Rhetorical Argumentation in Biblical Texts

Currents in Theology and Mission, June, 2005

Rhetorical criticism of biblical texts is a growth industry. Rhetorical Argumentation in Biblical Texts, edited by Anders Eriksson, Thomas H. Olbricht, and Walter Ubelacker (Trinity Press International, $47), contains the papers from the sixth conference on the rhetorical analysis of Scripture held in Lund, Sweden, in 2000.

The conference focused on rhetorical argumentation (as opposed to genre analysis, rhetorical structure of documents, etc.). The 23 articles discuss argumentation theory and method, historical background (the enthymeme and letter writing), rhetorical argumentation in the Old Testament (two articles), the Gospels (four), Pauline letters (nine), Hebrews (one), and Apocalyptic and Romance (one, on the Shepherd of Hermas and the Acta Petri). The articles are all quality contributions. I found especially useful R. Dean Anderson's evaluation of the utility of Lausberg's Handbook of Literary Rhetoric for the study of ancient texts (some negative strictures), Carol Poster's study of the economy of letter writing in Graeco-Roman Antiquity, Johan S. Vos on sophistic argumentation in Romans, Anders Erikson on "Enthymemes in Pauline Argumentation" (in 1 Corinthians), Rollin A. Ramsaran on the use of the maxim "Living and dying, living is dying" in Philippians, and Thomas H. Olbricht's "Anticipating and Presenting the Case for Christ as High Priest in Hebrews." This is a worthy sixth volume in this series on rhetoric and the Bible. It is also volume 8 in the Emory Studies in Early Christianity. EK