Biblical Studies and Classics

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 10:48 pm By Peter Leithart

What is needed in biblical studies is something analogous to the classicism of French scholars like Vernant, Detienne, Vidal-Naquet, and their followers. They were carefully attentive to the literary riches of classical texts, but were at the same time anthropologists and cultural historians. I see a few moves in this direction in biblical studies, but not nearly enough. Girard does something like this, but is too eccentric; his theory masters every text he looks at. Perhaps biblical studies just doesn’t... Read more

Roman Panopticon?

Last updated on: September 7, 2017 at 12:02 am By Peter Leithart

After explaining the intrusive gaze of the Roman censor, Shardi asks whether the Romans created an ancient predecessor of Bentham’s panopticon, made famous by Foucault. She recognizes the analogies, but says that the “differences are perhaps more striking than the similarities.” First, in contrast to Bentham’s circular prison, the Roman gaze was reciprocal: “in republican Rome entire social groups are engaged in reciprocal acts of watching and evaluating, with the stakes highest (and most evident in our souces) at the... Read more

Tribal Rome

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:51 pm By Peter Leithart

Shadi Bartsch ( Mirror of the Self ) notes that the Romans sometimes regarded the wax death masks of their ancestor ( imagines ) to be their judges: “In his oration Pro Murena , for example, Cicero, as he tried to move the jurors to acquit a newly minted Roman consul, did not ask how the man could go home to face his living family if convicted, but what he would say to the grieving mask of his distinguished father... Read more

Throngs

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:51 pm By Peter Leithart

Cicero advised his brother, “Take care to employ on every day men of every rank and order and age. For one can conjecture from those very numbers how much strength and opportunity you will have in the assembly . . . . A daily throng to lead you down to the Forum brings a great reputation and great authority.” No wonder the Pharisees envied Jesus for the throngs that surrounded Him. Read more

Judas and Oedipus

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:45 pm By Peter Leithart

Medieval legends about Judas appear throughout Europe in many different languages. The standard story is remarkably similar to the story of Oedipus. As summarized by Paull Franklin Baum, the medieval Judas story normally was this: “Judas . . . was the son of Jewish parents living at Jerusalem: his father’s name was Reuben, his mother’s Cyborea. One night Cyborea dreamed that she was about to conceive, and that her child was destined to become the destruction of the whole Jewish... Read more

Gilgamesh and Genesis

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:42 pm By Peter Leithart

Some notes cut from a larger project. The story of the first books, as Stephen Mitchell explains in the introduction to his recent translation of the poem, is a story of civilizing. The entire poem is framed by references to the city of Uruk, but the city moves from a state of semi-civilized tyranny to a state of civilized justice as the poem progresses. At the beginning, Gilgamesh is an admirable and mighty hero, but also a tyrant, who practices... Read more

Plunder vessels

Last updated on: September 7, 2017 at 12:04 am By Peter Leithart

Jesus tells the Pharisees who accuse Him of casting out demons by the power of Satan that, on the contrary, He is the stronger man who binds the strong man and comes to plunder the “vessels” of his house (Mark 3). The only other place where Mark uses the word “vessel” is in chapter 11, during Jesus temple action. The house Jesus is plundering is the temple, which has become infested with demons. Read more

Edomite Pharisees

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:36 pm By Peter Leithart

NT Wright suggests that Jesus’ response to the Pharisees’ complaint about his disciples “harvesting” on the Sabbath puts them in the role of Doeg the Edomite, who watched David get showbread from the priests at Nob (end of Mark 2). A student points out that the Edomite theme is still there in the Sabbath incident in Mark 3:1-6: After all the Pharisees go out from the synagogue to plot against Jesus with the Herodians , supporters of the Idumean/Edomite Herod... Read more

Mark 3

Last updated on: September 7, 2017 at 12:10 am By Peter Leithart

The structure of Mark 3:1-6 seems to be basically chiastic: A. Jesus’ entry to synagogue B. man with withered hand C. heal on Sabbath? D. Jesus to man E. Jesus to Pharisees F. Silence E’. Jesus angry and grieved at Pharisees D’. Jesus to man C’. ?? B’. restored hand A’. Pharisees consult with Herodians about how to destroy him Two observations: First, the Pharisees’ silence seem to be central, the turning point of the story and one of a... Read more

Justification

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:45 pm By Peter Leithart

How can we justify knowledge? Very roughly: Foundationalist justification is justification from the origin. We can’t let the argument stray from the source, lest it meander. Pragmatic justification is justification at the end. We know what is true because it proves true, it works. Foundationalist justification is “tragic.” Pragmatic justification is comic, eschatological. Read more