Charismatic Fellowship Or Tradition- Bound Hierarchy? -Studying the Roots of Church Government with Focus Upon the Pauline and the Johannine Source Material
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Charismatic fellowship or tradition- bound hierarchy? -Studying the roots of church government with focus upon the Pauline and the Johannine source material. A master thesis written within the Religious Roots of Europe Program Hilde Ekroll Supervisors: Einar Thomassen, UIB and Troels Engberg- Pedersen, KU Institutt for arkeologi, historie, kultur- og religionsvitenskap –AHKR May 2013 1 To my grandfather Arne († December 2009) who taught me creativity and to my friend Hanne († 22.07.2011) who encouraged me to seek knowledge ○ I wish you could be there to see me graduate 2 Acknowledgements. I started preparing for my thesis project in the autumn semester of 2011. First with only some really vague ideas, that slowly turned into a project sketch. Now it is May 2013, and very much on overtime, I am about to finish. There is a lot of lonely work when you write your thesis, all the hours spent in front of the computer, typing, trying not to spill coffee on the keyboard, underlining words , writing notes, trying to get a grip of what these 2000year old sources wants to tell me. Being part of the Religious Roots of Europe cycle two has been an adventure. The interaction between students and teachers, all the good times in the compact seminars, coffees and exam paper discussions in the libraries and coffee shops, long walks in Rome. My thanks go first to my supervisor Einar Thomassen, who helped and guided us RREs in Bergen since the autumn of 2010, and helped me shape the first ideas for my master thesis project. He has been a great help with structuring my ideas and with suggesting secondary sources, and has been a critical commentator on my work. I had the possibility to spend two of my master semesters in Copenhagen, and here I would like to thank especially Troels Engberg-Pedersen and Martin Ehrensvard for welcoming me to Copenhagen and the Copenhagen RRE group, inviting me to join the Copenhagen thesis colloquiums and helping me with practical issues. Troels has been my co-supervisor for my thesis project and taught me loads about analyzing and interpreting biblical source material. Being an RRE student means that you have most of your class abroad, but you also have the people at your own university. Marjolein and Ingrid, your were great RRE buddies. I would also like to thanks my friends from the religious studies "lesesal" in Bergen, especially Oskar Tobias Rudquist Henriksen and Ingvild Tørå Karsrud, who has been a great support trough the whole thesis writing. And thanks to my friends and family for all the support, for believing in me, and for cheering on me from the sideline. To my parents the deepest thanks because you are always there for me. To Marie, who tells me what "luftinntak" is in English: loovre, when I wondered what first, second, etc was called in English (the ordinals) and bakes chocolate muffins on a Tuesday while we sing old Eurovision songs, after I have been sitting in front of the computer for way too long. Jenny, John ,Maren, Ann Helen, Judith. Thank you. Hilde Ekroll, June 2013 3 Table of content Abstract ................................................................................................................................................... 6 Introduction. ............................................................................................................................................ 7 Primary sources. .................................................................................................................................. 8 Secondary sources: .............................................................................................................................. 9 The structure for my thesis: ............................................................................................................... 10 Chapter 1: The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there. ........................................... 11 1.1 Method for textual analysis. ........................................................................................................ 11 1.2 Theory. ........................................................................................................................................ 12 1.2.1. Authority as a sociological concept. .................................................................................... 12 1.2.2. Max Weber .......................................................................................................................... 14 1.2.2.1. The Three pure types of legitimate authority ............................................................... 15 1.2.3 Other perspectives on authority. ............................................................................................... 19 Chapter 2: «Paul as an authority» .......................................................................................................... 20 2.1 Pre-Pauline Christianity and the “origin” of the apostle role ...................................................... 21 2.3 Paul and the Galatians. ................................................................................................................ 24 2.4 Other sources to Paul`s life.......................................................................................................... 27 2.5 Paul in Corinth............................................................................................................................. 28 2.6 Exegesis of 1 Corinthians 3:5-9 .................................................................................................. 28 2.6.1 Paraphrase ............................................................................................................................ 28 2.6.2 Exegesis: ............................................................................................................................... 29 2.6.3 A detailed exegesis/interpretation of 1.Cor 3:5-9 ................................................................. 30 2.7 The Authority of Paul .................................................................................................................. 33 Chapter 3. The Ekklesia and the apostle: Conflicts within the body? ................................................... 35 3.1 An exegesis of Paul`s first letter to the Corinthians 12:1-31 ....................................................... 36 3.1.1 Paraphrase: ........................................................................................................................... 36 3.1.2 Exegesis: ............................................................................................................................... 36 3.1.3 A detailed exegesis/interpretation of verses 1 to 31. ................................................................ 37 3.2 The Body as a metaphor and Greco-Roman rhetoric’s ............................................................... 42 3.3 Prophets and teachers .................................................................................................................. 46 3.4 A summary .................................................................................................................................. 48 Chapter 4.Approaching the Second Century ..................................................................................... 48 4.1 The Pastoral letters. ..................................................................................................................... 52 4 4.1.1 The episkopos. ...................................................................................................................... 55 4.1.2 The diakonos. ....................................................................................................................... 57 4.1.3 The presbyteros .................................................................................................................... 59 4.1.4 A summary ........................................................................................................................... 63 4.2 The Johannine sources. ................................................................................................................ 64 4.2.1 A special disciple. ................................................................................................................. 65 4.2.2 Spirits and prophets. ............................................................................................................. 67 Conclusion. ............................................................................................................................................ 68 Bibliography .......................................................................................................................................... 72 5 Abstract In Norwegian Denne oppgaven tar for seg autoritetsforståelse og lederskap i Kristendommens spede begynnelse, og jeg har jobbet utifra følgende problemstilling: With basis in the Pauline and the Johannine text corpus, how might we define authority and leadership in the primitive church? Kildematerialet som blir presentert og analysert er i hovedsak bibelske tekster, 1 Korinterbrev, Galaterbrevet, Pastoralbrevene, Johannesevangeliet og 1 Johannes brev. Metode er derfor Bibeleksegese og teorien er hentet fra Max Weber sin modell om de tre rene former for legitim autoritet. Sekundærlitteraturen er hentet fra Meeks, MacDonald, Holmberg, Dunn og Campenhausen. Hoveddelen av oppgaven er bygget på det Paulinske materialet, men Johannes