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  • From: "Mark D. Nanos" <nanos AT gvi.net>
  • To: "Corpus-paul" <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Irony/sarcasm in Paul
  • Date: Wed, 14 Jul 1999 11:24:06 -0500


>Carl W. Conrad
>I'd like to invite the list to consider some potential instances of Pauline
>rhetorical "double-speak" and venture opinions on the extent to which the
>apostle may on occasion have indulged in deliberate misstatement of his
>honest perceptions or attitudes for rhetorical purposes.
>
>1. In an exchange yesterday with Mark Goodacre originating on another list,
>the question arose whether or not it is the case that Paul on more than one
>occasion resorts to rhetorical exaggeration, equivocation, irony, even
>sarcasm in order to enhance, even at peril of distorting them, his intended
>messages. I want to point to a few texts where one may seriously doubt
>whether Paul means to be understood literally and some others that may be
>more ambiguous.
[snip]
>I think there may be several points in the Pauline corpus where we ought to
>suspect rhetorical exaggeration or even sarcastic humor. What of Gal 5:12,
>where he suggests that the circumcisers ought to go all the way to
>castration: OFELON KAI APOKOYONTAI hOI ANASTATOUNTES hUMAS? Ought we to
>suppose that Paul is so violent in his passions to be deadly serious here?
>Or should we take a more sophisticated view of a sophisticated writer's
>sense of humor and readiness to
>exploit rhetorical exaggeration for his own purposes when it suits him? And
>are there other instances that might be adduced either to confirm or
>undercut this suspicion?

I share your opinion that Paul's rhetoric is characterized at times by such
indirect elements as irony and sarcasm, and note that this indirect
approach is directed to his addressees; the Gal. 5 example of sarcasm is
excellent. Your comments on the ironic dimension of Rom. 15:18-19 seem
likely to me.

It seems that irony is common for Paul, it is indeed characteristic of
Paul's letter to the Galatians. The opening THAUMATZW (1:6) to express his
disappointment (usually translated I am surprised, I am amazed, I am
astonished) is found in papyrus letters and in handbooks for letterwriting
for the ironic type of letter (e.g., good information in the work of Hanson
on Galatians for this element in historical context). It is a formal clue
to ironic rebuke, and the statement in vv. 6-7 has often been recognized
for its ironic or undermining character without necessarily noting this
clue to irony on a formal level. But once aware on a formal level, the
ironic dimension of Paul's undermining point that this other message of
good news is not actually so is more powerful rhetorically (it is not
another, except in the sense that the Galatians have allowed it to function
as though it was!).

There are many examples of dissimulative irony in Galatians, to name one in
addition to his feigned surprise in 1:6, the interrogatives of 3:1-5, where
Paul expresses his disappointment at their naiveté, are based upon Socratic
irony: pretending not to know in order to expose a naive perception of
reality as a mere appearance. Here too it is done to rebuke his addressees.
The comments in ch. 2 about those "seeming" or "appearing" to be someone,
including the "pillars," are interesting rhetorically if regarded as
ironic. Such an understanding of the ironic edge to DOKEIN was a common
theme in philosophical argument between what "really is" versus what
"seemed" or "appeared to be," which was brought out in the antithesis of
DOKEIN/EINAI. So too was the recognition that the Lord did not judge by
the same outward appearance so readily seen by men (i.e., the flesh), but
by the heart (1 Sam. 16:7). And the question of whether he has become their
enemy by now telling them the truth as he does in this rebuking letter is
couched in the irony of their having trusted him formerly when they would
have had cause to suspect him instead: so the irony of situation is this:
will they now trust these others and suspect him of intending their harm?
(4:12-20).

Regards,
Mark Nanos
Kansas City






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