New books by Eve-Marie Becker
Articles: Paul by Eve-Marie Becker
In Gal 1:10, Rom 1:1, and Phil 1:1 Paul refers to himself as δοῦλος Χριστοῦ (Ἰησοῦ). This self-de... more In Gal 1:10, Rom 1:1, and Phil 1:1 Paul refers to himself as δοῦλος Χριστοῦ (Ἰησοῦ). This self-designation is open to interpretation. What is the function of this claim of roles, which is slightly varied syntagmatically in the three passages mentioned, i.e., tends to be linguistically flexible on Paul's part and thus adapted to the context in each case? The present contribution is intended to expand the interpretive framework with an aspect that has been rather neglected in previous Pauline research, when it invokes the interpretive context of Roman law. For it is Roman law that is of particular interest for the self-definition as a slave. In Roman legal discourse, which finds universal application through the ius gentium as the 'law of all men' (Gaius 1.1), i.e. also application to non-Romans or the peregrinus, the scope of action for slaves in relation to their 'masters' is also conceptually determined by taking into account the 'human characteristic of the slave'. Within the interpretive framework of ancient Roman law, therefore, those lines of meaning in Pauline self-fashioning as δοῦλος Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ that reveal self-designation in subordination to Christ as enabling ambition, zeal, honour, and success are particularly revealing. These aspects include (1) the Pauline description of status and the legitimation and exposition of his (2) relationship to the "Lord", the description of (3) his areas of work and responsibilities, and his (4) socioeconomic living conditions and lifestyle. Thus, against the background of ancient Roman law, which primarily focused on its pragmatisation rather than problematising the socio-historical reality of slaves or the moral-philosophical attitude toward slavery, certain aspects of Paul's understanding of himself and his apostolate can be more sharply defined.
In der antiken wie in der modernen Welt werden Briefe aus räumlicher und zeitlicher Distanz gesch... more In der antiken wie in der modernen Welt werden Briefe aus räumlicher und zeitlicher Distanz geschrieben-mit dem Ziel, ebendiese Distanz zu überwinden. Briefe gelten daher auch als raum-und zeitversetztes Gespräch. Sie sollen die Präsenz des Briefschreibers beim Adressaten erreichen, so als ob er selbst zugegen sei ("quasi adesse"). Der Brief hat in Form der Repräsentation der Person auch eine unmittelbare emotive Wirkung auf den Empfänger, wie beispielhaft Sofja Andrejewna Tolstaja in einem Schreiben an ihren Mann im Juli 1871 zum Ausdruck bringt: "Du kannst Dir gar nicht vorstellen, was Deine Briefe in mir anrichten. So viel Liebe, Gefühle, Ängste und Ungeduld, Dich endlich wiederzusehen."¹ Der griechische Begriff für die Herstellung der persönlichen Präsenz des Briefschreibers beim Briefadressaten im Medium des Briefeschreibens ist parousia. In der antiken Welt gilt die parousia entsprechend als das Grundprinzip der Epistolographie. So spricht etwa Seneca davon, wie der Brief wirkliche Evidenz eines abwesenden Freundes erbringen kann (ep mor 40,1: "vera amici absentis vestigia"). Über das parousia-Motiv als solches ist in der Epistolographie-Forschung ausgiebig mit entsprechenden Textbeispielen gearbeitet worden.² Ich werde mich im Folgenden darauf konzentrieren, die kommunikative Bedeutung und Funktion der parousia als Technik der Überwindung von räumlicher Distanz aspekthaft zu betrachten. Dabei werde ich im Wesentlichen die Paulusbriefe und die Briefe des Seneca als zeitgenössisches Vergleichsmaterial heranziehen und gelegentlich auch auf die zeitlich vorausliegenden Cicero-Briefe zu sprechen kommen, dienicht nur im Blick auf ihren Umfang-einen umfassenden Einblick in Wesen und
In Entsprechung zu dem Tagungsthema („Authorial voices“), das die Anregung zu dem folgenden Beitr... more In Entsprechung zu dem Tagungsthema („Authorial voices“), das die Anregung zu dem folgenden Beitrag gab,1 werde ich mit einführenden Überlegungen zur Erforschung antiker Autoren und Autorrollen beginnen: Wie die gegenwärtige antike Autorforschung herausstellt, haben antike Autoren many voices, mit denen sie sich an ihre lesende oder zuhörende audience wenden. Das Phänomen der many voices ist nicht psycho-pathologisch signifikant, sondern ergibt sich aus dem literarischen Zusammenspiel von Form und Argument. Dorothea Frede (2013)2 hat zuletzt die drei Stimmen, besser: Autorrollen untersucht, mit denen Aristoteles in seiner „Nikomachischen Ethik“ auftritt. Sie wählt mit Aristoteles einen Autor, der bei der Frage, wieweit die literarische Gestaltung eines Textes (im jeweiligen literarischen genre und innerhalb des genres) und der philosophische Gehalt miteinander verbunden sind, bisher eher ausgeblendet wurde3. Frede unterscheidet drei verschiedene Autorrollen in der Nikomachischen Eth...
Articles: Gospels, Historiography, Hermeneutics by Eve-Marie Becker
New Testament Studies, 2019
By means of a contextual analysis of Mark 12.41–4, a narrative analysis of ‘women’ in Mark and a ... more By means of a contextual analysis of Mark 12.41–4, a narrative analysis of ‘women’ in Mark and a social–historical analysis of the motif of the ‘poor widow’, this article argues that Mark 12.41–4 paves the way for Jesus’ eschatological speech (Mark 13): while the precise purpose of the widow's deposit (ritual, donation or saving) remains an open question, Jesus strengthens her dignity. Mark thus alludes to the ancient motif of respecting personae miserae and shows who Jesus is in light of God's pending judgement of Jerusalem. In its focus on the ‘widow’ motif, the analysis of Mark 12.41–4par. enriches previous studies on form- and redaction-criticism and Realgeschichte by revealing the Christological meaning of the Markan narrative.
Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibli... more Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutschen Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de.
SP 99 (2018), 5-33, 2018
This is a co-authored discussion between Eve-Marie Becker and Markus Vinzent on this topic from N... more This is a co-authored discussion between Eve-Marie Becker and Markus Vinzent on this topic from NT and Patristic perspectives, published in M. Vinzent (ed.), Studia Patristica. Vol. XCIX-Marcion of Sinope as Religious Entrepreneur, ISBN 978-90-429-3656-0.
New Testament Studies, 2010
On the basis of a concise definition of the literary form of a summary/Summarium/sommaire that ha... more On the basis of a concise definition of the literary form of a summary/Summarium/sommaire that has to be distinguished from epitome (e.g. Mk 1.14f.; 8.31) or ‘Geschichtsabriss’ (cf. Acts), this contribution analyzes the literary and theological function of all three summaries that can be found in Mark 1–6 (1.32–34; 3.7–12; 6.54–56). By these summaries the author of the Markan Gospel not only provides a macro-textual structure for his narrative, but also gives a theological interpretation and a narrative emplotment of Jesus' Galilean ministry, and thus carries forward essential parts of the Gospel story.
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New books by Eve-Marie Becker
Articles: Paul by Eve-Marie Becker
Articles: Gospels, Historiography, Hermeneutics by Eve-Marie Becker
When the Gospel writings were first produced, Christian thinking was already cognizant of its relationship to ancient memorial cultures and history-writing traditions. Yet, little has been written about exactly what shaped the development of early Christian literary memory. In this eye-opening new study, Eve-Marie Becker explores the diverse ways in which history was written according to the Hellenistic literary tradition, focusing specifically on the time during which the New Testament writings came into being: from the mid-first century until the early second century CE.
While acknowledging cases of historical awareness in other New Testament writings, Becker traces the origins of this historiographical approach to the Gospel of Mark and Luke-Acts. Offering a bold new framework, Becker shows how the earliest Christian writings shaped “Christian” thinking and writing about history.
In this publication, the fourth and final in a series of LWF publications on biblical hermeneutics, renowned international scholars from the fields of biblical studies and systematic theology reevaluate to what extent twenty-first-century Lutherans can rediscover the Pauline paradigm of the »power of the Gospel« and hereby overcome ambiguous perceptions of the so-called »Lutheran reading(s)« of Paul.