Jeremy Punt
Biographic Data
| ID | 5647074 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jeremy Punt |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jeremy |
| FAMILY NAME | Punt |
| SIGNATURE | PUNT J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Stellenbosch University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9488-7850 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 26 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 3 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 25 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1997 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
The Politics of Reading
Almost thirty years since the dawn of democracy, the attention that Bibles, and the Christian Bible in particular, receive in South Africa, shows no signs of abating. Much as in the past, and besides its obvious presence and even prominence in faith communities, the Bible is invoked in political structures, on the sport field, in the classroom and in social media. In the democratic South Africa, many elements of the politics of reading have staye…
Paul's Ambivalent Parrēsia
The Pauline texts are often associated with frankness of expression and boldness in argument. However, scrutiny of the letters suggests some caution in ascribing to Pauline rhetoric or expression the audaciousness that has come to characterise descriptions of Pauline rhetoric in modern scholarship. While a somewhat reluctant boldness emerges from a broader survey of the parrēs-lemma and related notions in the NT generally, a gender-attuned apprai…
Paul, rhetorically gifted, or discursively manipulative
The rhetoric of the Pauline letters has garnered much interest over the years, and regardless of agreement with the positions expressed in the letters, Paul generally received praise for his adept communicative skills of persuasion. Appreciation for his rhetorical craft, however, should not prevent the recognition of Paul’s deft handling of discourse, as if rhetorical skills and discursive goals are disconnected. Using discourse as a broader cate…
Decolonising Bibles? Image, imagination, and imagin(in)g in the postcolonial academy
The complicity of the Bible in the colonial endeavour is no longer seriously disputed. However, efforts to decolonise the Bible, biblical studies and their roles in colonising theology, that start with accounting for interpreters’ social locations, remain few and limited in scope. Ensconced in the image of ideologically secure and contented intellectual space, epistemological and hermeneutical approaches which explicitly involve the social locati…
Paul, a stranger in Africa
Scholars in the past have signalled the almost complete absence of Paul – as a cypher for the Pauline letters and tradition(s) – in Africa. The apparent lack of use or deliberate ignoring of Paul in Black, African and Liberation Theologies on the continent in all its pluralist variety and richness is generally taken as testimony to the perceived strangeness of the apostle in Africa. However, even if Paul’s strangeness does not equate with his abs…
Race, Texts, and Contexts
The incorporation of whiteness studies in New Testament research and interpretation involves more than demographic composition, or prejudice and social justice, or even coming to terms with terminology and its appropriateness for the ancient context. This is a theoretical study of the importance of race in whiteness discourse characterised by exnomination, universality, and normativity, in relation to identity politics and othering, and understoo…
In an Age of Populism
Populism on political, economic and various other levels, has become part of the discourse of the contemporary world, and in its intersections with race, has led to various mutations which also impact on scholarly tendencies within and perceptions about biblical studies. The many entanglements of populism with religion, often under the guise of secularism include also its engagement with the Bible as cultural artifact. The legacy of a deracialise…
Revelation, Economics and Sex
The setting for this article is the ongoing debate about the legality of sex work in South Africa, which received renewed attention when the African National Congress as ruling party passed a resolution in 2017 to decriminalise sex work. In the Global South in particular, entanglements between gender, sexuality and economics are most pronounced in sex work. In South Africa, desperate socio-economic inequalities, alienating gender patterns, and di…
Martyrdom
An Apocalyptic Womb? The Great Harlot of Revelation 17-18
The depiction of the literary figure of the Great Harlot in Revelation 17 and 18 is a poignant expression of the wider New Testament apocalyptic concern with God’s power over humanity and creation. The depiction portrays what is deemed requisite social control through and over women’s bodies, and in a particularly poignant way, in that of the Great Harlot. This essay explores how a neglected element, namely the Harlot’s womb is tenuously present …
What Are Authoritative Scriptures
The understanding of scriptures has shifted away from static and stable repositories of word, to emphasise scriptures’ dynamic, active and relational qualities. Neither are authoritative ascriptions denied nor comparative work excluded, but in both cases different perceptions are now at work, rendering different results than in the past
Human Dignity, Families, and Violence
The accusation of 'world disturbers' (Acts 17
Acts 17:1 9 presents a narrative of the consequences of Paul s engagements in Thessalonica s synagogue. Following Paul and Silas reported successful 3-week mission, some Jews hauled Paul and Silas host, Jason, and a number of Jesus followers before the authorities. The threefold accusation was that Paul and Silas turned the world upside down, acted against Caesar s decrees and claimed another king, Jesus. This incident is investigated from the pe…
Reading the Bible in Africa
Postcolonial Biblical Interpretation
In Postcolonial biblical interpretation Jeremy Punt reflects on the nature and value of postcolonial work as it relates to the interpretation of biblical (Pauline) texts
Who’s the Fool, and Why? Paul on Wisdom from a South African Perspective
South Africa is a young democracy but with colonial and Apartheid legacies fresh in the minds of many, the lasting impact and consequences of hegemony still tangible and measurable in a new, democratic dispensation with its own problems and concerns. This is the context within which Paul’s appeal for a different understanding of wisdom and appearance to insist on breaking through the conventions of the day (1 Cor 1:18–31) is considered. Since Emp…
Corinthians 7
Paul s concern with identity, and in particular the identity of the believer in relation to Jesus Christ, is an important concern in his writings. In the midst of an important section dedicated to advice and instruction on marriage in his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul encouraged his audience in 1 Corinthians 7:17 24 to remain in the calling by, or position in, which they were called. Concerning these circumstances he refers to circumcisio…
Empire and New Testament texts
Considering the overt or sublime connections biblical scholars increasingly indicate between biblical texts and empires, this contribution engages the need for the theorisation of empire beyond material depiction. It is suggested that empire is primarily of conceptual nature and a negotiated notion, a constantly constructed entity by both the powerful and the subjugated, to which the concomitant responses of subversion and attraction to empire at…
Post-Apartheid Racism in South Africa The Bible, Social Identity and Stereotyping
This contribution investigates the interplay between the recent (early 2008) spate of racist-marked events in South Africa and the Bible, starting with the way biblical references featured in subsequent discussions of the events. The use of the Bible and hermeneutics employed seems to be meshed into a broader array of ways in which "new South African" identities are negotiated, together with the tensions and resistance such identity-negotiations …
A biblical death-wish
Death features as an important concept in the Pauline writings in the New Testament for a number of reasons. However, the intriguing way in which the apostle at times addressed death as positive notion in itself, was traditionally related to Paul s theological convictions and his understanding of the death of Christ in particular. The remarkably pointed way in which Paul positively celebrated death in Philippians 1:21 borders on invoking a martyr…
Popularising the Prophet Isaiah in Parliament
Current Debates On Biblical Hermeneutics in South Africa and the Postcolonial Matrix1
Postcolonial studies would seem to offer many advantages for academic and other discourses within and about post-apartheid South African society, including new, broad hermeneutical perspectives for biblical studies. Indeed, a number of current scholarly debates in South African biblical studies are related to the postcolonial paradigm: the tension between African versus Western readings, 'ordinary' versus 'trained' readings, and nationalist versu…
Reading the Bible in the Global Village
The Bible and Multiscripturality in South Africa
A nominally Christian country, South Africa abounds with varieties of Christianity, all of which ultimately subscribe to the Bible as foundation document. Often, however, the appropriation of the Bible as a symbol is as much a problem as different and radically opposing interpretations of it: ownership of the Bible is widely contested and biblical hermeneutics is truly a site of struggle. However, not only is the need for an ecumenical approach t…
Some Perspectives On Pauls Economic Vision Amidst Globalisation
In the post-Cold War and post-apartheid era in South Africa, global and local interest has arguably shifted from politics to economics. With an awareness of the current and formidable influence of globalisation on people's lives, Paul's letters should be reread with a view to identifying and formulating what emerges as his economic vision. This essay is a brief and preliminary investigation into how Pauline sentiments on economic matters could be…
Empire and New Testament texts
Considering the overt or sublime connections biblical scholars increasingly indicate between biblical texts and empires, this contribution engages the need for the theorisation of empire beyond material depiction. It is suggested that empire is primarily of conceptual nature and a negotiated notion, a constantly constructed entity by both the powerful and the subjugated, to which the concomitant responses of subversion and attraction to empire at…
Corinthians 7
Paul s concern with identity, and in particular the identity of the believer in relation to Jesus Christ, is an important concern in his writings. In the midst of an important section dedicated to advice and instruction on marriage in his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul encouraged his audience in 1 Corinthians 7:17 24 to remain in the calling by, or position in, which they were called. Concerning these circumstances he refers to circumcisio…
Reading the Bible in Africa
Within the continuing search for or development of an adequate African hermeneutic for the Bible, the adequacy of certain generalising claims concerning the interpretation of the Bible in Africa is investigated: the continuity between the biblical and African worlds, and the discarding of the text's historical context in favour of the contemporary readers' setting. These generalised claims, however, introduce an important issue which seems to be …
Some Perspectives On Pauls Economic Vision Amidst Globalisation
In the post-Cold War and post-apartheid era in South Africa, global and local interest has arguably shifted from politics to economics. With an awareness of the current and formidable influence of globalisation on people's lives, Paul's letters should be reread with a view to identifying and formulating what emerges as his economic vision. This essay is a brief and preliminary investigation into how Pauline sentiments on economic matters could be…
The Bible and Multiscripturality in South Africa
A nominally Christian country, South Africa abounds with varieties of Christianity, all of which ultimately subscribe to the Bible as foundation document. Often, however, the appropriation of the Bible as a symbol is as much a problem as different and radically opposing interpretations of it: ownership of the Bible is widely contested and biblical hermeneutics is truly a site of struggle. However, not only is the need for an ecumenical approach t…
Reading the Bible in the Global Village
Current Debates On Biblical Hermeneutics in South Africa and the Postcolonial Matrix1
Postcolonial studies would seem to offer many advantages for academic and other discourses within and about post-apartheid South African society, including new, broad hermeneutical perspectives for biblical studies. Indeed, a number of current scholarly debates in South African biblical studies are related to the postcolonial paradigm: the tension between African versus Western readings, 'ordinary' versus 'trained' readings, and nationalist versu…
Popularising the Prophet Isaiah in Parliament
Post-Apartheid Racism in South Africa The Bible, Social Identity and Stereotyping
This contribution investigates the interplay between the recent (early 2008) spate of racist-marked events in South Africa and the Bible, starting with the way biblical references featured in subsequent discussions of the events. The use of the Bible and hermeneutics employed seems to be meshed into a broader array of ways in which "new South African" identities are negotiated, together with the tensions and resistance such identity-negotiations …
A biblical death-wish
Death features as an important concept in the Pauline writings in the New Testament for a number of reasons. However, the intriguing way in which the apostle at times addressed death as positive notion in itself, was traditionally related to Paul s theological convictions and his understanding of the death of Christ in particular. The remarkably pointed way in which Paul positively celebrated death in Philippians 1:21 borders on invoking a martyr…
Corinthians 7
Paul s concern with identity, and in particular the identity of the believer in relation to Jesus Christ, is an important concern in his writings. In the midst of an important section dedicated to advice and instruction on marriage in his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul encouraged his audience in 1 Corinthians 7:17 24 to remain in the calling by, or position in, which they were called. Concerning these circumstances he refers to circumcisio…
Empire and New Testament texts
Considering the overt or sublime connections biblical scholars increasingly indicate between biblical texts and empires, this contribution engages the need for the theorisation of empire beyond material depiction. It is suggested that empire is primarily of conceptual nature and a negotiated notion, a constantly constructed entity by both the powerful and the subjugated, to which the concomitant responses of subversion and attraction to empire at…
Who’s the Fool, and Why? Paul on Wisdom from a South African Perspective
South Africa is a young democracy but with colonial and Apartheid legacies fresh in the minds of many, the lasting impact and consequences of hegemony still tangible and measurable in a new, democratic dispensation with its own problems and concerns. This is the context within which Paul’s appeal for a different understanding of wisdom and appearance to insist on breaking through the conventions of the day (1 Cor 1:18–31) is considered. Since Emp…
Postcolonial Biblical Interpretation
In Postcolonial biblical interpretation Jeremy Punt reflects on the nature and value of postcolonial work as it relates to the interpretation of biblical (Pauline) texts
The accusation of 'world disturbers' (Acts 17
Acts 17:1 9 presents a narrative of the consequences of Paul s engagements in Thessalonica s synagogue. Following Paul and Silas reported successful 3-week mission, some Jews hauled Paul and Silas host, Jason, and a number of Jesus followers before the authorities. The threefold accusation was that Paul and Silas turned the world upside down, acted against Caesar s decrees and claimed another king, Jesus. This incident is investigated from the pe…
Reading the Bible in Africa
Human Dignity, Families, and Violence
What Are Authoritative Scriptures
The understanding of scriptures has shifted away from static and stable repositories of word, to emphasise scriptures’ dynamic, active and relational qualities. Neither are authoritative ascriptions denied nor comparative work excluded, but in both cases different perceptions are now at work, rendering different results than in the past
Martyrdom
An Apocalyptic Womb? The Great Harlot of Revelation 17-18
The depiction of the literary figure of the Great Harlot in Revelation 17 and 18 is a poignant expression of the wider New Testament apocalyptic concern with God’s power over humanity and creation. The depiction portrays what is deemed requisite social control through and over women’s bodies, and in a particularly poignant way, in that of the Great Harlot. This essay explores how a neglected element, namely the Harlot’s womb is tenuously present …
Revelation, Economics and Sex
The setting for this article is the ongoing debate about the legality of sex work in South Africa, which received renewed attention when the African National Congress as ruling party passed a resolution in 2017 to decriminalise sex work. In the Global South in particular, entanglements between gender, sexuality and economics are most pronounced in sex work. In South Africa, desperate socio-economic inequalities, alienating gender patterns, and di…
Race, Texts, and Contexts
The incorporation of whiteness studies in New Testament research and interpretation involves more than demographic composition, or prejudice and social justice, or even coming to terms with terminology and its appropriateness for the ancient context. This is a theoretical study of the importance of race in whiteness discourse characterised by exnomination, universality, and normativity, in relation to identity politics and othering, and understoo…
In an Age of Populism
Populism on political, economic and various other levels, has become part of the discourse of the contemporary world, and in its intersections with race, has led to various mutations which also impact on scholarly tendencies within and perceptions about biblical studies. The many entanglements of populism with religion, often under the guise of secularism include also its engagement with the Bible as cultural artifact. The legacy of a deracialise…
Decolonising Bibles? Image, imagination, and imagin(in)g in the postcolonial academy
The complicity of the Bible in the colonial endeavour is no longer seriously disputed. However, efforts to decolonise the Bible, biblical studies and their roles in colonising theology, that start with accounting for interpreters’ social locations, remain few and limited in scope. Ensconced in the image of ideologically secure and contented intellectual space, epistemological and hermeneutical approaches which explicitly involve the social locati…
Paul, a stranger in Africa
Scholars in the past have signalled the almost complete absence of Paul – as a cypher for the Pauline letters and tradition(s) – in Africa. The apparent lack of use or deliberate ignoring of Paul in Black, African and Liberation Theologies on the continent in all its pluralist variety and richness is generally taken as testimony to the perceived strangeness of the apostle in Africa. However, even if Paul’s strangeness does not equate with his abs…
Paul's Ambivalent Parrēsia
The Pauline texts are often associated with frankness of expression and boldness in argument. However, scrutiny of the letters suggests some caution in ascribing to Pauline rhetoric or expression the audaciousness that has come to characterise descriptions of Pauline rhetoric in modern scholarship. While a somewhat reluctant boldness emerges from a broader survey of the parrēs-lemma and related notions in the NT generally, a gender-attuned apprai…
Paul, rhetorically gifted, or discursively manipulative
The rhetoric of the Pauline letters has garnered much interest over the years, and regardless of agreement with the positions expressed in the letters, Paul generally received praise for his adept communicative skills of persuasion. Appreciation for his rhetorical craft, however, should not prevent the recognition of Paul’s deft handling of discourse, as if rhetorical skills and discursive goals are disconnected. Using discourse as a broader cate…
Philosophy (21 works) · Sociology (19 works) · Biblical Studies and Interpretation (18 works) · Political science (16 works) · History (14 works) · Law (14 works) · Christian Theology and Mission (12 works) · Politics (12 works) · Religious studies (10 works) · Theology (10 works)