Biblical Theology Bulletin: Journal of Bible and Culture

Two recent works of Christology attempt to bridge the gap between systematic theology and biblical studies by engaging historical research about the Bible in a constructive way: Bruce L. McCormack’s The Humility of the Eternal Son: Reformed Kenoticism and the Repair of Chalcedon and Paul J. DeHart’s Unspeakable Cults: An Essay in Christology. McCormack seeks to repair Chalcedon by drawing on what he takes to be the correct reading of Paul’s Christ Hymn in Philippians. Drawing on recent scholarship from Paula Fredriksen, Paul Holloway, and Matthew Novenson, this article shows that another reading is possible, one that conflicts with McCormack’s reparative project. McCormack’s effort to avoid speculation fails, since his argument depends on presupposing certain metaphysical claims about the Bible. DeHart’s work offers a different model of engaging biblical studies, one that avoids speculation in McCormack’s sense but engages in reconstructive historical speculation as a constructive thought experiment. DeHart’s project relies, however, on a Catholic ecclesiology, in which the incarnation is an ongoing process of cultural and cultic imagination. The conclusion proposes an alternative approach that builds on McCormack’s actualistic ontology and DeHart’s embrace of critical historical research without assuming the validity of the Nicene-Chalcedonian tradition.

King David has eight wives and numerous concubines. Michal, Abigail, and then Bathsheba are his most prominent wives, certainly in the sense of material found in the books of Samuel and Kings. “David’s marriages offer an intriguing narrative of gender relations and power on a number of levels…” and they cast an “important light on the role of women in securing political power—and also in losing it.” (Hackett: 157). Following a brief summary of how Michal is featured in 1 and 2 Samuel this article presents her through four lenses: 1. what a number of rabbinic midrashim have to say about her; 2. how some of the Church Fathers (Patristics) viewed her; 3. how she is described by several contemporary scholars; and 4. finally, how Michal is considered by several contemporary feminist scholars. This is the first of three linked articles in Biblical Theological Bulletin to be followed by essays using the same format, to consider Abigail, and then Bathsheba (see Works Cited ).

This study explores the intertextual relationship between Plato’s Myth of Er and Luke’s Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man. It examines how a reader familiar with Plato’s work as an ante-text interprets Luke’s parable. By identifying echoes of the Myth of Er within Luke’s narrative, the reader establishes Plato’s text as the geno-text and Luke’s parable as the pheno-text. Through comparative analysis, the reader discerns thematic and structural commonalities, thereby confirming intertextuality. Contrasting the two narratives further reveals differences, enabling the reader to construct meaning in the pheno-text through the framework of the geno-text. Ultimately, the reader interprets the pheno-text’s message while transcending the geno-text’s influence. This process demonstrates how intertextual reading can enrich biblical interpretation.

This article explores the contemporary conceptualizations and advocacies on an ideal wife as presented in extant literature in African scholarship. In the wake of women’s emancipation, empowerment and capitalistic economy, coupled with contemporary challenges of poverty, HIV-Aids and resilience of African patriarchy, there is a growing academic concern that seeks to revisit and redefine the concept of an ideal wife in African marriages. Various scholarships have revisited and interpreted the biblical text of Proverbs 31:10-31 in the context of contemporary developments and challenges. The current article is a critical review of these scholarships with the objective of examining how varying circumstances of these scholars contribute to the debate and advocacy for an empowering hermeneutical appropriation of the biblical concept of an ideal wife. By and large, the outcome of the analyses is that the interpretations, perceptions and appropriations are informed by the writers’ gender and contemporary socio-economic circumstances, which become the points of departure for interrogating the cultural construct of wifehood.

This article aims to employ affect theory as a lens to read Psalm 137. It argues that the Psalm is an artistic articulation framed in human emotion. This ancient Israelite literary composition that evokes human emotion is ranked as a Locus Classicus poem and has been noted by scholars of Old Testament as one of the most complex and fascinating Psalms in the Hebrew Scriptures. Psalm 137 is a historic poem that recounts Israel’s mournful destruction of the magnificent temple of God in Jerusalem and the grief of shameful humiliation of the Babylonian captivity. The literary unit reveals the sufferings and sentiments of people who witnessed at first hand a tragic event of Jerusalem temple in 587 BCE. This pericope celebrates the poignancy of the poet and the religious community of Israel’s refusal to their tormentors’ request for a Zion song in a foreign land as they grief for the devastation of Jerusalem temple.