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  • From: Loren Rosson <rossoiii AT yahoo.com>
  • To: Corpus-Paul <corpus-paul AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Corpus-Paul] Social Science Commentary on the Letters of Paul
  • Date: Tue, 7 Feb 2006 05:54:06 -0800 (PST)

List members --

Here is the review I promised for Malina and Pilch's
commentary.

Loren

_________________________________________________

Social Science Commentary on the Letters of Paul, by
Bruce Malina and John Pilch. ISBN 0-8006-3640-6.

Malina and Pilch's new book fills a void in a universe
of Pauline commentary dominated by repetitive theology
and introspective cliche. Like most Context Group
publications, it puts the reader on ancient soil where
honor and shame were matters of life and death, saving
face more important than wealth and honesty, and
soul-searching a foreign intrusion. In many ways the
commentary lives up to expectations, though in others
it disappoints.

The commentary follows the structure of Malina and
Rohrbaugh's (second-edition) commentary on the
synoptic gospels, and like its predecessor is a useful
tool for identifying and understanding biblical
cultural cues. The complete text of Paul's seven
authentic letters is laid out in sections followed by
the commentary, with pointers to more detailed reading
scenarios at the end of the book. The reading
scenarios explain phenomena such as "altered states of
consciousness", "challenge-riposte", "circumcision",
"city", "death/resurrection", "demon possession",
"devolution", "dispute process", "evil eye", "meals",
"opinion leaders", "slavery", "violence", "wrath", and
more. These scenario titles are referenced in bold
throughout the commentary where relevant.

Malina and Pilch arrange and date the letters in the
following order: I Thessalonians (51 CE), I
Corinthians (between 53-56), II Corinthians (between
54-57), Galatians (between 54-56), Romans (between
56-58), Philippians (between 56-57), Philemon (between
55-56). II Corinthians is partitioned as follows:
Letter #1: 2:14-6:13, 7:2-4 (written before the
dispute); Letter #2: 10:1-13:14 (written during the
dispute); Letter #3: 1:1-2:13, 7:5-16 (written after
the dispute); [8:1-24 and 9:1-15 are seen as later
inserts, and 6:14-7:1 a non-Pauline fragment]. (see pp
133-135)

The first five letters -- I Thessalonians, I & II
Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians -- are explained
as products of Paul's missionary activity among
Greek-speaking Israelites. Romans, on the other hand,
is occasioned by Paul's travel plans and a church he
had no part in founding, and in this letter alone we
see a presence of Gentiles, acknowledged briefly (Rom
11:13-32) and in most unflattering terms (pp 273-274);
for the most part Paul addresses the Israelite group
in an attempt to persuade them how much he has much in
common with them, and to "rectify the distorted gossip
they may have heard about him" (p 24). Finally,
Philemon shows Paul acting legitimately as a mediator
between a slave and his master.

That the recipients of the first five letters were
diaspora Jews (or Greek Israelites, as the authors
prefer) is by far the most controversial claim staked
out in the commentary, resting on the idea that
circumcision was introduced into Judea only in the
Maccabean period, while Israelites in the diaspora
generally shunned this and other "barbaric"
Torah-customs. In that case, then, what did Judeans
and Greeks have in common? The authors explain:

"What characterized the various Israelite groups and
their Judaisms was a common 'genealogical' story of
mythic origin rooted in Abraham. Some of Paul's
Israelite clients would know Israel's scriptures, but
for Paul's audience these would be in Greek. When it
came to Judaism, that is, the customs of Judea
practiced by Israelites, there was little unity or
commonality around the Mediterranean. In a world based
on gossip and networking, such unity would simply be
impossible. In his approach to Israelite residents
among non-Israelites, Paul presumed, it seems, that
his audience held Israel's story as sacred along with
Israel's ancient sacred writings and that his
essential task was to proclaim how the God of Israel
was revealed in the resurrection of Jesus, thus
appointing Jesus Israel's messiah with a forthcoming
Israelite theocracy. This presumption makes it quite
clear that Paul's message was meant exclusively for
Israelites." (p 20)

In other words, devotion to YHWH, the figure of
Abraham, and perhaps the cries of the Hebrew prophets
for a forthcoming theocracy add up to the few
commonalities shared among the house of Israel. Temple
and Torah were largely about the Judean way of being
Israelite.

While there's no denying the diversity of Judaism(s)
in the first century -- and while it wouldn't surprise
me in the least to learn that certain aspects of the
Torah weren't practiced in the diaspora, or even
Galilee for that matter -- the idea that Paul confined
his mission exclusively to "Jews" won't hold water.
The way Paul describes his converts' former lives
points to non-Israelites. I could potentially buy the
idea of uncircumcised Israelites (Gal 5:2), but not
worshipping idols (I Thess 1:9; I Cor 12:2) (about
which the authors say these "Israelites" had been "far
along the way of assimilation, including adopting
local worship patterns" (p 38).) "Pagan" may not be
the best translation of ETHNE, as Malina and Pilch
claim (p 79), but it certainly refers to "the other
peoples", and that's exactly what Paul calls his
converts in I Cor 12:2. To shift the meaning of ETHNE
in this case to refer to a "social standing" (p 114)
is getting a bit desperate.

I agree with what Malina and Pilch -- and many Context
Group members -- have been telling us about the term
IUODAIOS. "Jew" is indeed an anachronism in the first
century (though I still use it as a lazy convenience,
depending on context). Even if "pagan" calls to mind
fourth-century stereotypes of "backwards and boorish
villagers" (p 79), ETHNE clearly refers to "those
peoples other than Israelites", and that is how Paul
describes his converts before they converted. This
need not (necessarily) undermine Malina and Pilch's
claim that Paul uses ETHNE in a geographical sense too
(perhaps in Gal 2:7-9), but that Paul evangelized
Gentiles, and predominantly at that, seems clear to
me.

The rest of the commentary is easy to swallow and
helpful, often making sense of key texts critics have
had problems with. For instance, I Thess 2:14-15 is
seen as authentic, plausible as coming from Paul, and
in no way contradicting I Cor 2:8. Both the Judeans
and imperial rulers obviously killed Jesus. "Judeans
are proverbial killers of the prophets" (p 41), while
"the rulers of this age rule by controlling people
[the Judeans] who do their bidding." (p 70) This is an
obvious place where a precise translation of IOUDAIOS
clears up confusion and does away with interpolation
theories owing to modern concerns.

The authors allow us to appreciate the dynamics of
Paul's dispute process in II Corinthians 10-13 and
Philippians, and how honorable it was to railroad his
opponents so that his converts might adjudicate in his
favor (pp 353-356). We understand the wrath of God as
satisfaction taken to defend the deity's honor in the
face of Israel's repeated shame and dishonor (sin) (p
408). We see why Rom 16 was appended to the original
letter to the Romans, for Phoebe could not have been
recommended to the Romans -- it would have been
shameful and socially impossible for Paul to make such
a recommendation to people he didn't know (p 292). We
laugh at Paul's wit: that he was clever and evasive
like Jesus (or any macho man) when it came to
defending his honor -- as in his flippant retort to
the charge that he was out of his mind: "If I am,
that's God's affair; if I'm not, that's to benefit
others." (II Cor 5:13) (p 146)

Paul's real genius surfaces in the way he continually
presses shameful virtues into honorable service. For
instance, he boasts in his weakness (II Cor 11:30),
not because he's endorsing a lame form of
double-speak, as if to imply that "your weakness is my
strength". Rather, in surviving hardships (II Cor
11:23b-28) *through* his weakness, the manly virtues
of endurance, strength of resolve, and courage are
demonstrated in the long run (p 158). Paul was able to
turn shameful things about Christianity into something
honorable, but in ways that could actually have been
acceptable -- to at least some -- in a world of
Mediterranean machismo.

Noticeably lacking in this book is any discussion of
lying and deception. This is very surprising, not only
since Pilch has done so much work in this area, but
because Paul offers plenty of missed opportunity. I
would have liked to see the authors treat Paul's
deceptive rhetoric in places like I Cor 1-4, I Cor
9:19-23, and II Cor 3:7-4:6, and see how their
honor-shame treatments contrast with Mark Given's
sophist approach (in Paul's True Rhetoric).

The only place the issue comes up briefly is in II
Corinthians, and it turns out to be a wasted
opportunity. The authors rightly describe Paul as a
shrewd strategist who refused the hospitality of his
own converts, thereby insulting them, challenging
their honor, and thus forcing them to be obligated to
him rather than vice-versa (II Cor 11:8-9) (p 155).
This -- among many other things, like his self-serving
missionary strategy (I Cor 9:19-23) -- called forth
the charge that he was "crafty and took them in by
deceit" (II Cor 12:14-16). But again, there's no
actual reading scenario for lying/deception. So if one
is looking for a balanced counter (or supplement) to
Mark Given's own study of Paul's lies and deceptions,
one will not find it in this commentary. I felt a bit
cheated on this point, especially given the importance
of honorable lies in biblical culture.

I should conclude with a word about the Context Group,
because in the past I've had discussions with people
who for some reason think this group of scholars is a
"closed club" of idiosyncratic members who all think
alike. The Context Group takes as its cohesion some
basic presuppositions about ancient Mediterranean
culture, sometimes in the interest of bridging that
world with ours on a more authentic basis than usual,
despite seeming impossible difficulties. But the
members are a diverse enough bunch and certainly don't
"all think alike". In this sense, while Malina and
Pilch's commentary stands as a Context Group
publication, it certainly does not speak for every
member of the Context Group.

An example may illustrate the point: Malina and Pilch
tell us that "conversion" is an inappropriate term
used to describe Paul's Christ-calling. Per Stendahl,
they believe he was "called" in the same way the
prophets of the Hebrew Bible were called (p 13); and
he wasn't converting people, rather announcing "a new
stage of Israel's corporate history, a new development
in Israel launched by the God of Israel" (p 23). Zeba
Crook, on the other hand, another Context Group
member, has pointed out that by the time of
Hellenistic Judaism, it was indeed possible to speak
of someone being called and *thus* converted: Paul was
invoking the call of the divine patron-benefactor
(which involved conversion by definition) and the call
of the prophets at the same time (see
Reconceptualizing Conversion, p 176). Philip Esler
also thinks "it is reasonable to speak of Paul's
conversion" (Galatians, p 126), but differently than
Crook: "the way in which Paul seeks to characterize
his new orientation, by describing himself as called
like Isaiah and Jeremiah, cannot be the end of the
issue, since his contemporaries who opposed his
activity were easily able to deny such claims...he
[actually] taught apostacy" (ibid, pp 121-122). This
is a way of reminding what should be obvious: that the
Context Group members are perfectly capable of
thinking uniquely and differently, unlike many of the
honor-shame collectivists they write about!

In the end, this commentary belongs on the shelf of
every Pauline student and scholar, especially if that
shelf is top-heavy with books favoring
systematic-theological or literary intertextual
approaches to Paul.

Loren Rosson III
Nashua NH
http://lorenrosson.blogspot.com/

__________________________________________________
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