Reverence & Resistance The term ‘yoke’ in Matthew 11,28-30 as elucidated by the theories of Bildfeld & Hidden Transcripts Instructors: Dr. Eric Ottenheijm & Prof. Dr. Annette Merz Department of Theology Faculty of Humanities Utrecht University Course: Master Thesis Course-code: GGLMV1003 Student: Marijn Zwart (3232913) June/August 2011 CONTENTS I. Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 2 II. Bildfeld .............................................................................................................................................. 3 III. Hidden transcripts ......................................................................................................................... 6 IV. ‘Yoke’: semantic breadth and origin ............................................................................................ 8 V. ‘Yoke’, its Bildfeld, and its political connotations ....................................................................... 9 The term ‘yoke’ in the Septuagint and Hebrew Bible ................................................. 9 The term ‘yoke’ and its political connotations in Second Temple texts ................. 12 The term ‘yoke’ in Qumran .......................................................................................... 13 The term ‘yoke’ in Flavius Josephus (37 – c. 100 CE) ................................................ 15 VI. ‘Yoke’, its Bildfeld, and its political connotations in rabbinic literature .............................. 17 Mekhilta deRabbi Ishmael: introduction .................................................................... 17 Mekhilta deRabbi Simon bar Yochai: introduction ................................................... 18 Sifre on Deuteronomy: introduction ........................................................................... 18 Mishna Avot: introduction ........................................................................................... 19 Rabbinic attitudes towards Rome ................................................................................ 20 God’s kingly rule and its political ramifications in tannaitic texts ......................... 20 Mekhilta deRabbi Ishmael: breaking off of the yoke ................................................ 25 Mekhilta deRabbi Simon bar Yochai: yoke of the Torah and yoke of kingdoms . 27 Mishna Avot: the yoke of the Torah, the kingdom, and the way of the world ..... 28 Conclusions ..................................................................................................................... 29 VII. The yoke ritual of the Romans .................................................................................................. 31 The Second Samnite War: introduction ...................................................................... 31 Dionysius of Halicarnassus (60 – post 7 BCE): introduction ................................... 32 Dionysius of Halicarnassus: yoke ritual explanation ............................................... 34 Dionysius of Halicarnassus: yoke ritual in Second Samnite War ........................... 37 Titus Livius (c. 59 BCE – 17 CE): introduction ........................................................... 38 Livy: yoke ritual explanation ....................................................................................... 38 Livy: yoke ritual in Second Samnite War ................................................................... 39 Cassius Dio (c. 163 – post 229 CE): introduction ....................................................... 41 Cassius Dio: yoke ritual explanation ........................................................................... 41 Cassius Dio: yoke ritual in Second Samnite War ...................................................... 42 Tacitus (c. 56 – 117 CE): introduction, the yoke ritual .............................................. 42 Other mentionings of the yoke ritual in Roman literature ...................................... 43 Yoke ritual: conclusions and secondary literature .................................................... 45 VIII. ‘Yoke’ and the gospel of Matthew ........................................................................................... 49 First century Galilee and Judea: Imperial rule ........................................................... 49 The gospel of Matthew and the Roman Empire ........................................................ 51 The Bildfeld of the term ‘yoke’: what have we found? ............................................ 53 A hidden transcript in Matthew 11,28‐30? ................................................................. 54 Matthew 11,28‐30: Scholarly interpretations .............................................................. 55 Matthew 11,28‐30 and the ‘yoke’ as hidden transcript: the consequences ............ 57 IX. Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 59 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................................ 60 1 I. INTRODUCTION In this master thesis, I want to explore the political significance of the term ‘yoke’ in order to shed light on Matthew 11,28‐30. This is a subject to which little attention is paid in scholarly research. Only one article explicitly engages in this question, and another article implicitly touches upon it in its periphery.1 Thus, this subject seems ripe for engagement. I will do this by first setting out the theory of the Bildfeld in chapter II. I will do this in order to create an image of the possible meaning of the term ‘yoke’ and the connotations it carried in the first century CE. Next, in chapter III, I will set out the theory of hidden transcripts. By doing this I am trying to create a strong foundation for interpreting Jesus’ words in their full significance in relation to the context of political domination and subjugation in which they are uttered. Then, I will briefly gauge the semantic breadth of the term ‘yoke’ in the Greek and Latin languages in chapter IV in order to get a general image of the way these terms can be used. In chapter V, I want to briefly survey relevant primary sources, in order to get a clearer picture of what the term ‘yoke’ could signify. I will first survey the Septuagint and Hebrew Bible, and then move on to certain Second Temple texts, after which I will survey the Dead Sea Scrolls and Josephus. In chapter VI, I will end this survey with a more extensive look at early rabbinic literature and the use of the term ‘yoke’ in a political context contained therein. Following this, in chapter VII, I will take a look at the ‘yoke ritual’ as described by various Roman historians in order to possibly create a fuller and clearer image of the political connotations the term ‘yoke’ could carry with it in the first century. Finally, I want to combine the two theories and my findings, and apply them to Matthew 11,28‐30 in chapter VIII. I will do this by first setting out the context of Roman domination in the first century as the stage of the historical Jesus and the gospel of Matthew. Next, I will look at the gospel of Matthew itself, in order to briefly survey it to establish the recurrence of the Roman Empire in this text. Then, I will look backwards to what our findings were on the Bildfeld of the term ‘yoke’ in order to apply this on the text of Matthew 11. I will continue by engaging the question whether a hidden transcript is to be found in Matthew 11,28‐30 according the theory as set out in chapter III. Finally I will briefly survey scholarly views on Matthew 11,28‐30 and the term ‘yoke’ and add my perception of the consequences for the interpretation of our passage arising from my own work. I will end this master thesis with some concluding thoughts on what we have encountered during our renewed reading of Matthew 11,28‐30. 1 Respectively, a chapter in: Warren Carter, Matthew and Empire: Initial Explorations, Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 2001, and the following article: Blaine Charette, ‘”To Proclaim Liberty to the Captives” Matthew 11.28‐30 in the Light of OT Prophetic Expectation’, New Testament Studies 38, 1992, pp. 290‐297. 2 II. BILDFELD In his 1976 opus, Sprache in Texten, Harald Weinrich devotes one chapter to the subject of the so‐called ‘Bildfeld’ in relation to the metaphor.2 He is driven by his dissatisfaction with the then current methodologies concerning research into the “Bildhaftigkeit” of the metaphor. Starting from De Saussure’s famous distinction between ‘langue’ and ‘parole’, Weinrich proposes that the most fruitful way into describing what a metaphor is all about, is by setting aside the research into the ‘parole’ side of the metaphor, and instead engaging with the ‘langue’ of the metaphor. The ‘parole’, the speech act, of a metaphor is its actualization in one individual use. This is a highly subjective, singular way into the metaphor. Driven by his observation that “die außerordentlich weitgehende Übereinstimmung im Metapherngebrauch bei den Angehörigen eines Kulturkreis, zumal einer Epoche, schwerlich auf Zufall beruhen [kann],”3 Weinrich intends to take on the ‘langue’ side of the metaphor, which is, contrary to the ‘parole’ side, an objective, super‐individual complex of images, awakened from the collective knowledge of a cultural group whenever the metaphor is used. This way of studying