Paul, the Corinthians and the Birth of Christian Hermeneutics

by Margaret M. Mitchell

Overview

In a series of exchanges with the Corinthians in the mid-50s AD, Paul continually sought to define the meaning of his message, his body and his letters, at times insisting upon a literal understanding, at others urging the reader to move beyond the words to a deeper sense within. Proposing a fresh approach to early Christian exegesis, Margaret M. Mitchell shows how in the Corinthian letters Paul was fashioning the very principles that later authors would use to interpret all scripture. Originally delivered as The Speaker's Lectures in Biblical Studies at Oxford University, this volume recreates the dynamism of the Pauline letters in their immediate historical context and beyond it in their later use by patristic exegetes. An engagingly written, insightful demonstration of the hermeneutical impact of Paul's Corinthian correspondence on early Christian exegetes, it also illustrates a new way to think about the history of reception of biblical texts.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521197953
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	10/28/2010
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	194
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.51(d)

About the Author

Margaret M. Mitchell is Dean and Professor of New Testament and Early Christian Literature at the University of Chicago Divinity School. She is the author of The Heavenly Trumpet: John Chrysostom and the Art of Pauline Interpretation (2002) and the co-editor (with Frances M. Young) of The Cambridge History of Christianity, Vol. 1: Origins to Constantine (Cambridge, 2006).

Table of Contents

Figures viii

Preface ix

Note on style xiii

List of abbreviations xiv

1 The Corinthian diolkos: passageway to early Christian biblical interpretation 1

2 The agôn of Pauline interpretation 18

3 Anthropological hermeneutics: between rhetoric and philosophy 38

4 The mirror and the veil: hermeneutics of occlusion 58

5 Visible signs, multiple witnesses: interpretive criteria in the agonistic paradigm 79

6 Hermeneutical exhaustion and the end(s) of interpretation 95

Notes 116

Bibliography 159

Indexes 169

Editorial Reviews

Review of the hardback: 'This monograph is beautifully written. Margaret M. Mitchell builds upon her own extensive - indeed, famous studies of the Corinthian correspondence in creating a masterpiece. This remarkable tour de force is the most interesting book I have read on the New Testament for several years and I recommend it without qualification.' Iain Torrance, Princeton Theological Seminary

Review of the hardback: 'The charm of this book … lies in the sense of freshness and urgency which it imparts … I loved reading [it], and it has refreshed and enlivened the way I read Paul.' Catherine Conybeare, Bryn Mawr Classical Review

'… an important contribution to each of the discourses on which i touches. … One rarely encounters works that encompass so much insight in so few pages, in such well-composed prose …' Review of Biblical Literature

From the Publisher