Inventing Hebrews: Design and Purpose in Ancient Rhetoric

Description

Inventing Hebrews examines a perennial topic in the study of the Letter to the Hebrews, its structure and purpose. Michael Wade Martin and Jason A. Whitlark undertake at thorough synthesis of the ancient theory of invention and arrangement, providing a new account of Hebrews' design. The key to the speech's outline, the authors argue, is in its use of 'disjointed' arrangement, a template ubiquitous in antiquity but little discussed in modern biblical studies. This method of arrangement accounts for the long-observed pattern of alternating epideictic and deliberative units in Hebrews as blocks of narratio and argumentatiorespectively. Thus the 'letter' may be seen as a conventional speech arranged according to the expectations of ancient rhetoric (exordium, narratio, argumentatio, peroratio), with epideictic comparisons of old and new covenant representatives (narratio) repeatedly enlisted in amplification of what may be viewed as the central argument of the speech (argumentatio), the recurring deliberative summons for perseverance. Resolving a long-standing conundrum, this volume offers a hermeneutical tool necessary for interpreting Hebrews, as well as countless other speeches from Greco-Roman antiquity.

Michael Wade Martin is a Professor of New Testament in the Alfred and Patricia Smith College of Biblical Studies at Lubbock Christian University. He is the author of Judas and the Rhetoric of Comparison in the Fourth Gospel (2010) and co-author of Ancient Rhetoric and the New Testament (forthcoming). Jason A. Whitlark is an Associate Professor of New Testament in Baylor University's Honors College. He also serves as the Assistant Faculty Director of the Baylor Interdisciplinary Core. He is the author of Enabling Fidelity to God: Perseverance in Hebrews in Light of the Ancient Reciprocity Systems of the Ancient Mediterranean World (2009) and Resisting Empire: Rethinking the Purpose of the Letter to the 'Hebrews' (2014).

'This well-written book is carefully and cogently argued. This book will be most valuable to scholars and advanced students interested in the structure of Hebrews or in the application of classical rhetoric to NT studies in general.' Brian C. Small, Religious Studies Review