Ethnicity, Race, Religion
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Ethnicity, Race, Religion Ethnicity, Race, Religion Identities and Ideologies in Early Jewish and Christian Texts, and in Modern Biblical Interpretation Edited by Katherine M. Hockey and David G. Horrell T&T CLARK Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP, UK 1385 Broadway, New York, NY 10018, USA T&T CLARK and the T&T Clark logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First published in Great Britain 2018 This paperback edition fi rst published 2020 Copyright © Katherine M. Hockey and David G. Horrell, 2018 Katherine M. Hockey and David G. Horrell have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identifi ed as Editors of this work. Cover image © urbancow/iStock All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. ISBN: HB: 978-0-5676-7730-3 PB: 978-0-5676-9292-4 ePDF: 978-0-5676-7731-0 ePUB: 978-0-5676-7732-7 Typeset by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India To fi nd out more about our authors and books visit www.bloomsbury.com and sign up for our newsletters. Contents Contributors vii Preface viii Abbreviations x Introduction David G. Horrell 1 Part 1 Ethnicity, Religion, and Identity in Antiquity: Jews and Christians in the Hellenic World 21 1 Society, Identity, and Ethnicity in the Hellenic World T e r e s a M o r g a n 23 2 Ἰ ο υ δ α ῖ ο ς : Ethnicity and Translation John M. G. Barclay 46 3 Identity Games in Early Christian Texts: Th e Letter to Diognetus Judith M. Lieu 59 Part 2 Ethnicity, Race, and Religion in European Traditions of Biblical Scholarship 73 4 S. R. Driver and Higher Criticism: Mapping ‘Th e Diff erences of Race’ in Genesis Gregory L. Cu é llar 75 5 What’s in a Name?: Ideologies of Volk , Rasse , and Reich in German New Testament Interpretation Past and Present Kathy Ehrensperger 92 6 From Ernest Renan to Anders Behring Breivik: Continuities in Racial Stereotypes of Muslims and Jews Halvor Moxnes 113 7 Other Problems from a British Perspective: ‘Jewishness’, Jesus, and the New Perspective on Paul James G. Crossley 130 Part 3 Challenging White, Western Traditions of Interpretation: Critique and Alternatives 147 8 Anachronistic Whiteness and the Ethics of Interpretation Denise Kimber Buell 149 vi Contents 9 Th e Bible in the Bush: Th e First ‘Literate’ Batswana Bible Readers Musa W. Dube 168 10 Exploring the (In)Visibility of the Christ-believers’ ‘Trans-ethnicity’: A Lowland Filipina Catholic's Perspective Ma. Marilou S. Ibita 183 11 Double Vision for Revolutionary Religion: Race Relations, Moral Analogies, and African-American Biblical Interpretation Love L. Sechrest 202 12 Re-examining the Master’s Tools: Considerations on Biblical Studies’ Race Problem Wei Hsien Wan 219 Index of Ancient Sources 231 Index of Modern Authors 235 Index of Subjects 238 Contributors John M. G. Barclay (PhD, University of Cambridge) is Lightfoot Professor of Divinity at Durham University, UK. Denise Kimber Buell (PhD, Harvard University) is Cluett Professor of Religion at Williams College, United States. James G. Crossley (PhD, University of Nottingham) is Professor of Bible, Society, and Politics at St Mary’s University, Twickenham, London, UK. Gregory L. Cu é llar (PhD, Brite Divinity School) is Associate Professor of Old Testament at Austin Presbyterian Th eological Seminary, United States. Musa W. Dube (PhD, Vanderbilt University) is Professor of New Testament at the University of Botswana, Botswana. Kathy Ehrensperger (PhD, University of Wales) is Research Professor of New Testament in Jewish Perspective at Abraham Geiger College, University of Potsdam, Germany. David G. Horrell (PhD, University of Cambridge) is Professor of New Testament Studies and Director of the Centre for Biblical Studies at the University of Exeter, UK. Ma. Marilou S. Ibita (PhD, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) is Postdoctoral Researcher at the Faculty of Th eology and Religious Studies, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium . Judith M. Lieu (PhD, University of Birmingham) is Lady Margaret’s Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge, and Fellow of Robinson College, Cambridge, UK, and a Fellow of the British Academy. Teresa Morgan (PhD, University of Cambridge) is Professor of Graeco-Roman History at Oxford University and Fellow and Tutor in Ancient History at Oriel College, Oxford, UK. Halvor Moxnes (Dr theol., University of Oslo) is Professor Emeritus in the Faculty of Th eology at the University of Oslo, Norway. Love L. Sechrest (PhD, Duke University) is Associate Professor of New Testament at Fuller Th eological Seminary, California, United States. Wei Hsien Wan (PhD, University of Exeter) is an independent scholar who resides in Klang, Malaysia. Preface It is not diffi cult to make the case that issues concerning ethnicity, race, and religion – and the points at which they intersect and overlap – are hugely important in the contemporary world and are directly implicated in some of the most diffi cult challenges to humanity’s peaceful coexistence. One need not listen to the news for long before hearing reports in which these dimensions of human identity are prominent. Perhaps the contemporary importance of these topics helps to explain why there has also been considerable scholarly interest in ethnicity or race in antiquity, not least in the discussion of Jewish and early Christian identities: Historical scholarship is always driven, to some extent at least, by the preoccupations and anxieties of the present. Moreover, the historical interpretation of ancient Judaism and earliest Christianity has long been bound up with modern ideologies and convictions regarding ethnicity, race and religion, sometimes with terrible consequences. Th ese issues begin to indicate something of the aims and scope of this volume. When contributors were initially invited to participate, they were given an outline of the agenda that the volume seeks to address, as well as a broad indication of their specifi c topic or area; they were not given any particular steer with regard to the methodology they should adopt or the arguments they might propose. Indeed, while certain themes and overlapping arguments emerge, as discussed in the introduction, it will also become clear to readers of these essays that there is considerable diversity both of approach and argument. Th e essays presented here were (with one exception) presented and discussed at either one of two workshops or an international conference, all held at the University of Exeter during 2016 as part of a project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) of the UK entitled ‘Ethnicity, Race, and Religion in Early Christian and Jewish Identities: A Critical Examination of Ancient Sources and Modern Scholarship’ (Grant Ref. AH/M009149/1). Our fi rst (and pleasant) duty, then, is to express our gratitude to the AHRC for their support of this project. Th e funding was awarded to David Horrell in the form of a fellowship and also provided for the appointment of Katherine Hockey as postdoctoral research associate. We have therefore worked closely together on this volume, from the initial invitations to the events through to the various stages of editing the essays. Th is particular history is relevant not only to acknowledge the source of our funding, but also to make clear that while one of us (David Horrell) takes responsibility for the topic of the volume, and its intellectual orientation, scope, and organization, the other (Katherine Hockey) has undertaken much of the work of organizing the events, communicating with the contributors, and preparing their essays for publication – and done a great deal else with outstanding care and great effi ciency, for which David would like here to record his sincere thanks and appreciation. Preface ix It goes without saying – but should always be said – that we are indebted to all our contributors, and extremely grateful for their willingness to prepare papers for discussion and publication. We would also like to thank all those, too many to list, who participated in the two workshops and the conference; their questions and contributions have helped in the shaping of this volume of essays. We would particularly like to thank three scholars – Denise Kimber Buell, Musa Dube, and Love Sechrest – who accepted the invitation to come to Exeter and spend a little longer engaging with the work of the project and with colleagues in the Department of Th eology and Religion, off ering insight and advice, though they are, of course, not to be blamed for any weaknesses or omissions in the fi nal outputs. One fi nal point about the volume should be stressed. As the list of contributors will indicate, those who have written for this volume come from a variety of contexts and perspectives. Yet this is not a volume of ‘minority voices’ or any similarly specifi c designation, nor have we sought to identify any of our contributors in this way. Th is is, rather, simply a volume of essays by scholars all of whom are working in the fi eld of biblical studies (and, in one case, contributing to it from the discipline of ancient history), albeit in diverse and sometimes confl icting ways. As is explained towards the end of the introduction, this kind of equalization of the value of the diverse range of scholarship represented here seems to us an important step towards the emergence of biblical studies from its Eurocentric origins into a truly global discipline.