The Craft Of History And The Study Of The New Testament (sbl - Resources For Biblical Study (paper))

Do Professional Historians And New Testament Scholars Use The Same Methods To Explore The Past? This Interdisciplinary Textbook Introduces Students Of The New Testament To The Vocabulary And Methods Employed By Historians. It Discusses Various Approaches To Historiography And Demonstrates Their Applicability For Interpreting The New Testament Text And Exploring Its Background. Overviews Of The Philosophy Of History, Common Historical Fallacies, And The Basics Of Historiography Are Followed By Three Exegetical Studies That Illustrate The Applicability Of Various Historical Methods For New Testament Interpretation. -- Publisher's Description. A Meeting Of Two Disciplines -- Theoretical Underpinnings -- Basic Philosophical Matters -- Stumbling Blocks In Histories -- Emergence Of A Discipline : Methods From Antiquity To The Modern Era -- History Blossoms : The Modern Era To The Mid-twentieth Century -- New Lenses For History : The Late Twentieth Century To Present -- Counting Sheep : Clothing And Textiles In Luke's Gospel -- A Scarlet Woman? : John 4 -- Drinking The Spirit : Ancient Medicine And Paul's Corinth. Beth M. Sheppard. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 239-252) And Indexes. The Craft of History and the Study of the New Testament 4 Contents 8 Abbreviations 12 Introduction 14 Part 1: Theory 22 1. A Meeting of Two Disciplines 24 1.1. Who Is a Historian? 25 1.2. What Historians Do 28 1.3. The Nature of History 31 1.4. Defining Terms 34 1.4.1. Historiography 34 1.4.2. Philosophy of History 36 1.4.3. Historical Criticism 37 2. Theoretical Underpinnings 44 2.1. The Role of Time 45 2.2. Selectivity 47 2.2.1. Settling on a Topic 49 2.2.2. Scope 51 2.2.3. The “Types” of History 54 2.2.4. Methods 56 2.3. Sources 57 2.3.1. The Value of Eyewitnesses 62 2.3.2. Inspired Sources 66 2.3.3. Canons of Sources: Another Aspect of Selection 68 3. Basic Philosophical Matters 74 3.1. The Uses of History 74 3.2. The Two Philosophical Traditions of History 81 3.2.1. Elements of Analytical History 82 3.2.2. Traits of Speculative History 85 4. Stumbling Blocks in Histories 88 4.1. Logical Traps 89 4.2. Errors of Fact 91 4.2.1. Factual Accuracy and Verification 92 4.2.2. Context 94 4.3. Errors of Perspective 97 4.4. Problems with Project Design 100 4.4.1. Equivocation and Reification 100 4.4.2. Formulating the Question 101 4.4.3. Limits of Particular Methods 103 4.5. Developing an Eye for Good History 103 Part 2: Historiography: The History of Writing History 106 5. Emergence of a Discipline: Methods from Antiquity to the Modern Era 108 5.1. History in Western Antiquity 110 5.1.1. Hebrew Historiography 110 5.1.2. Greek Historiography 112 5.1.3. Roman Historiography 119 5.1.4. Ancient Historiography and the “Truth” 121 5.1.5. The Role of Biography in the Classical World 123 5.2. The Middle Ages: Speculative History Triumphs 126 5.3. The Early Modern Period: The Advent of Philological History 130 5.4. The Industrial Age and Objective History 132 5.4.1. The Elements of Historicism 133 5.4.2. New History/New Historicism 143 6. History Blossoms: The Modern Era to the Mid-Twentieth Century 150 6.1. Marxist History 152 6.1.1. An Overview of Materialism 152 6.1.2. Knotty Issues for Marxism and Biblical Interpretation 154 6.2. Social History 156 6.3. Psychohistory 160 6.4. Economic History and the Numbers 163 7. New Lenses for History: The Late Twentieth Century to Present 168 7.1. Revisionist History 168 7.2 Cultural History and Approaches Influenced by Anthropology or Ethnology 172 7.3. The Postmodern Critique of History 177 7.4. Postcolonialism 182 7.5. Imaginative Histories 185 7.6. Summary 191 Part 3: Application 194 8. Counting Sheep: Clothing and Textiles in Luke’s Gospel 196 8.1. Methodological Caveats 200 8.2. Textiles and the Ancient Economy 204 8.3. Everyday Clothing and the Gospel of Luke 206 8.4. Evidence for Textile Manufacturing in the Gospel of Luke 209 8.5. Observations and Thoughts 213 9. A Scarlet Woman? John 4 214 9.1. Roman Contexts and New Testament Texts 215 9.2. Too Many Marriages and One Peculiar Relationship? 217 9.3. Conclusion 228 10. Drinking the Spirit: Ancient Medicine and Paul’s Corinth 230 10.1. The Difficulty with 1 Corinthians 12:13b 231 10.2. Some Basics of Greco-Roman Medicine 234 10.3. In the Shadow of a Healing Cult: Health and 1 Corinthians 239 10.4. The Link between Healing and Prophecy 241 10.5. Pneuma and Ancient Medicine 244 10.6. Conclusion 246 Epilogue 248 Bibliography 252 Index of Ancient and Medieval Texts and Persons 266 Index of Modern Persons 272 Index of Subjects 276