Recherche – Detailansicht
Ausgabe: | Januar/2023 |
Spalte: | 30-32 |
Kategorie: | Bibelwissenschaft |
Autor/Hrsg.: | González, Justo L. |
Titel/Untertitel: | The Bible in the Early Church. |
Verlag: | Grand Rapids u. a.: Wm. B. Eerdmans 2022. 204 S. Kart. US$ 19,99. ISBN 9780802881748. |
Rezensent: | Mark W. Elliott |
Best known for his hugely popular and serviceable (in Protestant circles outside Europe) Story of Christianity (Harper Collins/Zondervan, 2010), in this new book G. covers his subject in sixteen concise chapters, arranged in three sections: the Shape of the Bible, the Use of the Bible, the Interpretation of the Bible. The method is to sketch a fairly basic account of topics, then zoom in with some specific examples. For example, Constantine asking Eusebius for fifty copies of Scriptures for the capital (46) follows a mention of Origen’s Hexapla, presented as a great work that is tragically lost; but there is no mention of the Syro-Hexapla, or Field and his successors.
Sometimes the lack of depth seems to encourage superficiality and misjudgement. To say that Irenaeus was aware of textual variants should not be taken to imply, as G. wants to, that in AH 5.30.1 Irenaeus regarded as »textual critics« those who interpreted »666« to mean only one decade. No, for Irenaeus they were heretics, de-liberately misinterpreting the text of Revelation.
In section 2 »The use of the bible« there is the useful point (60–1) of the texts in codices being hard to read, without punctuation or separation. However, ›the Hebrew bible‹ should really be »the Old Testament« in the context of its being read in churches. Moreover, it was probably more the case that Optatus, mentioned by Cyprian, was promoted from reader to catechist rather than his catechizing as a reader (66), although it’s admittedly a fine point. Chanting of Psalms at Paula’s funeral over three days – Greek, Latin, Syriac (Jerome, Epistle 204) is a pleasing detail.
As for »the Bible and Education«, Augustine’s realism about knowing bible off by heart (De catechizandis rudibus) meant that instead, one should begin with pleasing texts and walk towards more unfamiliar ones, while for Chrysostom, mothers should make use of sense of wonder and curiosity in children’s love for wondrous stories. Yet this is not just about educational or spiritual progress, but, G. seems to insist, a helping hand towards »freedom«: »when the bible was taught this was not done in order to help people find their place in society; it was to help the student become part of a new society, of this church that saw itself as a new people of God, a new nation« (94). Yet whether those two fathers would have seen it that way, is at least questionable. On the basis of Acts 17:12 and 17:34 we are told that the Western text has an »antifeminist agenda« (39), and in a similar vein is his reasoning as to why 1 Corinthians 14:34–35 is in some manuscripts after v. 40. There is a sort of liberationist account (the bible rightly read is a charter for freedom and improvement) which pops up in a number of places in this book. Translating into the vernacular joined forces with a message of freedom and social mobility. (Melanchthon is an obvious figure, as one who used the bible to encourage the flow of learning from the elite down to every child in Germany. However, this is no longer »early church« territory. The late medieval bourgeois love for biblical piety and renaissance humanism seems overlooked.)
Likewise, in Section 3 (Interpretation of the Bible), G. insists that the third use of the law leads to a Calvinist social order against medieval »Dionysian« hierarchies. It didn’t take long after Constantine’s Christianising of the Empire that the church lost interest in justice within the social order. As to that order, the church tended to limit it to interventions to matters of sexual morality or limiting war among higher classes (»Peace of God« movement).
Chapter 13 concerns creation and in particular Gen 1&2 are explained as parallel texts representing the spiritual and the material creations respectively. Origen read both stories »literally« (which needs more explaining) and therefore reached the conclusion there were in fact »two creations«: Origen’s bias to the spiritual was re-inforced by Dionysius for the Middle Ages. Tertullian paid attention to history, but it was one in which salvation worked simply to replace lost perfection. Irenaeus (Dem 12) fares better, since the great bishop interpreted Gen 1–3 as concerning only the beginning of creation, which is not yet complete. This all sounds rather roughshod, even if interesting and important.
At p. 128 the paragraph mentioning Trypho seems unaware of the mention of the Dialogue with already on p. 122. On p. 137 he makes Augustine sound like Origen, with problems about »violent« OT passages, yet without much evidence. On 167–169 G.’s account of the debates around Nicea and the status of the Son or Logos actually makes the full divinity of the Son seem like a rabbit pulled out of a hat. And there is not much about bible here.
In the concluding Chapter 16 G. encourages us to draw lessons from the past, not least that the bible came through a far from infallible process: »This should serve as a warning to us, that having the word of God at hand does not make us infallible. We too are falling into error, just as those copyists, translators, and interpreters did …«. We too should have the »humility of mortal sinners« (171). Finally »the Bible is the word of God not because of its format or appearance but because God speaks to us in it«. This seems a rather »Nestorian« view of the bible, and makes one wonder why the early church tried so hard to understand it.