Ps 109:30A) the Contribution of Leuven Biblical Scholarship to the Field in the Past Fifty Years and the Future of Biblical Studies in Light of Psalm 109 Ma

“With my mouth I will give thanks...” (Ps 109:30a) The Contribution of Leuven Biblical Scholarship to the Field in the Past Fifty Years and the Future of Biblical Studies in Light of Psalm 109 Ma. Maricel S. Ibita

Introduction

My heartfelt thanks to the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies (FTRS) of the KU Leuven for the invitation to give this lecture from the part of the Research Unit Biblical Studies (RUBS) on the occasion of the golden jubilee of the International Programmes in English.1 My gratitude also to the Ateneo de Manila University for the research leave grant to prepare for this lecture and its publication. While my initial excitement in drafting this piece was almost dampened by the enor- mity of the task to reflect on the future of biblical studies, it was replaced by a deep gratitude for the contributions of the KU Leuven to my own personal, academic and professional formation. Within the limited time and space, I apologize for any oversight as I paint in broad strokes the unique contributions and influences of our research unit to the greater field of global biblical studies, the current challenges for biblical research, and the possible trajectories for biblical criticism, with Psalm 109 as a test case as it talks about an ‘unsilent’ mouth (109:1), evil mouths (109:2), and praising mouth (109:30). The mouth here serves as a synecdoche, that is, with a generalizing and integrative function,2 for the whole person. We have a Filipino saying:

1. I also thank Maria Micheal Felix of the RUBS for the electronic copies of initial books and articles. 2. Elżbieta Chrzanowska-Kluczewska, “Synecdoche – an Underestimated Macro figure?,” Language and Literature 22, no. 3 (2013): 235. 366 MA. MARICEL S. IBITA

“Ang hindi marunong lumingon sa pinanggalingan, hindi makakarating sa paroroonan,” those who do not know how to look back from where they came from will not be able to reach their destination. Let us now remember together.

I. By Word of Mouth – with Different Accents

Every proclamation and promotion day, Dean Mathijs Lamberigts used to tell students to be ambassadors for the FTRS. By word of mouth, students are to witness to what KU Leuven education means. By word of mouth, prospective students get to know what KU Leuven education offers. With two anecdotes, I will introduce the most important contributions of the Faculty to biblical studies. New Testament scholar Raymond Collins recounts: Diversity and enthusiastic excitement were the realities that struck me as I entered the aula magna of the Pope’s College. Instead of a relatively small gathering of black-robed clerics, I was faced with a large audience of men and women, whose ages spanned a broad range of years. There were some seminarians and student priests from the American College, but the group included people from a great number of different countries. The different accents of their spoken English – sometimes a second or third language for them – rivalled the different accents of their professors. Their theological and cultural interests were widely different from those who sat beside them, engaging them in conversations that broadened their vistas. What brought them together was a respect for a hallowed theological tradition, an enthusiasm for the Second Vatican Council, and a desire to be part of this new venture in old Leuven. And I was to be a privileged part of it.3 Septuagint expert Johan Lust narrates: As was the case with several other colleagues from the early days, I was only acquainted with English in its written form. The first lessons I taught in English were completely written out and proof- read by an English lady. She was an official inspector of Oxford English abroad. The preparation of each lesson was very time- consuming and the result was far from perfect. Especially during the Q&A moments when I thought I formulated everything perfectly, the students seemed to have difficulties to understand me. The opposite was also true. The questions put by the students were very

3. Raymond F. Collins, “Testimonials: I Was to Be a Privileged Part of It,” last modified 2018, accessed April 8, 2019, https://theo.kuleuven.be/en/50-years-theology- programmes/Testimonial-Collins. “WITH MY MOUTH I WILL GIVE THANKS …” (PS 109:30A) 367

clear to them, but a mystery to me. I’m still amazed by the courage which led us to teach in an unfamiliar language which to the native speakers must have borne only a slight resemblance to English. Every beginning is hard!4 These stories personalize FTRS’ ‘primeval’ stories as the world recovered from the onslaught of two world wars and as it opened up to the fresh air that Vatican II brought to the Catholic Church. Locally, the escala- tion of the Dutch-French linguistic tensions in the early 1960s which reverberated internationally was resolved in 1968 by dividing the university into two sister universities, the Dutch speakers stayed in Leuven while for the French speakers a new university was constructed near Ottignies, eventually referred to as Louvain-la-Neuve.5 Pieter De Somer as the first rector of the Dutch-speaking university served from 1969 until his death in 1985. At the Flemish Faculteit Godgeleerdheid, New Testament scholars took the helm. Frans Neirynck was the first dean (1968-1972) and Maurits Sabbe was academic secretary.6 By 1969, a complete international theology program with English as official language was opened. “This initiative was taken not only on the basis of the already existing cordial relations with the English-speaking world and the presence of an international student population, but also as the result of a desire to serve the needs of the churches in those countries which had not yet established programmes of theological studies at university level.”7 Four more exegetes led the Faculty in later decades: Christiaan Brekelmans (1972-1975), Jan Lambrecht (1985-1990), Joël Delobel (1990-1996), and Marc Vervenne (1996-2000), who also became Vice-Rector for the Humanities and Social Sciences (2000- 2005) and Rector of the KU Leuven (2005-2009).

4. Johan Lust, “Testimonial: Every Beginning Is Hard,” last modified 2018, accessed July 9, 2019, https://theo.kuleuven.be/en/50-years-theology-programmes/Tes- timonial-Lust. 5. Barry James and International Herald Tribune, “In Belgium, Leuven-Louvain Split Speaks Loud,” The New York Times, November 11, 1997, sec. World, accessed July 13, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/1997/11/11/news/in-belgium-leuvenlouvain-split- speaks-loud.html; Lieve Gevers, “Een beeld van de Faculteit,” in De Faculteit Godgeleerd- heid in de KU Leuven: 1969-1995, ed. Lieve Gevers and Leo Kenis, Annua Nuntia Lovaniensia 39 (Leuven: Peeters and Leuven University Press, 1997), 3-60. 6. Gilbert Van Belle, “Bijbelwetenschap,” in De Faculteit Godgeleerdheid in de KU Leuven: 1969-1995, 64. This article offers a very detailed history of the RUBS from 1969-1995. 7. “Proud of Our Past,” accessed April 8, 2019, https://theo.kuleuven.be/en/50- years-theology-programmes/proud-of-our-past. 368 MA. MARICEL S. IBITA

1. Old Testament and the Septuagint The RUBS’ association with the historical-critical method can be traced back to the Old Testament scholar Albinus Van Hoonacker (1857- 1933) and his New Testament counterpart, Paulin Ladeuze (1870-1940) along with church historian Alfred Cauchie (1860-1922).8 Exegetes Joseph Coppens (1896-1981) and Lucien Cerfaux (1883-1968) contin- ued this approach as they served on the editorial board of the new journal Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses (ETL) in 1924 and initiated the prestigious annual Colloquium Biblicum Lovaniense (CBL) in 1949, just after World War II.9 For their student, Neirynck, “the Louvain tradition demands serious scientific labour, critically analysing the historical growth of Christian thought. Continuing to practice the critical method and introducing it to young theological students … remains its most important task.”10 Leuven’s use of the historical-critical method left its stamp in Old Testament studies in various ways. First, Brekelmans, known for his clarification on the controversial notion of herem in the Old Testament,11 helped restrain the postulated pan-deuteronomistic tendencies in the interpretation of the Pentateuch and the Old Testament in general in the 1970s.12 He highlighted the complexity of dating passages and proposed some criteria for determining whether a text can be considered ‘proto-Deuteronomist’ (a term he coined) or whether it is dependent on Deuteronomic literature.13 His student, Marc Vervenne, added a meticulous analysis of the use of language including its statistics and expression, style, compositional structure and content analyses to these

8. Gilbert Van Belle, “Tradition, Exegetical Formation and the Leuven Hypoth- esis,” in What We Have Heard from the Beginning: The Past, Present, and Future of Johannine Studies, ed. Tom Thatcher (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2007), 333. 9. Ibid.; J. Verheyden, ed., Colloquium Biblicum Lovaniense 1-60 (1949-2011) (Leuven: Peeters, 2012). 10. Van Belle, “Tradition,” 333; Frans Neirynck, “De Nederlandstalige Faculteit der Godgeleerdheid,” Onze Alma Mater 23 (1969): 233. 11. Christianus H. W. Brekelmans, De Herem in Het Oude Testament (Nijmegen: Centrale Drukkerij, 1959). 12. Van Belle, “Bijbelwetenschap,” 71-72. 13. See Chris H. W. Brekelmans, “Die sogenannten deuteronomischen Elemente in Gen. – Num.: Ein Beitrag zur Vorgeschichte des Deuteronomiums,” in Volume du Congrès Genève 1965, ed. Otto W. H. L. Eissfeldt, Supplements to Vetus Testamentum 15 (Leiden: Brill, 1966), 90-96; id., “Éléments deutéronomiques dans le Pentateuque,” in Aux grands carrefours de la révélation et de l’exégèse de l’Ancien Testament, ed. Charles Hauret, Recherches bibliques 8 (Paris: Desclée De Brouwer, 1967), 77-91; Hans Aus- loos, “The ‘Proto-Deuteronomist’: Fifty Years Later,” Old Testament Essays 26, no. 3 (2013): 542. “WITH MY MOUTH I WILL GIVE THANKS …” (PS 109:30A) 369

criteria.14 Following this Leuven position, Vervenne’s student Hans Ausloos proposed a more detailed textual criterion to classify texts as Deuteronom(ist)ic, proto-Deuteronomic, or post-Deuteronom(ist)ic as the understanding of the Deuteronomist developed from being an editor of minimal passages to a “highly esteemed redactor, or even more, a real author” or one of the “creators of the Tetrateuch/Hexateuch.”15 Second, Leuven also engaged with textual, redaction and linguistic-grammatical studies of Exodus. For Vervenne, a synchronic analysis of a text helps to uncover diachronic issues within the text itself. His analysis of the Sea Narrative (Exodus 13–14) discerned two editorial layers from Priestly and ‘proto-deuteronomic’ redactors.16 His CBL presidential address in 1995 and his lecture at the 15th IOSOT Con- gress were also dedicated to these insights.17 His student Bénédicte Lemmelijn’s text-critical study of the plague narrative in Exod 7:14– 11:10 provided extant witnesses of the text, detailed critical apparatus, and evaluation.18 Another contribution of the RUBS is its substantial investigations of tradition, redaction and kerygma in the book of Ezekiel, Ezekiel’s relation to the LXX, and the themes of prophecy and messianism in the LXX

14. Ausloos, “Proto-Deuteronomist,” 549; Marc Vervenne, “Le récit de la Mer (Exode xiii,17–xiv,31) reflète-t-il une rédaction de type deutéronomique? Quelques remarques sur le problème de l’identification des éléments deutéronomiques contenus dans le Tétrateuque,” in Congress Volume, Cambridge 1995, ed. John A. Emerton, Sup- plements to Vetus Testamentum 66 (Leiden and New York, NY: Brill, 1997), 365-380. For Vervenne’s bibliography, see https://theo.kuleuven.be/en/research/researchers/00005416. 15. Ausloos, “Proto-Deuteronomist,” 549, 551; Hans Ausloos, “The Need for Linguistic Criteria in Characterising Biblical Pericopes as Deuteronomistic: A Critical Note to Erhard Blum’s Methodology,” Journal of Northwest Semitic Languages 23 (1997): 47-56. For Ausloos’ bibliography, see https://uclouvain.be/fr/repertoires/hans.ausloos. 16. Marc Vervenne, “Het Zeeverhaal (Exodus 13,17–14,31): Een literaire studie” (4 parts) (Dissertation, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, 1986); Bénédicte Lemmelijn and Hans Ausloos, “Marc Vervenne: Scientific Biography,” in A Pillar of Cloud to Guide: Text-Critical, Redactional, and Linguistic Perspectives on the Old and New Testament in Honour of Marc Vervenne, ed. Hans Ausloos and Bénédicte Lemmelijn, BETL 269 (Leu- ven: Peeters, 2014), xv. 17. Marc Vervenne, “Current Tendencies and Developments in the Study of the Book of Exodus,” in Studies in the Book of Exodus: Redaction, Reception, Interpretation, ed. Marc Vervenne, BETL 126 (Leuven: Peeters, 1996), 21-59; id., “Le récit,” 365-380. 18. Bénédicte Lemmelijn, “Het verhaal van de ‘Plagen in Egypte’ (Exodus 7,14– 11,10): Een onderzoek naar het ontstaan en de compositie van een Pentateuchtraditie” (Dissertation, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, 1997); ead., A Plague of Texts: A Text- Critical Study of the So-Called “Plagues Narrative” in Exodus 7:14–11:10 (Leiden and Boston, MA: Brill, 2009). For Lemmelijn’s research, see https://theo.kuleuven.be/en/ research/researchers/00003696. 370 MA. MARICEL S. IBITA through the works of Johan Lust.19 Lust’s monumental legacy, however, lies in his foundation of the Centre for Septuagint Studies and Textual Criticism in 1988.20 It focuses on the linguistic and text-critical study of the Hebrew (MT, SamP, Dead Sea Scrolls) and the Greek (LXX and its revisions) texts and their interrelations. While the Centre published its flagship project, Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint,21 it has also cooperated in other prestigious ventures such as the Bible d’Alexandrie and the translation and commentary on the LXX text of Ezekiel and its critical edition in the Biblia Hebraica Quinta.22 Under the direction of Lust (1988-2003), Ausloos (2003-2010), and Lemmelijn (2010-present), the Centre has promoted a number of doctoral students and has published Festschriften for noted Leuven exegetes,23 expert symposia proceedings,24 a book on the theology of the LXX,25 and journal articles.26 Fourth, the Book of Isaiah has also been analysed by form critic Anton Schoors and by Willem Beuken, a member of Pontifical Biblical Commission (1997-2007), whose many commentaries on the prophetic book are indispensable.27

19. Johan Lust, “Traditie, redactie en kerygma bij Ezechiel: Een analyse van Ez. XX, 1-26” (Dissertation, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, 1966); id., ed., Ezekiel and His Book: Textual and Literary Criticism and Their Interrelation, BETL 74 (Leuven: Peeters, 1986); see F. García Martínez and M. Vervenne, eds., Interpreting Translation: Studies on the LXX and Ezekiel in Honour of Johan Lust, BETL 192 (Leuven: Peeters, 2005), esp. Mathijs Lamberigts, “Johan Lust: Academic Biography,” xiii-vi. For Lust’s writings, see http://lirias.kuleuven.be/cv?Username=U0006225. 20. For a more comprehensive history of the centre, see Hans Ausloos and Béné- dicte Lemmelijn, “Building on the Past, Reaching for the Future: The Twentieth Anni- versary of the Centre for Septuagint Studies and Textual Criticism at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (12 December 2008),” ETL 85, no. 1 (2009): 248-255. 21. J. Lust, E. Eynikel, and K. Hauspie, A Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, Part 1: A–I; Part 2: K–Ω (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1992, 1996); revised ed., 2003; 3rd corrected ed., 2015. 22. See Lamberigts, “Lust,” xiv. 23. Apart from Lust’s and Vervenne’s festschriften, see also H. Ausloos, B. Lem- melijn, and M. Vervenne, eds., Florilegium Lovaniense: Studies in Septuagint and Textual Criticism in Honour of Florentino García Martínez, BETL 224 (Leuven: Peeters, 2008). 24. H. Ausloos, J. Cook, F. García Martínez, B. Lemmelijn, and M. Vervenne, eds., Translating a Translation: The LXX and Its Modern Translations in the Context of Early Judaism, BETL 213 (Leuven: Peeters, 2008); H. Ausloos, B. Lemmelijn, and J. Trebolle Barrera, eds., After Qumran: Old and Modern Editions of the Biblical Texts – The Historical Books, BETL 246 (Leuven: Peeters, 2012). 25. Hans Ausloos and Bénédicte Lemmelijn, eds., Die Theologie der Septuaginta, Handbuch zur Septuaginta 6 (Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 2019). 26. On the Centre’s projects, see https://theo.kuleuven.be/en/research/centres/ centr_sept/centr_sept_projects/. 27. Antoon Schoors, “The RÎb-Pattern in Isaiah, XL–LV,” Bijdragen 30, no. 1 (1969): 25-38; Willem A. M. Beuken, Jesaja: Deel IIA (Jes. 40–48); Deel IIB (Jes. 49–55); Deel IIIA (Jes. 56:1–63:6); Deel IIIB (Jes 63:7–66:24), De Prediking van het “WITH MY MOUTH I WILL GIVE THANKS …” (PS 109:30A) 371

Finally, while Brian Doyle followed Peter Macky’s cognitive-rhetorical view on the metaphors in Isaiah 24–27,28 Pierre Van Hecke has broadly worked on metaphor from cognitive linguistics’ perspective, i.e., that more than a poetic device or figure of speech, metaphors have cognitive function.29 This linguistic approach currently gains ground among biblical scholars as it helps generate alternative insights on metaphors for God-human relations in the Scriptures like the God is Shepherd metaphor.30

2. The Dead Sea Scrolls When it comes to the so-called intertestamental period, FTRS was able to attract Florentino García Martínez and, as his successor, Eibert Tig- chelaar to join their ranks as research professors. With A. S. van der Woude, the founder of the Groningen Qumran Institute and the Journal for the Study of Judaism, García Martínez developed the ‘Groningen Hypothesis’ which clearly distinguishes between the origins of the Essene movement and those of the Qumran group.31 This core of the Gronin-

Oude Testament (Nijkerk: G. F. Callenbach, 1979, 1983, 1989); id., Jesaja 1–12, Herders theologischer Kommentar zum Alten Testament (Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder, 2003); id., Jesaja 13–27, Herders theologischer Kommentar zum Alten Testament (Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder, 2007); id., Jesaja: 28–39, Herders theologischer Kom- mentar zum Alten Testament (Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder, 2010); Ulrich Berges and Wim Beuken, Das Buch Jesaja: Eine Einführung, UTB Theologie 4647 (Göttingen and Bristol, CT: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2016). For Beuken’s bibliography, see http:// lirias.kuleuven.be/cv?Username=U0007196. 28. Brian Doyle, The Apocalypse of Isaiah Metaphorically Speaking: A Study of the Use, Function and Significance of Metaphors in Isaiah 24–27, BETL 151 (Leuven: Peeters, 2000); id., “The Prophet Isaiah and His Relational Metaphors,” in Prophets and Proph- ecy in Jewish and Early Christian Literature, ed. Joseph Verheyden, Korinna Zamfir, and Tobias Nicklas, Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament: Reihe 2, 286 (Tubingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2010), 31-40. For Doyle’s research, see http://lirias.kuleuven. be/cv?Username=U0015810. 29. Pierre Van Hecke, “Conceptual Blending: A Recent Approach to Metaphor, Illustrated with the Pastoral Metaphor in Hos 4,16,” in Metaphor in the Hebrew Bible, ed. Pierre Van Hecke, BETL 187 (Leuven: Leuven University Press and Peeters, 2005), 228-229. 30. Examples of Van Hecke’s research are “Are People Walking Before or After Orientalia Lovaniensia ”,לפני הלְך and אהרי הלְך God? On the Metaphorical Use of Periodica 30 (1999): 37-71; “Shepherds and Linguists: A Cognitive-Linguistic Approach to the Metaphor ‘God Is Shepherd’ in Gen 48,15 and Context,” in Studies in the Book of Genesis: Literature, Redaction and History, ed. André Wénin, BETL 155 (Leuven: Peeters, 2001), 479-495; “Living Alone in the Shrubs: Positive Pastoral Metaphors in Micah 7,14,” Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 115, no. 3 (2003): 362-375. For Van Hecke’s bibliography, see http://lirias.kuleuven.be/cv?Username=U0011979. 31. Anthony Hilhorst, Émile Puech, and Eibert Tigchelaar, “Preface,” in Flores Florentino: Dead Sea Scrolls and Other Early Jewish Studies in Honour of Florentino García 372 MA. MARICEL S. IBITA gen Hypothesis has not been proven wrong, even after most of the Qumran manuscripts have been published and new analyses have been undertaken.32 García Martínez is also credited for helping found the International Organization for Qumran Studies (IOQS) in 1989.33 Along with Eibert Tigchelaar, his successor as secretary of IOQS, they published the massive two-volume study edition of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1997-1998 which was revised in 2000 and translated into Korean in 2008.34 Tigchelaar is best known for his work on 1 Enoch and the wisdom texts of the Qumran Scrolls.35

3. New Testament The New Testament is also a very fertile ground for Leuven scholarship, especially on the Gospels and the Pauline Letters. First, any discourse on the Synoptics surely includes Frans Neirynck’s strong advocacy for the priority of Mark and the Two-Source Theory, a position still held by the majority of scholars today.36 He also served as the secretary of the CBL (1979-2001) and as the main editor of the journal ETL and the mono- graph series Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium (BETL).37 Neirynck’s contributions to Gospel research was feted with a three-volume Festschrift.38 His positions on the Synoptics have been

Martínez, ed. Anthony Hilhorst, Émile Puech, and Eibert J. C. Tigchelaar, Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism 122 (Leiden: Brill, 2007), xii; F. García Martínez and A. S. van der Woude, “A Groningen Hypothesis of Qumran Origins and Early History,” Revue de Qumrân 14, no. 4 (1999): 521-541. For García Martínez’s research, see http://lirias.kuleuven.be/cv?Username=U0035105. 32. Florentino García Martínez, “The Groningen Hypothesis Revisited,” in The Dead Sea Scrolls and Contemporary Culture: Proceedings of the International Conference Held at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem (July 6-8, 2008), ed. Adolfo D. Roitman, Lawrence H. Schiffman, and Shani Tzoref, Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah 93 (Leiden: Brill, 2011), 15-29. 33. George J. Brooke, “Preface,” in New Qumran Texts and Studies: Proceedings of the First Meeting of the International Organization for Qumran Studies, Paris, 1992, ed. George J. Brooke, Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah 15 (Leiden: Brill, 1994), vii. 34. Florentino García Martínez and Eibert Tigchelaar, The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition, 2 vols. (Leiden: Brill, 1997-1998); paperback ed., 2000; full Korean text ed. (Seoul: Bestun Korea Agency, 2008). 35. For Tigchelaar’s bibliography, see https://theo.kuleuven.be/en/research/ researchers/00062160. 36. On the status of the Synoptic problem and Neirynck’s contribution, see Christopher John Monaghan, “The Synoptic Problem: Where to From Here?,” Pacifica 30, no. 1 (2017): 72-87. 37. Van Belle, “Bijbelwetenschap,” 118. 38. F. Van Segbroeck, C. M. Tuckett, G. Van Belle, and J. Verheyden, eds., The Four Gospels 1992: Festschrift Frans Neirynck, BETL 100, 3 vols. (Leuven: Peeters, 1992). “WITH MY MOUTH I WILL GIVE THANKS …” (PS 109:30A) 373 further consolidated by his students Van Segbroeck, Delobel, Denaux, and Verheyden. Frans Van Segbroeck worked on Matthew and later furthered the study of the Bible in Flanders through his writings and editorial work.39 Joël Delobel and Adelbert Denaux both rejected the Proto-Luke hypothesis.40 Delobel specialized in textual criticism and cooperated with Barbara and Kurt Aland.41 Denaux’ exegetical oeuvre was mostly concentrated on Luke-Acts (Lukan vocabulary). He also gained merits through his work in ecclesiology and ecumenism, serving as the president of the National Catholic Commission for Ecumenism (1987-2007), as the chair of the International Ecumenical Fellowship in the Leuven meeting of 1996, as a member of the Anglican-Roman Cath- olic International Commission (ARCIC), and a member of the Centre for Ecumenical Research of FTRS, founded in 1994.42 Verheyden’s doctoral research focused on traditions concerning the flight of Christians to Pella.43 His subsequent research has concentrated on Q, the Synoptics and Acts, the New Testament and its earliest reception, Hellenism including Apocryphal literature, ancient manuscripts in the digital age, and alleged ‘docetism’ in the earliest church.44 He was secretary of CBL

39. Frans Van Segbroeck, “De formulecitaten in het Mattheüsevangelie: Bijdrage tot de christologie van Mt., 4–13” (Dissertation, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, 1964); For his bibliography, see Paul Kevers, Elia: Profeet van vuur, mens als wij: Opgedragen aan professor Frans Van Segbroeck ter gelegenheid van zijn emeritaat, Verslagboek Vliebergh-Sencie-leergang: Afdeling Bijbel 1996 (Leuven: VBS and Acco, 1997), 191- 200. 40. Joël Delobel, “De zalvingsverhalen: Bijdrage tot de redactiegeschiedenis der Evangeliën” (Dissertation, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, 1965); Adelbert Denaux, “De Sectie Lc, XIII, 22-35 en haar plaats in het Lucaanse reisbericht” (Dissertation, Katho- lieke Universiteit Leuven, 1967). For more of Delobel’s research, see http://lirias.kuleuven.be/cv?Username=U0007980. For Denaux, see http://lirias.kuleuven.be/ cv?Username=U0009149. 41. Van Belle, “Bijbelwetenschap,” 140; Barbara Aland and Joël Delobel, eds., New Testament Textual Criticism, Exegesis and Church History: A Discussion of Methods, Contributions to Biblical Exegesis and Theology 7 (Kampen: Kok Pharos, 1994); A. Denaux, ed., New Testament Textual Criticism and Exegesis: Festschrift J. Delobel, BETL 161 (Leuven: Peeters, 2002). 42. See https://adelbertdenaux.wordpress.com/cirriculum-vitae/ and https://theo. kuleuven.be/en/research/centres/centr_ecu. 43. Joseph Verheyden, De vlucht van de christenen naar Pella: Onderzoek van het getuigenis van Eusebius en Epiphanius (Brussels: Koninklijke Academie, 1988); id., “The Flight of the Christians to Pella,” ETL 66, no. 4 (1990): 368-384. 44. For example, P. Foster, A. Gregory, and J. Verheyden, eds., New Studies in the Synoptic Problem: Oxford Conference, April 2008: Essays in Honour of Christopher M. Tuckett, BETL 239 (Leuven: Peeters, 2011); Joseph Verheyden and Gilbert Van Belle, eds., An Early Reader of Mark and Q, Biblical Tools and Studies 21 (Leuven: Peeters, 2016). See also Tobias Nicklas, Joseph Verheyden, Erik M. M. Eynikel, and Florentino García Martínez, eds., Other Worlds and Their Relation to This World: Early Jewish and Christian Traditions, Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism 374 MA. MARICEL S. IBITA from 2002-2011, documented the first sixty years of the Colloquium, and was its President in 1998 (Luke-Acts).45 For his part, Jan Lambrecht’s redaction-critical approach as well as his focus on concentric structures which he discerned in the apocalyptic discourse in Mark 13 further strengthened the theory of Markan dependence on Q.46 His books on the parables in the Synoptics as well as on the Sermon on the Mount and the Sermon on the Plain which detail their possible transmission from Jesus to the evangelists were published in several editions and languages.47 Second, Neirynck and Sabbe are also famous for developing the so- called ‘Leuven Hypothesis’ which upholds the unity of the Fourth gospel, favours the creativity of the evangelist, and recognizes its dependence on the Synoptics. Sabbe published his collected essays under the title Studia Neotestamentica which deal with Christology, biblical theology, and John and the synoptics, even though his dissertation under Lucien Cerfaux was on the apologies of Paul in Jerusalem and Caesarea.48 Gilbert Van Belle, a student of Neirynck, has strongly supported the ‘Leuven hypothesis’ with his dissertation on the parentheses of John and his extensive bibliography

143 (Leiden and Boston, MA: Brill, 2010); Jan Willem van Henten and Joseph Verhey- den, eds., Early Christian Ethics in Interaction with Jewish and Greco-Roman Contexts, Studies in Theology and Religion 17 (Leiden: Brill, 2013); Andrew F. Gregory, Chris- topher M. Tuckett, Tobias Nicklas, and Joseph Verheyden, eds., The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Apocrypha (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015); Claire Clivaz, Joseph Verheyden et al., eds., “Digital Humanities in Ancient Jewish, Christian and Arabic Traditions,” Journal of Religion, Media and Digital Culture 5, no. 1 (2016); Joseph Verheyden et al., eds., Docetism in the Early Church, Wissenschaftliche Untersu- chungen zum Neuen Testament 399 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2017). For Verheyden’s bibliography, see http://lirias.kuleuven.be/cv?Username=U0003028. 45. J. Verheyden, ed., The Unity of Luke-Acts, BETL 142 (Leuven: Peeters, 1999); id., Colloquium, 1-150. 46. Veronica Koperski and Reimund Bieringer, “Jan Lambrecht the Exegete,” in “Sharper than a two-edged sword”: Essays in Honor of Professor Dr. Jan Lambrecht, SJ, ed. Veronica Koperski and Reimund Bieringer, Louvain Studies 17, no. 2-3 (1992): 104- 105; Jan Lambrecht, Die Redaktion der Markus-Apokalypse: Literarische Analyse und Strukturuntersuchung, Analecta Biblica 28 (Rome: Pontifical Biblical Institute, 1967). 47. Koperski and Bieringer, “Lambrecht,” 107; Jan Lambrecht, Maar Ik zeg u: De programmatische rede van Jezus (Mt 5–7; Lc 6,20-49) (Leuven: Vlaamse Bibelstichting and Acco, 1983); id., Ich aber sage euch: Die Bergpredigt als Programmatische Rede Jesu (Mt 5–7; Lk 6,20-49) (Stuttgart: Verlag Katholisches Bibelwerk, 1984); id., The Sermon on the Mount: Proclamation and Exhortation, Good News Studies 14 (Wilmington, DE: Michael Glazier, 1985); id., “Eh Bien! Mais je vous dis”: Le discours-programme de Jésus (Mt 5–7; Lc 6,20-49), Lectio divina 125 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1985). For Lambrecht’s bibliography, see http://lirias.kuleuven.be/cv?Username=U0018727. 48. Van Belle, “Bijbelwetenschap,” 119-121; Maurits Sabbe, Studia Neotestamen- tica: Collected Essays, BETL 98 (Leuven: Leuven University Press, 1991). “WITH MY MOUTH I WILL GIVE THANKS …” (PS 109:30A) 375 which were published as two separate books.49 Van Belle also widened his Johannine research to the death of Jesus. For him, the sign par excellence in the Fourth Gospel is the sign of the cross on the basis of the poetic character of the gospel as seen in the similarity of vocabulary, the ‘signs’ being in close relation with a discourse of Jesus, and other literary tech- niques.50 Verheyden and Van Belle are both founding members of the Leuven Centre for the Study of the Gospels (2010) which focuses on the “historical-critical and source-critical issues, the vocabulary and the style of the gospels, textual criticism, the Jewish and Hellenistic background(s), and the history of exegesis.”51 As of 2019, the Centre has already conducted seven international symposia, two international collo- quia, and since 2014 continues to sponsor the annual Frans Neirynck Lecture. Apart from his notable work on NT introduction and methods, Raymond F. Collins focused on the presence of ‘individuals’ as one of John’s stylistic features. Collins’ two instalments of a similarly titled sem- inal article, “The Representative Figures of the Fourth Gospel,” became a seed for the flourishing of narrative criticism of John which he pursued in other publications.52 Collins was also a recognized moral theologian.53 With the support of Lambrecht as dean, he transformed Louvain Studies from a student publication to an academic journal and served for many years as its editor-in-chief.54 Reimund Bieringer, a student of Lambrecht, combines the historical-critical method with contextual approaches like feminist studies focusing on leadership roles of women in the letters of Paul and the Gospel of John. In a series of publications, he focused on

49. Lieven Boeve, “Gilbert Van Belle: A Life in, with and for His Discipline and Faculty,” in Studies in the Gospel of John and Its Christology: Festschrift Gilbert Van Belle, ed. Joseph Verheyden et al., BETL 265 (Leuven: Peeters, 2014), xix; Gilbert Van Belle, Les parenthèses dans l’Évangile de Jean: aperçu historique et classification texte grec de Jean, Studiorum Novi Testamenti Auxilia 11 (Leuven: Leuven University Press, 1985); id., Johannine Bibliography 1966-1985: A Cumulative Bibliography on the Fourth Gospel, BETL 82 (Leuven: Leuven University Press, 1988). For Van Belle’s research, see http:// lirias.kuleuven.be/cv?Username=U0002745. 50. Gilbert Van Belle, “Introduction,” in The Death of Jesus in the Fourth Gospel, ed. Gilbert Van Belle, BETL 200 (Leuven: Peeters, 2007), xvii; id., “The Death of Jesus and the Literary Unity of the Fourth Gospel,” ibid., 3-64. 51. See https://theo.kuleuven.be/en/research/centres/centr_gospel. 52. Joseph Selling, “Raymond F. Collins: U.S.A. – K.U.L. – C.U.A.,” in The Ministry of the Word: Essays in Honor of Prof. Dr. Raymond F. Collins, ed. Joseph Selling, Louvain Studies 20, no. 2-3 (1995): 106; Raymond F. Collins, “The Representative Figures of the Fourth Gospel,” The Downside Review 94 (1976): 26-46, 118-132. On Collins’ bibliography until 1993, see Louvain Studies 20, no. 2-3 (1995): 332-340. 53. See his recent publication Wealth, Wages, and the Wealthy: New Testament Insight for Preachers and Teachers (Collegeville, MN: Michael Glazier, 2017). 54. Selling, “Collins,” 110. 376 MA. MARICEL S. IBITA

Mary Magdalene in Jn 20:1-18 in cooperation with iconology expert Barbara Baert and her research on the Noli me tangere.55 He also worked on possible anti-Jewish readings of the Gospel of John in light of Jewish- Christian dialogue.56 The colloquium on Anti-Judaism in the Fourth Gospel which he spearheaded in 2000 together with Didier Pollefeyt resulted in a series of publications including a widely quoted collection of essays and an evaluative article in 2017.57 Third, Pauline studies has also been a major domain of Leuven scholars. Lambrecht’s teaching of Paul’s letters in the English programmes of the Faculty in 1974 became a fertile topic for his students and for Lambrecht’s publications.58 He widely investigated the questions of Christology, justification by faith and questions on the law in Romans, Galatians, 1 Thessalonians, and especially 2 Corinthians, paying close attention to the presence of concentric structures as he had done previ- ously with Mark.59 Lambrecht did most of these investigations while also being twice a member of the Pontifical Biblical Commission (1985- 1991; 1991-1996), which, during his terms, issued The Interpretation of the Bible in the Church in 1993.60 Delobel’s Pauline contributions shed light on the questions of the early Christians who died as in 1 Thess

55. Barbara Baert, Reimund Bieringer, Karlijn Demasure, and Sabine Van Den Eynde, “Noli Me Tangere”: Mary Magdalene: One Person, Many Images, Documenta libraria 32* (Leuven: Peeters, 2006); Reimund Bieringer, Karlijn Demasure, and Barbara Baert, eds., To Touch or Not to Touch: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Noli Me Tan- gere, Annua Nuntia Lovaniensia 67 (Leuven: Peeters, 2013); id., eds., “Noli Me Tangere” in Interdisciplinary Perspective: Textual, Iconographic and Contemporary Interpretations, BETL 283 (Leuven: Peeters, 2016). 56. See also Gilbert Van Belle, “Johannine Scholarship in Dutch-Speaking Bel- gium and the Netherlands,” ETL 89, no. 4 (2013): 552-553. 57. Reimund Bieringer, Didier Pollefeyt, and Frederique Vandecasteele-Vanneu- ville, eds., Anti-Judaism and the Fourth Gospel – Papers of the Leuven Colloquium, 2000 (Assen: Van Gorcum, 2001); iid., eds., Anti-Judaism and the Fourth Gospel (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2001); Reimund Bieringer, “Anti-Judaism and the Fourth Gospel Fifteen Years after the Leuven Colloquium,” in John and Judaism: A Contested Relationship in Context, ed. R. Alan Culpepper and Paul N. Anderson (Atlanta, GA: SBL Press, 2017), 243-263. For Bieringer’s bibliography, see http://lirias.kuleuven.be/ cv?Username=U0007546. 58. Koperski and Bieringer, “Lambrecht,” 109. 59. Ibid., 110, 111. See, for example, R. Bieringer and J. Lambrecht, eds., Studies on 2 Corinthians, BETL 112 (Leuven: University Press and Peeters, 1994); Jan Lam brecht, Second Corinthians, Sacra Pagina 8 (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1999). Lambrecht’s 2006 edition of the Sacra Pagina commentary has additional bibliography. 60. Pontifical Biblical Commission, “The Interpretation of the Bible in the Church: Full Text,” Catholic Resources, last modified 1993, accessed September 3, 2017, http:// catholic-resources.org/ChurchDocs/PBC_Interp-FullText.htm. For a list of the members of the commission, see http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/pcb_ documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20090302_elenco-membri_it.html. “WITH MY MOUTH I WILL GIVE THANKS …” (PS 109:30A) 377

4:13-18 and in 1 Corinthians 15 as well as the views of Paul on food sacrificed to idols.61 While Collins also dealt with Paul’s letter, his main literary-critical study of 1 Thessalonians focused on its theology, Chris- tology, ecclesiology and ethics.62 Bieringer defends the original unity and integrity of 2 Corinthians. He has given much time to interpreting reconciliation in 2 Cor 5:14-21. He has also advocated for “new perspectives on Paul and the Jews,” that is, the role of Pauline theologizing in the process of Christian self-identity in relation to Judaism during the apostle’s time and its ramifications for today’s Jewish-Christian dialogue.63 Bieringer has also cooperated with ethicist-theologian and Leu- ven alumna Mary Elsbernd and some of their students in producing the volume Normativity of the Future. They proposed an eschatologically oriented biblical hermeneutic which focuses on the dialogue between the Bible and the signs of the times as constitutive of God’s revelation from a future-oriented view.64

61. Van Belle, “Bijbelwetenschap,” 141; Joël Delobel, “The Fate of the Dead According to 1 Thess 4 and 1 Cor 15,” in The Thessalonian Correspondence, ed. Ray- mond F. Collins, BETL 87 (Leuven: Peeters, 1990), 340-347; id., “Coherence and Relevance of 1 Cor 8–10,” in The Corinthian Correspondence, ed. R. Bieringer, BETL 125 (Leuven: Peeters, 1996), 177-190. 62. Van Belle, “Bijbelwetenschap,” 136. 63. See, for example, Reimund Bieringer, “‘Lasst euch mit Gott versöhnen’: Eine exegetische Untersuchung zu 2 Kor 5,14-21 in seinem Kontext” (4 vols.) (Dissertation, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, 1986); id., “Plädoyer für die Einheitlichkeit des 2. Korintherbriefes: Literarkritische und inhaltliche Argumente,” in Studies on 2 Corin- thians, ed. Bieringer and Lambrecht, 131-179; id., “‘Reconcile Yourselves to God’: An Unusual Interpretation of 2 Corinthians 5:20 in Its Context,” in Jesus, Paul, and Early Christianity: Studies in Honour of Henk Jan de Jonge, ed. Rieuwerd Buitenwerf, Harm W. Hollander, and Johannes Tromp, Supplements to Novum Testamentum 130 (Leiden and Boston, MA: Brill, 2008), 11-38; Reimund Bieringer and David J. Bolton, eds., Reconciliation in Interfaith Perspective: Jewish, Christian and Muslim Voices (Leuven: Peeters, 2011); Reimund Bieringer and Didier Pollefeyt, eds., Paul and Judaism: Cross- currents in Pauline Exegesis and the Study of Jewish-Christian Relations, Library of New Testament Studies 463 (London: T&T Clark, 2012); Reimund Bieringer and Anthony Binz, eds., Theologizing in the Corinthian Conflict: Studies in the Exegesis and Theology of 2 Corinthians, Biblical Tools and Studies 16 (Leuven: Peeters, 2013); Reimund Bieringer, Emmanuel Nathan, Didier Pollefeyt, and Peter J. Tomson, eds., Second Corinthians in the Perspective of Late Second Temple Judaism, Compendia rerum Iudaicarum ad Novum Testamentum 14 (Leiden: Brill, 2014). See also Reimund Bieringer, Emmanuel Nathan, and Dominika Kurek-Chomycz, 2 Corinthians: A Bibliography, Biblical Tools and Stud- ies 5 (Leuven: Peeters, 2008). 64. Reimund Bieringer and Mary Elsbernd, eds., Normativity of the Future: Read- ing Biblical and Other Authoritative Texts in an Eschatological Perspective, Annua Nuntia Lovaniensia 61 (Leuven, Paris, and Walpole, MA: Peeters, 2010); Van Belle, “Johannine Scholarship,” 558-559. See also International Expert Seminar Contextualizing Norma- tivity of the Future: Future Directions at https://theo.kuleuven.be/en/general/calendar/ expert-seminar-normativity, accessed 25 July 2019. 378 MA. MARICEL S. IBITA

4. Qur’an Studies While the first twenty-five years of the RUBS could be seen as laying the foundation for a strong historical criticism-oriented biblical research, the journey to the golden jubilee witnessed to the addition not only of the Qumran Scrolls research but also an attempt to engage with Islamic studies. Mehdi Azaiez is known for his systematic analysis of the coun- ter-discourse or the Qur’an’s quotation of opponents real or fictitious, which is “a fundamental characteristic of the Qurānic rhetoric.”65 He has also recently published a Qur’an commentary with his colleagues.66

II. With my Mouth I will Give Thanks: The Word in the World

At the beginning of this reflection, I noted the complex world that the English programmes of the FTRS was born into in 1968: the aftermath of two world wars, Vatican II, and the linguistic tensions in Belgium which had academic and political repercussions. From there, the FTRS reached out to the world. Just like Pentecost, the history of the RUBS is that of mentors and students from all over the world journeying together to understand the biblical texts better by applying the historical- critical method and eventually other methods in addition, and by dis- cerning the implications of the results of their investigations. Today, we are faced with even more complex realities than 1968. In his 2014 Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) presidential address, Fernando Segovia analysed the global state of affairs as the context for our critical inquiry, underlining several anniversaries of global importance: the centenary of the Great War, the seventy-fifth anniversary of World War II and seventieth anniversary of D-Day in 1944, and the Cold War, its resulting regional wars and the fall of the Berlin Wall.67 For him, our world is characterized by “geopolitical multipolarity and multijousting; political paralysis or breakdown at the level of the nation- state; global economic meltdown and inequality; radical ecological transformation; seismic population trends and reactions; explosion of violence

65. Mehdi Azaiez, “La polémique dans le Coran: Essai d’analyse du Contre-Dis- cours et de la riposte coranique” (Thesis, Aix-Marseille, 2012); id., Le contre-discours coranique, Studies in the History and Culture of the Middle East 30 (Berlin and Boston, MA: De Gruyter, 2015). 66. Mehdi Azaiez et al., The Qur’an Seminar Commentary: A Collaborative Study of 50 Qur’anic Passages (Berlin and Boston, MA: De Gruyter, 2016). 67. Fernando F. Segovia, “Criticism in Critical Times: Reflections on Visions and Task,” Journal of Biblical Literature 134, no. 1 (2015): 6-29, 7. “WITH MY MOUTH I WILL GIVE THANKS …” (PS 109:30A) 379 at all levels.”68 Segovia sees this sense of worldwide vulnerability in three areas, viz., global economics, climatological projections, and worldwide migration. They are expressed as (1) post-global politics because of the failure of globalization resulting in widespread exclusion and disenfranchisement,69 (2) post-human because of climate change which may cause major worldwide crisis by 2040 although poorer countries are already suffering its effects now,70 and (3) post-national because of world migration trends.71 To this “crisis of the world system”72 I will add (4) post-truth, which is “associated with the phrase ‘post-truth politics’” and defined as an “adjective relating to circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than emotional appeals,” and “fueled by social media as news source” which further makes these three circumstances even more complex and our times more critical.73 As a daily reality, post-truth devastates and erodes the fundamental values that democracies all over the world hold dear and it lends politics susceptible to fascist tendencies.74 This is the world we live in and the world where our MA and PhD students come from and our alumni return to, the 77 in 1969-1970 who have increased by more than five times in 2016-2017.75 This is also the world where the Word is made flesh. What do biblical studies ask of us, faculty and alumni of KU Leuven, in these critical times? I agree with Segovia’s proposal of a “global-systemic” approach for biblical criticism, that is, global in terrain or sphere of action (the mate-

68. Segovia, “Criticism,” 17-18. 69. Ibid., 18; Alfred J. López, “Introduction: The (Post)Global South,” The Global South 1, no. 1 (2007): 7. 70. Segovia, “Criticism,” 20; Dipesh Chakrabarty, “The Climate of History: Four Theses,” Critical Inquiry 35, no. 2 (2009): 197-222; Coral Davenport, “Major Climate Report Describes a Strong Risk of Crisis as Early as 2040,” The New York Times, Octo- ber 15, 2018, sec. Climate, accessed April 26, 2019, https://www.nytimes. com/2018/10/07/climate/ipcc-climate-report-2040.html. 71. Segovia, “Criticism,” 18; Khalid Koser, International Migration: A Very Short Introduction, Very Short Introductions, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016). 72. Segovia, “Criticism,” 21. 73. BBC, “‘Post-Truth’ Declared Word of the Year,” BBC News, November 16, 2016, sec. UK, accessed July 30, 2019, https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-37995600. 74. Guy Neave, “Foreword: A Vision Unspeakable,” in Post-Truth, Fake News: Viral Modernity & Higher Education, ed. Michael A. Peters et al. (Singapore: Springer Singapore, 2018), v, accessed April 25, 2019, https://www.springer.com/gp/ book/9789811080128; Jason Stanley, How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them (New York, NY: Random House, 2018); Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century (New York, NY: Tim Duggan Books, 2017). 75. See https://theo.kuleuven.be/en/50-years-theology-programmes/proud-of-our- past. 380 MA. MARICEL S. IBITA rial context) and “systemic” in the mode or angle of pursuit (the discur- sive context).76 He explains, The scope is expansive: the world of production (composition, dis- semination, interchange) as well as the world of consumption (reception, circulation, discussion). It would thus encompass the following foci of attention: (1) the texts and contexts of antiquity; (2) the interpretation of these texts and contexts, and the contexts of such interpretations, in the various traditions of reading the Bible, with a focus on modernity and postmodernity; and (3) the interpreters behind such interpretations, and their corresponding contexts.77 Segovia continues, The lens is wide-angled: interaction with the other grand models of interpretation as imperative, determined at any one time by the specific focus of the inquiry in question, since all such angles of inquiry are applicable – in one way or another, to one degree or another – to the analysis of the individual crises as well as the global crisis. In effect, just as historical, literary, sociocultural, ideological, cultural, and religious dimensions crisscross the global-systemic, so does the global- systemic impact upon and intersect with all such dimensions.78 With such scope and lens, the fundamental use of historical criticism which Leuven is most known for is ever needed so that the interpreter can venture solidly to literary and contextual approaches enriched by multidisciplinary contributions. These combinations make the various methods and approaches of interpreting the biblical texts as complementary parts of the global systemic approach in an integrated manner of interpretation and not only as disparate aspects of biblical interpretation. Van Belle explains, At K.U. Leuven, the scientific study of the significance of ancient texts employs the historical-critical method as its primary and most essential tool. This methodological approach allows us to establish a contextualized picture of the significance of what the authors and redactors of the Bible had in mind when they wrote. As a research method, historical-critical analysis includes several different stages: reconstruction of the original text; linguistic (morphological and syntactic) and semantic analysis; study of the structure of the text and its various component textual units; reconstruction of the sources employed; study of the literary genre; and research into the

76. Segovia, “Criticism,” 26, n. 53; A more comprehensive appreciation of the future of biblical studies from the viewpoints of exegetes from different continents are in Roland Boer and Fernando F. Segovia, eds., The Future of the Biblical Past: Envision- ing Biblical Studies on a Global Key, Semeia Studies 66 (Atlanta, GA: Society of Biblical Literature, 2012). 77. Segovia, “Criticism,” 26. 78. Ibid. “WITH MY MOUTH I WILL GIVE THANKS …” (PS 109:30A) 381

transmission and redaction of the text. In this light, it is essential that any explanation of the text’s historical situation be coordinated with reading the text (literary, rhetorical, narrative, structural, and semi- otic analyses), measuring one’s reading against other methods rooted in tradition (canonical interpretation, Jewish interpretive traditions, and the study of the Wirkungsgeschichte of the text), and comparing one’s conclusions to approaches based primarily in the human sciences (sociological, cultural-anthropological, psychological and psy- choanalytical analyses) as well as the so-called ‘contextual approaches’ (liberation theologies and feminist readings).79 With Segovia’s comprehensive evaluation on the task of biblical research and Van Belle’s particular Leuven framing of the exegetical process, I suggest some characteristics of biblical studies (which may crossover with each other) that may help us to respond to the challenges of our critical times: contextual, integrated, inclusive, and transformational. These characteristics concern the text (Bible and Qur’an), the methods of teaching, learning and researching,80 and the person of the exegete.

1. Contextual At the opening session of the 2018 joint meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) and the European Association of Biblical Studies (EABS) in Helsinki, Finland themed “What Would I Like to See Happen in Bib- lical Studies?,” Ismo Dunderberg underlined the need to study the social location of biblical sources to better understand the text.81 It means an archaeology of the Word and its world, figuratively and literally. Examples would be the state of the archaeological and identity debates at Qumran,82 or the directions that new studies about the exile would mean for the Hebrew Bible and the LXX.83 Recently, the FTRS through Bieringer, Dominika Kurek-Chomycz and Ma. Marilou Ibita, designed a course on the archaeology of ancient cities in Greece and Turkey as important places

79. Van Belle, “Tradition,” 328 (italics mine). It should be noted that Van Belle is referring here to the Pontifical Biblical Commission, “IBC.” Many other biblical methods have developed henceforth. 80. David Clines, “Learning, Teaching, and Researching Biblical Studies, Today and Tomorrow,” Journal of Biblical Literature 129, no. 1 (2010): 5-29. 81. Rick Bonnie et al., “Opening Session: What I Would Like to See Happening in Biblical Studies,” interview by Martti Nissinen, July 30, 2018, accessed June 17, 2019, https://www.sbl-site.org/meetings/Congresses_ProgramBook.aspx?MeetingId=32. 82. Robert R. Cargill, “The State of the Archaeological Debate at Qumran,” Cur- rents in Biblical Research 10, no. 1 (2011): 101-118. 83. Kristin De Troyer, “The Seventy-Two and Their Many Grandchildren: A Review of Septuagint Studies from 1997 Onward,” Currents in Biblical Research 11, no. 1 (2012): 8-64. 382 MA. MARICEL S. IBITA for biblical studies.84 This course is especially important for international students who after returning home from Leuven may never have the time and resources again to visit such places in the context of academic studies. Equally significant is the world presented in the text as they help character- ize the ‘individuals’ in the Bible, a method which Collins started in John but which is now applied to other biblical narratives, even to the Pauline Letters.85 It is also vital to recognize the social location of interpreters and readers as multiple factors that influence one’s research: denominational heritage, seminary or university formation, conservative or progressive orientation of the researcher or institute, focus on the arts and sciences or theology, and where one works as a teacher or researcher.86 For instance, as the 500th anniversary of the colonization of Latin America and certain parts of Asia approaches, further studies on empires and decolonization become more relevant.87 In the aforementioned SBL-EABS session, Jutta Jokiranta expressed the hope that breathing the historical air will allow us to understand ourselves more today and contribute relevant insights on what kind of world we shall build tomorrow.88

2. Integrated Integrated means that the interpreter needs to be guided not only by biblical research but also by theological and pastoral studies rooted in human experience, contemporary issues, and interdisciplinary sciences. It entails cognizance of justice, peace, and ecological concerns as essential to the biblical message.89 An integrated approach also pertains to

84. The interuniversity study trip courses between FTRS and the Department of Theology, Philosophy and Religious Studies (Liverpool Hope University, UK) were as follows: 2-10 February 2011, Southern Greece; 1-8 April 2013, First Century Macedo- nia and Christian History in Northern Greece; 7-18 April 2015, Turkey: Urban Centres of Early Christianity in Western Asia Minor; and 3-11 April 2017, Ancient Macedonia and Christian History, Northern Greece. 85. Bruce W. Longenecker, “The Narrative Approach to Paul: An Early Retrospec- tive,” Currents in Biblical Research 1, no. 1 (2002): 88-111; for example, Ma. Marilou S. Ibita, “‘If Anyone Hungers, He/She Must Eat in the House’ (1 Cor 11:34): A Narrative- Critical, Socio-Historical and Grammatical-Philological Analysis of the Lord’s Supper in Corinth (1 Cor 11:17-34)” (Dissertation, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, 2012). 86. Van Belle, “Tradition,” 326. 87. See Bradley L. Crowell, “Postcolonial Studies and the Hebrew Bible,” Currents in Biblical Research 7, no. 2 (2009): 217-244; R. S. Sugirtharajah, The Bible and Asia: From the Pre-Christian Era to the Postcolonial Age (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013). 88. Bonnie et al., “Opening.” 89. See Mark J. Boda, “Poethics?: The Use of Biblical Hebrew Poetry in Ethical Reflection on the Old Testament,” Currents in Biblical Research 14, no. 1 (2015): 45-61. “WITH MY MOUTH I WILL GIVE THANKS …” (PS 109:30A) 383

multi-intelligence methods of studying and teaching the Scriptures, con- sidering the various learning intelligences of the students so that they can pick up transferrable skills, understand the subject matter, and not just accumulate knowledge.90 Vervenne’s early interest in digitizing the Bible as well as Van Hecke and Tigchelaar’s recent venture into Corpus Lin- guistics research point to another direction that merits serious consid- eration.91 As a new carrier of religious and other ancient texts, digital technology provides information that investigators can extract for analysis. As this technology becomes more vital and as future students will increasingly be digital natives, advances in information technology and artificial intelligence will continue in yet to be imagined forms.92 While these developments allow more access to information, guidance on how to responsibly and ethically analyse data still depends on other critical methods that exegetes need to learn.

3. Inclusive As one goes up to the Maurits Sabbe Library from the Grote Aula, one encounters Dorien Daens’ 2016 art installation, “Upward Stream,” which symbolizes the increasing number of women doctors and the internationalization of the FTRS. As a Filipina, my attention is called by six Filipina doctors included in this artwork, four represent the RUBS: Ma. Anicia Co who worked with Delobel (1990); Niceta Vargas (1995) whose promoters were Collins and Bieringer and who as dean of the Institute of Formation and Religious Studies first developed these four characteristics I am talking about as facets of religious-theological formation;93 Ma. Marilou S. Ibita (2012), my twin sister, who was promoted by Bieringer; and I (2015) who initially worked with Ausloos and was later accompanied by Van Hecke. The other two are Lily Quintos, the first woman doctor of the Faculty (Religious Studies, 1973), and systematic theologian Agnes Brazal (1998). Also included in this roster is RUBS’ Lemmelijn (1997) who became the first woman Vice-Dean of the FTRS in 2014. True to this development at the Faculty, I am proud that the RUBS invited a woman from the South to give this jubilee

90. Clines, “Learning,” 5-29. 91. On Vervenne and digitalizing the Bible, see Van Belle, “Bijbelwetenschap,” 93-94. I would like to thank Prof. Bieringer for pointing out the Corpus Linguistics project of Van Hecke and Tigchelaar. 92. See Carl W. Griffin, “Digital Imaging: Looking Toward the Future of Man- uscript Research,” Currents in Biblical Research 5, no. 1 (2006): 58-72. 93. See http://ifrs.com.ph/about-go.html, accessed 15 June 2019. 384 MA. MARICEL S. IBITA lecture. Inclusivity also underlines the importance of incorporating in our biblical studies the perspectives of women.94 It necessitates integra- tion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, intersex, and asexual (LGBTQIA) perspectives,95 differently-abled persons,96 indigenous peoples,97 young and old,98 and other marginalized sectors;99 and the insights of other religious traditions, spiritualities, and seculari- zation.100 Likewise, as knowledge is power, so access to it empowers. Access to knowledge is a concern that scientific organizations should respond to. The SBL has responded to this challenge through a social- ized membership scheme and through the International Cooperation Initiative which, in agreement with authors and publishers, offers free access to electronic books and journals for scholars in developing countries. Library access is provided here at the KU Leuven, but it is a vital necessity for research and updating in the home countries of our alumni in the South and those in the North who are not affiliated with universities or are in-between jobs. I wonder if our Faculty and the alumni association at the KU Leuven can offer a similar scheme or open access possibilities101 as support to the increasing number of international students who return to or work in developing countries.

94. Susanne Scholz, “A Third Kind of Feminist Reading: Toward a Feminist Sociology of Biblical Hermeneutics,” Currents in Biblical Research 9, no. 1 (2010): 9-32. 95. David Tabb Stewart, “LGBT/Queer Hermeneutics and the Hebrew Bible,” Currents in Biblical Research 15, no. 3 (2017): 289-314. 96. See, for example, Sarah J. Melcher, Mikeal C. Parsons, and Amos Yong, eds., The Bible and Disability: A Commentary (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2017). 97. Anne Rinaudo, “Indigenous Bible – ‘In Our Language, Everything Spiritual Is Opened’,” Hope 103.2, last modified November 30, 2018, accessed July 17, 2019, https://hope1032.com.au/stories/open-house/2018/indigenous-bible-in-our-language- everything-spiritual-is-opened/. 98. Julie Faith Parker, “Children in the Hebrew Bible and Childist Interpreta- tion,” Currents in Biblical Research 17, no. 2 (2019): 130-157; Liubov Ben-Noun, “What Diseases of the Eyes Affected Biblical Men?,” Gerontology 48, no. 1 (2002): 52-55; ead., “What Was the Disease of the Bones That Affected King David?,” The Journals of Gerontology: Series A 57, no. 3 (2002): M152-M154; Rachel Zohar Dulin, A Crown of Glory: A Biblical View of Aging (New York, NY: Paulist, 1988). 99. Chloe Sun, “Recent Research on Asian and Asian American Hermeneutics Related to the Hebrew Bible,” Currents in Biblical Research 17, no. 3 (2019): 238-265. 100. Philip R. Davies, “Biblical Studies: Fifty Years of a Multi-Discipline,” Cur- rents in Biblical Research 13, no. 1 (2014): 34-66. On being areligious biblical scholar, see Athalya Brenner-Idan, “On Scholarship and Related Animals: A Personal View from and for the Here and Now,” Journal of Biblical Literature 135, no. 1 (2016): 16. 101. An example of open access opportunity for uploading and downloading is hosted by LIRIAS and appears in the Limo search engine. However, it is still limited to those with KU Leuven personnel or student cards. For more information, see https:// theo.kuleuven.be/nl/open-access/home, accessed 30 July 2019. “WITH MY MOUTH I WILL GIVE THANKS …” (PS 109:30A) 385

4. Transformational This facet means being responsive to the call of the Spirit and the signs of the times which demand the transformation of individuals, relation- ships, communities, institutions and structures. It also asks how our scholarship and the questions we pose are conditioned by our social location and how they serve political functions.102 Gladly, FTRS has a new course on contextual hermeneutics coordinated by Doyle in cooperation with Bieringer and Ibita using blended learning (face to face lecture and online teaching) which is a core course of the Research Mas- ter programme.103 Contextual methods “cover the public dimension and ethical implications of our scholarly work” and “constitute a responsible scholarly citizenship that could be a significant participant in the global discourse seeking justice and well-being for all.”104 Once again, the theologian-exegete has to be steeped in the basics of the historical-critical method, so that one is more equipped to venture to new approaches such as trauma hermeneutics and divine violence,105 ecological hermeneutics,106 and political exegesis,107 etc. As exegetes, it is our task to help make sense of the signs of the times, to look towards hope, and to do all we can to realize the future that the Word of God invites us to.108 A more critical understanding of the Scriptures means a change in the way we comprehend systematic theology, ethics, ecclesiology, pastoral theology, missiology, and spirituality, as Siiri Toivianen hinted at in

102. See Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, “The Ethics of Biblical Interpretation: Decentering Biblical Scholarship,” Journal of Biblical Literature 107, no. 1 (1988): 10. See also the manifold interpretive examples in R. S. Sugirtharajah, ed., Voices from the Margin: Interpreting the Bible in the Third World, 25th Anniversary ed. (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2016). 103. See AO7J3a “Contextual Hermeneutical Approaches to the Bible,” https:// onderwijsaanbod.kuleuven.be/syllabi/e/A07J3AE.htm#activetab=doelstellingen_ idp49328. 104. Fiorenza, “Ethics,” 16. 105. David G. Garber, Jr., “Trauma Theory and Biblical Studies,” Currents in Biblical Research 14, no. 1 (2015): 24-44; Eric A. Seibert, “Recent Research on Divine Violence in the Old Testament: (With Special Attention to Christian Theological Per- spectives),” Currents in Biblical Research 15, no. 1 (2016): 8-40. 106. David G. Horrell, Cherryl Hunt, and Christopher Southgate, “Appeals to the Bible in Ecotheology and Environmental Ethics: A Typology of Hermeneutical Stances,” Studies in Christian Ethics 21, no. 2 (2008): 219-238. 107. Amy C. Merrill Willis, “A Reversal of Fortunes: Daniel among the Scholars,” Currents in Biblical Research 16, no. 2 (2018): 121-122; Bruce Worthington, ed., Read- ing the Bible in an Age of Crisis: Political Exegesis for a New Day (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2015). 108. See Mary Elsbernd and Reimund Bieringer, “Interpreting the Signs of the Times in the Light of the Gospel: Vision and Normativity of the Future,” in Normativ- ity of the Future, ed. Bieringer and Elsbernd, 47-90. 386 MA. MARICEL S. IBITA the aforesaid SBL-EABS session.109 Certainly, biblical critics can conduct interdisciplinary investigations on their own, but sometimes interperson- ally working with colleagues from other disciplines in theology, law, journalism, sociology and anthropology, filmmaking and the arts, etc. is also needed. The Research Support Group of the Group of Social Sci- ences and Humanities of KU Leuven, for example, underlines the importance of the academic players in achieving the 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs) and the need for and acknowledgement of the social impact of academic research.110 Given the challenge of Segovia, the framing of the Leuven approach by Van Belle, and my own exposition of biblical studies’ characteristics, which example in the Biblical tradition could I adduce?

III. Of an “Unsilent” God, Evil Mouths, and Thankful Mouth: The Imagery of the Mouth in Psalm 109

One never knows when one’s research interest and context converge with other co-alumni. I had been intrigued by the imprecations of Psalm 109 upon realizing that it is not even part of the Liturgy of the Hours any more.111 Stephen Egwim’s dissertation investigated Psalm 109 from a contextual and cross-cultural point of view with the Igbos of Nigeria, specifically the traditional prayer of iju Ogu.112 I agree with him that the superscription “of David” is not an actual identification of authorship.113 While this reference to David may date the psalm as pre-exilic, the phrase “in the midst of the throng I will praise him” (109:30) may indicate the assembly of the Temple, which could mean either the first

109. Bonnie et al., “Opening.” 110. An example is our interuniversity-multidisciplinary project (KU Leuven – Ateneo de Manila University) with Bieringer and Ma. Marilou Ibita entitled “Memory and Visions, Conversations and Actions: Mainstreaming Multi-disciplinary Gender Per- spectives on the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals in Belgium and in the Philippines” which is funded by Global Minds from 1 April to 31 December 2019. On research and UNSDGs, a meeting between the Research Support for the Social Sciences and Humanities with the FTRS was conducted last June 14, 2019. See https://ghum. kuleuven.be/NL2017/researchsupport/events/sdg. 111. See Ma. Maricel S. Ibita, “‘Learn How to Weep’: The Contemporary Chal- lenge of Lament in Today’s World,” Louvain Studies 41, no. 4 (2018): 377-391. 112. Stephen C. Egwim, A Contextual and Cross-Cultural Study of Psalm 109, Biblical Tools and Studies 12 (Leuven: Peeters, 2011), 4. For current African appreciation of Ps 109, see Christo Lombaard, “Biblical Spirituality, the Psalms, and Identifica- tion with the Suffering of the Poor: A Contribution to the Recent African Discussion on Psalm 109,” Scriptura 110, no. 2 (2012): 273-281. 113. Egwim, Contextual, 114-115. “WITH MY MOUTH I WILL GIVE THANKS …” (PS 109:30A) 387 or the second Temple.114 I follow Gerstenberger’s classification that it is a complaint psalm, because “complaints always try to change a situation of injustice and misery for the better.”115 Scholars have long debated about the change in number in 109:6-19, shifting from plural to singu- lar. Wright succinctly enumerates both camps’ argumentation, and I follow his position that the imprecations are the psalmist’s as I attempt a contextual, integrated, inclusive and transformational reading.116 The overarching imagery in the psalm is the presence of the mouth, an orifice which serves as an organ for communication and is usually associated with the heart.117 As a synecdoche for people, the mouth conveys ideas, feelings and emotions.118 The semantic range of the use of “mouth” in the Bible is wide: humanly speaking, it can be physical, psychological in relation with emotions and intellect, or ethical; theo- logically, a person can be a mouthpiece of God, a prophet, or a worship- per who praises God in contrast with the mouth of the wicked.119 García-López explains the power of the mouth: The human mouth is not neutral; on the contrary, it is a mighty weapon. Its speech entails serious consequences, good or evil. This is true not just for the individual, but also for society. The mouth of the righteous is a source of life and blessing. Their speech brings prosperity. Fools produce violence and practice it with their mouths. Their speech destroys them and those around them (Prov. 10:6,11,14,31-32; 18:7; Ps. 50:19; Eccl. 10:12-13).120 Furthermore, The human mouth can foster or destroy solidarity and fellowship with one’s neighbor. The speech of the wicked engenders intrigues and slanders their neighbors; such speech becomes a destructive force within society. Contrariwise, the blessings uttered by the righteous serve the prosperity and well-being of the city; their speech is good and constructive, because they are concerned for the welfare of their neighbors (Prov. 11:9,11). The words of the wicked can even be

114. See Egwim, Contextual, 126. 115. Erhard S. Gerstenberger, Psalms, Part 1, with an Introduction to Cultic Poetry, The Forms of the Old Testament Literature 14 (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1988), 13; Egwim, Contextual, 117. 116. David P. Wright, “Ritual Analogy in Psalm 109,” Journal of Biblical Litera- ture 113, no. 3 (1994): 393-395. Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament XI ”, פֶ ה F. García-López, “Peh .117 (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2001), 493, 494. 118. Ibid., 495, 496. On “man” as synecdoche for somatic, intellectual and psychological aspects of a person, see Chrzanowska-Kluczewska, “Synecdoche – an Under- estimated Macrofigure?,” 235. 119. García-López, “Peh,” 496-499. 120. Ibid., 500. 388 MA. MARICEL S. IBITA

deadly snares. Those who are guilty attempt to pervert justice with their words; they condemn the innocent to death. Those who are innocent can defend and deliver themselves by speaking the truth (12:6; 18:7).121 For this reason, Careful attention to one’s speech is therefore a matter of life and death: the fruits of the mouth are either beneficent or deadly. Those who guard their mouths refuse to spread poison and take care not to injure others (13:2-3; 21:23; 26:9). All these passages underline the gravity and effectiveness of human language, the potency of the mouth. … It is therefore easy to understand the psalmist who uses the language of wisdom to emphasize the dangers that emanate from a wicked mouth and a lying tongue and, faced with such peril, prays for God’s speedy intervention and deliverance (Ps. 109:2; 144:8-11; cf. Job 5:15-16).122 As hate speech and post-truth dominate individual and global political discourse and as they undermine the current democratic world system,123 several SBL program units problematize these interrelated concerns: “Political Biblical Criticism,” a joint session between “Writing (and Psalms)” and “Contextual Interpretation of the Bible” for the July 2019 Rome International Meeting, and another joint session of “Bible and Popular Culture” and “Contextual Biblical Interpretation” at the November Annual Meeting in San Diego, CA.124 Based on the different portrayals of mouths in Psalm 109, I suggest these divisions: the intro- ductory prayer to YHWH who is urged not to be silent against evil and deceitful mouths (vv. 1-5); the psalmist’s imprecatory prayer against the evil mouth who does not practice hesed (vv. 6-19); and the petition and thanksgiving of the mouth who hopes in YHWH’s hesed (vv. 21-31).

1. The Prayer for God Not to Be Silent (109:1-5) Joshua Matson’s investigation talks about a seventh and sixth centuries bce ancient Near Eastern opening of the mouth ritual for cultic images to be validated for enthronement.125 These rituals are parodied in

121. García-López, “Peh,” 500-501. 122. Ibid., 501. 123. Neave, “Foreword,” v. 124. See https://www.sbl-site.org/meetings/Congresses_ProgramUnits. aspx?MeetingId=34 and https://www.sbl-site.org/meetings/Congresses_ProgramUnits. aspx?MeetingId=35, accessed 17 June 2019. 125. See Joshua M. Matson, “Idol Remains: Remnants of the Opening of the Mouth Ritual in the Hebrew Bible,” Studia Antiqua 12, no. 3 (2013): 33-50. “WITH MY MOUTH I WILL GIVE THANKS …” (PS 109:30A) 389

Ps 135:15-18; Hab 2:19; Jer 10:3-5; Exodus 3; 32:1-6; Ezekiel 36.126 This type of ritual for idols contrasts with the divine image found in Psalm 109. Amid the viciousness of the presumed hateful words and the unprovoked attack against the psalmist, the plea is for YHWH not to be deaf or silent (‘al-tehéraš) (Pss 109:1; 28:1; 35:22). Brueggemann explains that the psalmist, being a covenant partner of YHWH, can speak and demand from YHWH accountability for the shared covenant.127 When people are only “Yes, Lord” believers, they lose the capacity to cry out, the primal za’aq which started the story of salvation when God heard the cry of the enslaved Israelites in Egypt (Exod 2:23). The psalmist acknowledges that somebody more powerful is in charge of the world, that, as a party that has done its part in the covenant with YHWH, the psalmist can complain to YHWH and seek out the just God who avenges when things are amiss in the world. In Ps 50:19, YHWH speaks and testifies against the wicked whose “mouth has free rein for evil” and who speaks “with tongue of deceit.”128 How can God be not deaf nor silent? While one may presume that the psalmist prays in silence, with the enemy a distant object of prayer to God, Sheppard suggests the opposite: prayers are assumed to be overheard, or later, heard about by friends and enemies alike; and, furthermore, ‘enemies’ mentioned in these prayers, as often as not, belong to the very same social setting in which one prays. The presence of overhearing ‘enemies’ is integral to the prayer situation and influences the perceived function of prayer socially, rhetorically, religiously and politically.129 For him, prayers are not “silent agonies” but “complaints and indict- ments shared with an audience to which the enemies belong.”130 By doing so, protection of the psalmist is achieved in four ways. First, the graphically blunt prayer is distinguished from gossip talk since the primary listener is supposed to be God who is intimately asked “to respond

126. Matson, “Idol Remains,” 40-49. 127. Walter Brueggemann, “The Costly Loss of Lament,” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 36 (1986): 57-71. 128. Ma. Maricel S. Ibita, “‘O Israel, I Will Testify against You’: Intensification and Narrativity in the Lament-Lawsuit of the ‘Unsilent’ God in Psalm 50,” in The Composition of the Book of Psalms, ed. Erich Zenger, BETL 238 (Leuven: Peeters, 2010), 537-549. 129. Gerald T. Sheppard, “‘Enemies’ and the Politics of Prayers in the Book of Psalms,” in The Bible and the Politics of Exegesis: Essays in Honor of Norman K. Gottwald on His Sixty-Fifth Birthday, ed. David Jobling, Peggy L. Day, and Gerald T. Sheppard (Cleveland, OH: Pilgrim Press, 1991), 72. 130. Ibid., 73. 390 MA. MARICEL S. IBITA in word and deed in behalf of the petitioner.”131 Second, the adversary is indirectly addressed, publicly exposed, and pressured to end the presumed abuses.132 Next, protection is indirectly sought by petitioning God, by allowing others to overhear the prayer and making them join in caring for the one who suffers, and by transforming prayer into a “unique political event that tests the loyalty of friends who must choose to stand either near or afar off.”133 Finally, the prayed-for threats, indict- ments and God’s vengeance against the foe are meant to indirectly per- suade the enemy to change the errant thoughts and actions,134 especially when it involves denial of hesed.

2. No Hesed: Imprecatory Prayer against the Evil Mouth (109:6-20) In a possible court-cult setting suggested by the mention of judge, accuser, and judgment (vv. 6-7), the good, loving and interceding person of vv. 1-5 is now armed with retributive verbal weapons against an inten- sified and particularized opponent.135 Who can the enemy be? Sheppard suggests that in peasant societies, the ‘enemies’ frequently include one’s peers who become unfriendly, aloof, inhospitable, uncaring, or openly antagonistic. Likewise, the psalms are replete with comments about betrayal by friends, neighbors, and family. … The psalms vividly describe wicked people in the immediate society who surreptitiously abuse widows, sojourners, and orphans because they think God will not take notice of their crimes (94:4-7).136 These descriptions of the enemy fit 109:1-20 very well. The pain that the enemy caused results in emotions of utter despair and helpless- ness that build up the psalm.137 The imprecations are for the singled-out enemy (v. 6), maybe the leader, to be vanished from the community and communal memory, from the society where his family lives, the social- economic status one holds, and the memory that the opponent occupies in the generations before and after him. Why such rage? Verse 16, almost at the heart of vv. 6-20, explains it: because the enemy did not remember to show hesed but persecuted the wretched and the poor and the

131. Sheppard, “Enemies,” 74. 132. Ibid., 73. 133. Ibid., 74-75. 134. Ibid., 75. 135. Wright, “Ritual,” 395, 397. 136. Sheppard, “Enemies,” 70. 137. Martin Ward, “Psalm 109: David’s Poem of Vengeance,” Andrews University Seminary Studies 18 (1980): 166. “WITH MY MOUTH I WILL GIVE THANKS …” (PS 109:30A) 391 broken-hearted to their death. This absence of hesed is concretized by deed and by word,138 by committing atrocities and by withholding hesed (vv. 6-15, 17-20). Dirty mouths and dirty hands go together.139 The prayed-for retributions are commensurate to what the adversary did and did not do or utter, but the imprecations are relinquished to YHWH alone.140

3. God’s Hesed: Petition and Hope of a Thankful Mouth (109:21-31)

The big but (v. 21) reveals that the psalmist who up until now seems anonymous is one of those “wretched and poor whose heart is pierced within” (vv. 22//16). The comparison with lengthening shadows and with locusts shaken off (v. 23) describes the inward feeling and marginal experience of the psalmist. There is no other help but YHWH: “And let them know that this is your hand; you, Lord, have done this” (v. 27). For García-López, “Yahweh punishes with his hands those who do not heed the commands of his mouth (1 S. 12:15).”141 What would be the psalmist’s basis for hope that God will be the avenger? Covenantal hesed and the honour of YHWH’s name: “But you, O YHWH, my Lord, act on my behalf for your name’s sake; because of your good hesed, deliver me … Help me, YHWH, my God; save me in your hesed (vv. 21,26). Covenantal hesed is more than emotional love. It is something com- manded.142 The reference “for your name’s sake” (v. 21) hints at the so-called biblical social values of patronage and honour and shame.143 YHWH is the Patron who should be honoured. Anything that happens to those under YHWH’s care is an affront against divine honour, a

138. On curses as coat and as oil in ANE, see Anne Marie Kitz, “An Oath, Its Curse and Anointing Ritual,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 124, no. 2 (2004): 315-321. 139. Spike W. S. Lee and Norbert Schwarz, “Dirty Hands and Dirty Mouths: Embodiment of the Moral-Purity Metaphor Is Specific to the Motor Modality Involved in Moral Transgression,” Psychological Science 21, no. 10 (2010): 1423-1425. 140. David Graham Firth, “Responses to Violence in Some Lament Psalms of the Individual,” Verbum et Ecclesia 17, no. 2 (1996): 322; Walter Brueggemann, The Message of the Psalms: A Theological Commentary, Augsburg Old Testament Studies (Minneapo- lis, MN: Augsburg Fortress, 1984), 85. 141. García-López, “Peh,” 495. 142. See Nelson Glueck, Hesed in the Bible, trans. Alfred Gottschalk (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2011); Katharine Doob Sakenfeld, The Meaning of Hesed in the Hebrew Bible, Harvard Semitic Monographs 17 (Missoula, MT: Scholars, 1978). 143. Saul M. Olyan, “Honor, Shame, and Covenant Relations in Ancient Israel and Its Environment,” Journal of Biblical Literature 115, no. 2 (1996): 201-218; T. R. Hobbs, “Reflections on Honor, Shame, and Covenant Relations,” Journal of Bib- lical Literature 116, no. 3 (1997): 501-503. 392 MA. MARICEL S. IBITA shaming of YHWH and, therefore, a speedy plea for intervention and deliverance is a must.144 By mouthing and articulating the imprecations and thanksgiving amidst the throng (v. 30), the threatening situation of the psalmist is now ritually reversed and reshaped. Covenantal hesed is having YHWH’s blessings (v. 28) and YHWH as the deliverer at the right hand of the needy (v. 31). As a whole, Psalm 109 expresses raw rage which may explain its non-appearance in the Liturgy of the Hours and the accusation that it is “unchristian.” But is this really the case? For experts on the psalms, this kind of censorship is unwarranted.145 To those who live a well- organized and safe life, Psalm 109 may be scandalous. Brueggemann challenges such a view, urging us that when we encounter a disturbing psalm, we ought to ask: “‘Whose psalm is this?’ If I am not able to pray that way today, then I can ask, who needs to pray that way today? Who is justified in praying that way today?’”146 Or as Sheppard argues that psalms are meant to be overheard, then the question could also change from “What prayers should I pray?” to “What prayers might others pray about me?”147 Who is this ‘other’? Could it be journalists persecuted by tyrannical regimes with threats of court cases or death? Refugees from the Middle East, Asia, or Latin America displaced by wars or environmental disasters not of their own making? Are they women raped as a consequence of war and who were relying on international efforts to persecute such criminal actions? Or are they the LGBTQIA students bullied in school and in social media contemplating suicide? Can it be a young lady forced by a policeman to have sex with him in exchange of the freedom of her parents who were unlawfully or extra-judicially taken into custody, for instance, on suspicion of being drug dealers? Or maybe, it could be compared to what Roman Catholic Bishop Pablo David proclaimed in his homily at San Roque Cathedral in Caloocan on August 17, 2018 when a memorial marker was unveiled for Kian de los Santos, the 17-year-old student murdered in a drug raid on August 16, 2017 even though he pleaded that he was innocent and had a school test the next day?148 David received his PhD here in Leuven under the super

144. García-López, “Peh,” 501. 145. See Erich Zenger, A God of Vengeance?: Understanding the Psalms of Divine Wrath, trans. Linda Maloney (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 1996). 146. Brueggemann, Message, 87. 147. Sheppard, “‘Enemies,’” 80. 148. Pablo Virgilio David, “A Prophetic Oracle against Murderers,” Rappler, last modified August 18, 2018, accessed July 16, 2019, http://www.rappler.com/thought- leaders/209840-prophetic-oracle-murderers-bishop-pablo-david. “WITH MY MOUTH I WILL GIVE THANKS …” (PS 109:30A) 393 vision of Johan Lust with a dissertation on the book of Daniel. He uses the prophetic oracle genre to condemn the different actors in Philippine society who are supportive of the government’s flagship “Drug War” which since June 2016 has killed more than 7,000 according to official counting.149 David closes his denunciation with these words: Woe to you who call yourselves “Christians” but do not care a iota about the victims of extrajudicial killings, or even about priests who are being murdered. You who can still afford to laugh even when your faith is trampled upon and your God is called stupid! You blind fools! You come to Church and hear the Word of God; you line up for communion to receive the Lamb of God who died for sinners, but you tolerate the murder of those whom he died for! Woe to you who call yourselves “shepherds” but allow your sheep to be slaugh- tered. Because your crimes have reached the highest heavens, and the cries of the bereaved families of victims have been heard on the throne of Mercy, because you have been weighed and have been found want- ing, therefore your names will be written on the walls of the deepest recesses of the underworld. You will stumble on the very swords you have used as weapons to bully the poor with. Your guilt will be borne by your children and your children’s children down to the fourth generation! This prophetic oracle echoes the sentiment against the perpetrators in Psalm 109. This psalm has been considered an ‘anti-curse psalm’,150 a person-to-deity speech,151 a psalm concerned for social solidarity.152 As Lee Cormie correctly observes, hermeneutics is the “privilege of the oppressed,”153 “the Spirit of God speaks most clearly through the lowly.”154 In these critical times, we are confronted with “the fundamental question of who reads the Bible today, of whose voices are heard in articulating the meaning of the text. This question has posed another series of fundamental challenges to the institutionalization of exegesis, indeed to every discipline and to the organization of the university as a

149. Martin Sadongdong, “PNP ‘Open to Suggestions’ to Improve Drug War Campaign,” Manila Bulletin, April 29, 2019, accessed June 24, 2019, https://news. mb.com.ph/2019/04/29/pnp-open-to-suggestions-to-improve-drug-war-campaign. 150. Egwim, Contextual, 51. 151. See Carleen Mandolfo, “Finding Their Voices: Sanctioned Subversion in Psalms of Lament,” Horizons in Biblical Theology 24, no. 2 (2002): 33. 152. Egwim, Contextual, 52-54; Walter Brueggemann, “Psalm 109: Steadfast Love as Social Solidarity,” in The Psalms and the Life of Faith (Minneapolis, MN: For- tress, 2004), 268-282. 153. Lee Cormie, “Revolutions in Reading the Bible,” in The Bible and the Poli- tics of Exegesis, 185-188. 154. Ibid., 186. 394 MA. MARICEL S. IBITA whole.”155 In this post-ist age – post-global economics, post-human, post-national, and post-truth – what is most important is recognizing where we are as interpreters, whose voice we listen to, and who benefits from our research, interpretation and publications. For Cormie, in this concrete historical process, choices are inevitable. And, in the context of a hierarchically organized social order, now generally global in many respects, choosing sides for or against the poor and the oppressed, and for or against the earth itself is also inevitable. … In making such choices, the forms of faith and hope that inspire us are revealed, and so are the gods we worship. … The deepest challenge, then, to every reading of the Bible, and of the God revealed there, concerns its capacity to inspire concrete action in solidarity with all the oppressed, including the earth, and the redefinition of our identities, our communities, and our organizations in terms of this orientation.156 Praying Psalm 109 in a post-ist context is, thus, an attempt at contextual, integrated, inclusive, and transformational biblical interpretations.

IV. Implications

I began with “Ang hindi marunong lumingon sa pinanggalingan, hindi makakarating sa paroroonan” in remembering RUBS’ fifty years and envisioning the future of biblical studies. Preparing for this paper allowed me to have a better grasp of who we are as FTRS and as a research unit. Sometimes, it feels like reading a toledot of who begot whom academi- cally. Sometimes, it feels like going through family albums, reminiscing people and events that influenced who we are today as individuals and as a community of exegetes, and the fields that we worked on excellently in addition to biblical research. I have a favourite tree at Keizersberg Abbey which offers a background to the statue of Mary that overlooks Leuven. In remembering this tree and relating it with this investigation, it seems to affirm the roots of the RUBS’ family tree in Leuven’s holy ground. The call for us is to grow tall and deep. Tall so we can see what is beyond us and heed the groaning of creation and those who are oppressed in a contextual, integrated, inclusive and transformational manner; deep because we know who we are as we stand our ground in terms of the implications of our learning, research, and teaching of the Scriptures, be it the Bible

155. Cormie, “Revolutions,” 188. 156. Ibid., 192. “WITH MY MOUTH I WILL GIVE THANKS …” (PS 109:30A) 395 or the Qur’an. The call is to be firm in confronting and dealing with the evil mouths of post-truth, tender in our solidarity with those who are denied hesed in this post-global, post-human, and post-national world, and with thankful mouths for the hope of hesed that comes from YHWH and the hesed that we are called to be. This is a vision for the Research Unit Biblical Studies of the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies of the KU Leuven. This is our nahalah, our inheritance, our tradition and formation, our vision of the future. As the KU Leuven motto says, “Know yourself. Begin with the world.” And the Word.

Ma. Maricel S. Ibita, PhD, STD, is a tenured Assistant Professor at the Depart- ment of Theology of the School of Humanities, Ateneo de Manila University (AdMU), Philippines. Her research and publications include narrative, poetry and metaphor studies in the Bible; women in the Bible; liberation, social science, ecological and trauma hermeneutics; the interdependence between Jewish and Christian sources for biblical interpretation; and the challenge and relevance of biblical studies in attaining the United Nations Sustainable Develop- ment Goals (UNSDGs) as secular theology for the concepts of shalom and the kingdom of God. Her latest publication is “‘Learn How to Weep’: The Con- temporary Challenge of Lament in Today’s World,” Louvain Studies 41 (2018): 377-391. Address: Department of Theology, 3rd Floor, Horacio De la Costa Hall, Ateneo de Manila University, Katipunan Ave., Loyola Heights, 1108 Quezon City, Philippines. Email: [email protected].