness, and particularly for the conscientious counsel of my editors, Marianne Blickenstaff and Daniel Braden, I am grateful. Like its predecessor this volume gathers kindred studies undertaken across many years, updated to take account of recent research. Chapters 4 and 9 are fresh additions, written for this edition. Though grounded in the classical tradition of rhetoric, where I feel most at home, this book persists in adopting a broad approach, embracing an audience of scholars and pastors, graduate and theological students. Everyone is welcome to this sideboard; nosh as you please.

In addition to the many creditors acknowledged in the first edition’s preface, I am indebted to Melanie A. Howard, a candidate for the PhD in New Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary, who provided invaluable bibliographical assistance in bringing my thoughts up to date. I also thank Professor John T. Carroll, of Union Presbyterian Seminary, and Professor George L. Parsenios, of Princeton Seminary, for their critique and encouragement of my work.

C. C. B.

THE NATIVITY OF ST JOHN THE BAPTIST, JUNE 24, 2012

PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY

Preface to the First Edition

Some years ago my friend and editor Jon Berquist invited me to write a primer on rhetorical analysis of the New Testament for students in seminaries. Since by then several fine introductions to the field had already appeared in print, my heart didn’t leap at the thrill of opportunity.

As the days thence were melting away, I did notice, however, two curiosities. To me it seemed, first, that the lion’s portion of New Testament rhetorical inquiry was being awarded the Epistles and even the Revelation to John. Meanwhile, a number of folk expressed to me appreciation for some literary studies, scattered in places far off the beaten path. For those reasons I am emboldened to gather these pieces on the Gospels and Acts between more convenient covers, belatedly accepting while modifying Dr. Berquist’s kind invitation. Some who have encouraged me in this venture are pastors. Along with theological students and other scholarly colleagues, preachers are among those for whom I have prepared this book. I hope it may find its way into their hands. Even more, I hope it may help them, despite its refusal of pretense to offer practical guidance in the art of sermon preparation.

The chapters assembled here originally appeared in various books and journals across a dozen years. I am indeed grateful to all the publishers who have graciously permitted me use of those essays for this fresh purpose. All the contents have been revised, lightly or heavily, to fit the need. Throughout I have made a good-faith attempt to update notes and bibliography. Rhetorical criticism has become so voluminous that I cannot hope to have succeeded; where I have failed, I can only beg my reader’s pardon.

I just spoke of my debt to Jon L. Berquist, Academic Editor of Chalice Press. There are others to whom I am debtor. Several chapters were immediately stimulated by the findings of scholars who have taught me much about the New Testament, even when I have been unable to agree with all their conclusions. For introducing me to the study of rhetoric, I thank George A. Kennedy, Paddison Professor of Classics, Emeritus, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Visiting Professor of Speech Communication at Colorado State University. Earlier versions of this material received critical readings by many learned friends: Jouette M. Bassler, R. Alan Culpepper, Beverly Roberts Gaventa, James B. Glasscock, Joel B. Green, Amy-Jill Levine, John R. Levison, Vickie E. Pittard, Frank Thielman, Duane F. Watson, Lawrence M. Wills, and Patrick J. Willson. For the blemishes and howlers that remain, they are not to be faulted: them I heard but didn’t always heed. For technological and bibliographical assistance, I am grateful to Justin Mitchell and Callie Plunket, students matriculating for the PhD at, respectively, Southern Methodist University and Princeton Theological Seminary. As always, my debts to Harriet and Caroline are as inexpressible as they are profound, and affectionate.

C. CLIFTON BLACK

THE FEAST DAY OF SAINT PETER AND SAINT PAUL

JUNE 29, 2000

Acknowledgments

These credits are a continuation of the copyright page. Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for permission to quote from copyrighted material and in most cases develop it further:

Chapter 1: Alfred Publishing, for kind permission to reprint lyrics from Show Me (from My Fair Lady). Words by Alan Jay Lerner. Music by Frederick Loewe. © 1956 (Renewed) Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe. Publication and Allied Rights Assigned to Chappell & Co., Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Chapter 1: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, for kind permission to reprint, in revised form, the original version of chapter 1, Rhetorical Criticism, pp. 256–77, in Joel B. Green, ed., Hearing the New Testament: Strategies for Interpretation (Grand Rapids: Mich.; and Carlisle: William B. Eerdmans/Paternoster Press, 1995); revised, pp. 166–88 in Joel B. Green, ed., Hearing the New Testament: Strategies for Interpretation (2nd ed.; Grand Rapids, Mich., and Carlisle: William B. Eerdmans/Paternoster Press, 2010).

Chapter 2: An earlier version of chapter 2 first appeared under the title Depth of Characterization and Degrees of Faith in Matthew, in Society of Biblical Literature 1989 Seminar Papers, edited by David J. Lull, Society of Biblical Literature Seminar Papers Series (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 1989), 604–23.

Chapter 3: T&T Clark, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, for kind permission to reprint, in revised form, the original version of chapter 3, An Oration at Olivet: Some Rhetorical Dimensions of Mark 13, in Duane F. Watson, editor, Persuasive Artistry: Studies in New Testament Rhetoric in Honor of George A. Kennedy, Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement Series 50 (Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1991), pp. 66–92. Copyright © 1991 Sheffield Academic Press.

Chapter 5: Westminster John Knox Press, for kind permission to reprint, in revised form, the original version of chapter 5, ‘The Words That You Gave to Me I Have Given to Them’: The Grandeur of Johannine Rhetoric, in Exploring the Gospel of John in Honor of D. Moody Smith, edited by R. Alan Culpepper and C. Clifton Black (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1996), 220–39. Copyright © 1996 Westminster John Knox Press. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Chapter 6: The National Association of Baptist Professors of Religion and Baylor University, for kind permission to reprint, in revised form, the original version of chapter 6, The Presentation of John Mark in the Acts of the Apostles, in Perspectives in Religious Studies 20 (1993): 235–54. © Copyright 1993 by the National Association of Baptist Professors of Religion. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Chapter 6: The University of South Carolina Press, for kind permission to reprint, in revised form, an earlier version of chapter 6, The Wayward Attaché: Mark in the Acts of the Apostles, in C. Clifton Black, Mark: Images of an Apostolic Interpreter, Studies on Personalities of the New Testament (Columbia, South Carolina, 1994), pp. 25–49. Copyright © 1994 University of South Carolina, © 2001 Fortress Press.

Chapter 7: The President and Fellows of Harvard College, for kind permission to reprint, in revised form, the original version of chapter 7, The Rhetorical Form of the Hellenistic Jewish and Early Christian Sermon: A Response to Lawrence Wills, in Harvard Theological Review 81 (1988): 1–18. © Copyright 1988 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Chapter 8: An earlier version of chapter 8 first appeared in Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology 54 (2000): 386–97.

Abbreviations

GENERAL

ANCIENT TEXTS

Greek and Roman Rhetoricians

Other Greek and Latin Authors

Old Testament Apocrypha

Old Testament Pseudepigrapha

Other Jewish Authors

Rabbinic Literature

Apostolic Fathers

Patristic Authors

MODERN SOURCES

Dictionaries, Encyclopedias, and Other Reference Works

Journals

Commentary and Monograph Series

Modern Versions of the Bible

Introduction

Chapter One

Rhetorical Questions in New Testament Study

Words!

Words! Words! I’m so sick of words!

I get words all day through;

First from him, now from you!

Is that all you blighters can do?

Eliza Doolittle¹

As Wilhelm Wuellner once prophesied, a tidal wave of rhetorical analysis continues to pound NT conferences, journals, and bibliographies.² Its force is tsunamic, with no signs of ebbing. For the uninitiated this must seem bizarre, since the rhetoric to which our news media alert us is, in the lead entry of The Random House Dictionary of the English Language, the undue use of exaggeration or display; bombast.³ If this is what NT interpreters are now expected to study, most of us would gladly lie down until the urge passes.

The problem, as one might guess, lies less with rhetoric than with its cheap connotation in our vernacular. For wherever someone attempts to persuade others—whether from the pulpit or the Op-Ed page, in a term paper or around the kitchen table—there you find rhetoric employed. As I shall use the term in this book, rhetoric bears on those distinctive properties of human discourse, especially its artistry and argument, by which early Christian authors endeavored to convince others of the truth of their beliefs.

THE TRADITION OF RHETORICAL PRACTICE AND STUDY

If the study of rhetoric appears innovative to modern biblical interpreters, then that bespeaks their philosophical amnesia. The practice of oratory is as old as Homer (ninth or eighth century BCE), whose epics are not only punctuated with heroic speeches but also are themselves exquisite testimonies of the bard’s own oratorical craft.⁴ By the fifth century BCE the Sicilian teacher Corax, also known as Tisias,⁵ had compiled technical handbooks on rhetoric for the use of ordinary Greek citizens in political assemblies and courts of law.⁶ Gorgias (ca. 480–375 BCE) and Isocrates (ca. 436–338 BCE) refined the sophistic approach to rhetoric: the orator’s skillful deployment of rhythm, rhyme, and other poetic embellishments to move or to entertain an audience. A backlash against the morally vacuous exploitation of sophistic rhetoric appears in some dialogues of Plato (ca. 429–347 BCE; see esp. his works Gorgias and Phaedrus).⁷ Yet it was Plato’s own pupil Aristotle (384–322 BCE) who systematized the theoretical substructure of classical rhetoric and related its practice to the arts, sciences, and dialectical logic in particular.⁸

With the hellenization of the Mediterranean world, first by Alexander the Great (356–323 BCE) and later by imperial Rome (27 BCE–476 CE), technical rhetoric became essential in secondary education and its preparation of Roman citizens for advancement in public life.⁹ Although it is impossible (and needless) to demonstrate that Jesus, the earliest apostles, or the authors of the Gospels received formal education in rhetoric, indisputably they lived in a culture whose everyday modes of oral and written discourse were saturated with a rhetorical tradition, mediated by such practitioners and theoreticians as Caecilius (a Sicilian Jew of the late first century BCE), Cicero (106–43 BCE), and Quintilian (ca. 40–95 CE). The influence of technical and sophistic rhetoric on Christian preaching, teaching, and apologetics is manifest throughout the patristic period, conspicuously in the Greek sermons of John Chrysostom (ca. 347–407) and of the three great Cappadocians: Gregory of Nazianzus (ca. 329–389), Basil of Caesarea (ca. 330–379), and Gregory of Nyssa (ca. 330–395).¹⁰ Of the eight most notable Latin fathers of the church, three were schooled in rhetoric: Hilary of Poitiers (ca. 315–367), Ambrose (ca. 337–397), and Jerome (ca. 345–420). The remaining five had been professional rhetoricians before their conversion to Christianity: Tertullian (ca. 160–225), Cyprian (d. ca. 258), Arnobius (d. ca. 330), Lactantius (ca. 240–320), and Augustine (354–430).¹¹ In his celebrated De doctrina Christiana, Augustine first educed the implications of rhetorical theory for Christian belief and practice, hermeneutics and homiletics.¹²

Not only did rhetorical study pervade the early Christian tradition; it also enriched the medieval, Renaissance, and Enlightenment academic legacy of which modern theological students are beneficiaries. As barbarism descended on Italy, Cassiodorus Senator (ca. 487–585) kept aflame the study of rhetoric and the other six liberal arts (grammar, dialectic, geometry, arithmetic, astronomy, and music) from his monastery at Vivarium.¹³ During the European Renaissance and Reformation, the renewal of biblical criticism and the recovery of Ciceronian rhetoric fit hand in glove in the scholarship of such humanists as Lorenzo Valla (ca. 1406–57), Desiderius Erasmus (1469–1536), Philipp Melanchthon (1497–1560), and John Calvin (1509–64). Buoyed by the neoclassical revival of the arts in Europe and North America during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, rhetorical modes of NT analysis persisted into the early twentieth century, as illustrated by the dissertation of the young Rudolf Bultmann (1884–1976)¹⁴ and the still-standard grammar of NT Greek by Friedrich Wilhelm Blass (1843–1907).¹⁵ The exercise and conceptualization of classical rhetoric have exerted profound impact, not only on the NT writings, but also on successive centuries of its study. Viewed in that light, rhetorical criticism is one of the oldest approaches to NT interpretation.

MAJOR CURRENTS IN RHETORICAL CRITICISM

As suggested by the preceding differentiation of its technical, sophistic, and philosophical varieties, orators and their analysts have never agreed on how rhetoric should be conceptualized. Similar disagreement, if not confusion, characterizes contemporary rhetorical analyses of the Bible. Much as literary criticism has been applied to so broad a field of interpretive strategies¹⁶ that the label probably deserves retirement from overwork, rhetorical criticism is a portmanteau that carries kindred yet distinguishable approaches to biblical exegesis.

Rhetorical Analysis as Study of the Bible’s Literary Artistry

Among both OT and NT scholars the term rhetorical criticism is intimately associated with James Muilenburg (1896–1974), whose 1968 presidential address to the Society of Biblical Literature summed up his career-long interest in biblical poetics while issuing a programmatic call for the study of Hebrew literary composition. Muilenburg conceived rhetorical criticism as a supplement to the work of form critics, among whom he sympathetically numbered himself, and as a corrective to some of that earlier method’s exaggerated tendencies. In an era that had stressed a literary genre’s typical and representative aspects, abstracted from their settings in Israel’s social and religious life, Muilenburg argued for recovery of the particularities of any given pericope—"the many and various devices by which the predications [in a literary unit] are