Benjamin A Edsall
Biographic Data
| ID | 5845977 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Benjamin A Edsall |
| GIVEN NAMES | Benjamin A |
| FAMILY NAME | Edsall |
| SIGNATURE | EDSALL B A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Australian Catholic University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8321-9312 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 1 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 13 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2014 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Gadamer, Paul and Inspired Speech in Corinth
The goal of this article is to elucidate two aspects of Hans‐Georg Gadamer’s hermeneutics that impinge on the question of transcendence and then to bring them into conversation with the Apostle Paul’s discussion of divinely inspired speech in Corinth. The two aspects of Gadamer’s thought are (1) the universality of hermeneutics rooted in the inescapability of language in the process of understanding ( WM 462) and (2) the very being of one’s inter…
“This Generation” from Mark to Judas
Although the reception of Mark has a very long tradition within New Testament studies in discussions of the Synoptic problem or the relation of the Synoptics to John, nevertheless works on reception of the Gospel beyond the New Testament are few. Further, especially for the early period, these works focus primarily on the fact of Markan reception—who knew it and accepted it—rather than its hermeneutical potential. The present essay focuses on thi…
From Unfulled Rag to New Cloak
Mark 2.21 uses unusual terminology in describing the ‘patch of an unfulled rag’ (ἐπίβλημα ῥάκους ἀγνάφου) as well as in relation to what happens when the patch subsequently fails (αἴρει τὸ πλήρωμα ἀπ’ αὐτοῦ τὸ καινὸν τοῦ παλαιοῦ καὶ χεῖρον σχίσμα γίνεται). While Matthew largely repeats Mark’s version verbatim (with only minor changes), Luke appears to make substantive changes to the ‘parable’. Several scholars have suggested that Luke lacked an u…
New Temporalities and a Temporal (Re)Turn in New Testament Studies? The Cullmann/Bultmann Debate Revisited
In light of a recent surge of interest in time across a range of disciplines, a case has been made that New Testament studies has experienced a “temporal turn.” This claim raises an important question about how one understands the relation of recent developments to earlier, long-held debates about time among New Testament scholars. This question is answered here by revisiting the “salvation history” debate between Oscar Cullmann and Rudolf Bultma…
Jews and Christians – Parting Ways in the First Two Centuries CE?
The present volume is based on a conference held in October 2019 at the Faculty of Theology of Humboldt University Berlin as part of a common project of the Australian Catholic University, the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and the Humboldt University Berlin. The aim is to discuss the relationships of “Jews” and “Christians” in the first two centuries CE against the background of recent debates which have called into question the image of “partin…
“And it rushed in”
The present argument proposes a new interpretation for GJudas 57,24, a famously difficult passage in which someone enters a luminous cloud. While scholarship is divided over whether the phrase ⲁϥϥⲱⲕ applies to Judas or Jesus, there is a previously overlooked third option that is syntactically close to hand: it is Judas’s star. This translation, further, fits with important themes in the Gospel of Judas, both theological and narratological
Aphrahat and Pauline Reception
In studies of Pauline reception, most scholars limit themselves to works in the second or early third century (often ending with Irenaeus or the Acts of Paul) and to material from the Latin West and Greek East. Although later Syriac sources are rarely engaged, those who do work on this material have long recognised the importance of Paul's letters for that material. The present argument aims to help broaden the dominant discourse on Pauline recep…
The Reception of Paul and Early Christian Initiation
This book breaks new ground in New Testament reception history by bringing together early Pauline interpretation and the study of early Christian institutions. Benjamin Edsall traces the close association between Paul and the catechumenate through important texts and readers from the late second century to the fourth century to show how the early Church arrived at a wide-spread image of Paul as the apostle of Christian initiation. While exploring…
Reception of Paul and Early Christian Initiation
Hermogenes the Smith and Narrative Characterisation in The Acts of Paul
The figures of Demas and Hermogenes in the Acts of Paul are puzzling for their ambiguous relation with figures by the same name in 2 Timothy (and, for Demas, in Philemon and Colossians). The purpose of the present article is to question what personal biographical details present in the Thecla narrative contribute to larger issues of literary dependence, focusing in particular on the notice that Hermogenes is a ‘coppersmith’. Although several scho…
Persuasion and Force in 4 Maccabees
The present study explores the themes of persuasion and force in Greco-Roman political thought and their appropriation in 4 Maccabees. I argue that among Greco-Roman political writers, stretching from Plato to Plutarch, the problem of balancing persuasion and force and their relationship to civic virtues cut to the heart of the varied constitutional theories and proposals. While persuasion was preferred in ideal situations, force was recognized t…
(Not) Baptizing Thecla
This piece reconsiders Paul's deferral of Thecla's baptism in light of internal initiation themes and in connection with broader historical efforts to understand Paul's statement in 1 Cor 1:17a ("For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel"). To this end, the article surveys previous explanations for this deferral of baptism, proposing to integrate several previous insights into a reading of Thecla as initiate, locates this rea…
Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen Zum Neuen Testament 2. Reihe, Volume 365
Benjamin A. Edsall provides a new approach to the classic quest for the preaching and teaching (or the kerygma , didache and catechesis) of the early Church. His method draws on ancient communication practices whereby communicators rely on knowledge they expect their audience to possess. This reconstruction of early Christian instruction is based on rhetorical cues in 1 Thessalonians, 1 Corinthians and Romans. Passages are grouped and analyzed ac…
Paul's witness to formative early Christian instruction
Benjamin A. Edsall re-opens the old quest for the preaching and teaching of the early Church through a new approach that draws on ancient communication practices. Given that ancient communicators relied explicitly on what they presumed their interlocutors to know, the author reconstructs early Christian instruction through Pauline appeals to previous knowledge, both explicit and implicit.
(Not) Baptizing Thecla
This piece reconsiders Paul's deferral of Thecla's baptism in light of internal initiation themes and in connection with broader historical efforts to understand Paul's statement in 1 Cor 1:17a ("For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel"). To this end, the article surveys previous explanations for this deferral of baptism, proposing to integrate several previous insights into a reading of Thecla as initiate, locates this rea…
Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen Zum Neuen Testament 2. Reihe, Volume 365
Benjamin A. Edsall provides a new approach to the classic quest for the preaching and teaching (or the kerygma , didache and catechesis) of the early Church. His method draws on ancient communication practices whereby communicators rely on knowledge they expect their audience to possess. This reconstruction of early Christian instruction is based on rhetorical cues in 1 Thessalonians, 1 Corinthians and Romans. Passages are grouped and analyzed ac…
Paul's witness to formative early Christian instruction
Benjamin A. Edsall re-opens the old quest for the preaching and teaching of the early Church through a new approach that draws on ancient communication practices. Given that ancient communicators relied explicitly on what they presumed their interlocutors to know, the author reconstructs early Christian instruction through Pauline appeals to previous knowledge, both explicit and implicit.
Persuasion and Force in 4 Maccabees
The present study explores the themes of persuasion and force in Greco-Roman political thought and their appropriation in 4 Maccabees. I argue that among Greco-Roman political writers, stretching from Plato to Plutarch, the problem of balancing persuasion and force and their relationship to civic virtues cut to the heart of the varied constitutional theories and proposals. While persuasion was preferred in ideal situations, force was recognized t…
(Not) Baptizing Thecla
This piece reconsiders Paul's deferral of Thecla's baptism in light of internal initiation themes and in connection with broader historical efforts to understand Paul's statement in 1 Cor 1:17a ("For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel"). To this end, the article surveys previous explanations for this deferral of baptism, proposing to integrate several previous insights into a reading of Thecla as initiate, locates this rea…
Hermogenes the Smith and Narrative Characterisation in The Acts of Paul
The figures of Demas and Hermogenes in the Acts of Paul are puzzling for their ambiguous relation with figures by the same name in 2 Timothy (and, for Demas, in Philemon and Colossians). The purpose of the present article is to question what personal biographical details present in the Thecla narrative contribute to larger issues of literary dependence, focusing in particular on the notice that Hermogenes is a ‘coppersmith’. Although several scho…
The Reception of Paul and Early Christian Initiation
This book breaks new ground in New Testament reception history by bringing together early Pauline interpretation and the study of early Christian institutions. Benjamin Edsall traces the close association between Paul and the catechumenate through important texts and readers from the late second century to the fourth century to show how the early Church arrived at a wide-spread image of Paul as the apostle of Christian initiation. While exploring…
Reception of Paul and Early Christian Initiation
Jews and Christians – Parting Ways in the First Two Centuries CE?
The present volume is based on a conference held in October 2019 at the Faculty of Theology of Humboldt University Berlin as part of a common project of the Australian Catholic University, the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and the Humboldt University Berlin. The aim is to discuss the relationships of “Jews” and “Christians” in the first two centuries CE against the background of recent debates which have called into question the image of “partin…
“And it rushed in”
The present argument proposes a new interpretation for GJudas 57,24, a famously difficult passage in which someone enters a luminous cloud. While scholarship is divided over whether the phrase ⲁϥϥⲱⲕ applies to Judas or Jesus, there is a previously overlooked third option that is syntactically close to hand: it is Judas’s star. This translation, further, fits with important themes in the Gospel of Judas, both theological and narratological
Aphrahat and Pauline Reception
In studies of Pauline reception, most scholars limit themselves to works in the second or early third century (often ending with Irenaeus or the Acts of Paul) and to material from the Latin West and Greek East. Although later Syriac sources are rarely engaged, those who do work on this material have long recognised the importance of Paul's letters for that material. The present argument aims to help broaden the dominant discourse on Pauline recep…
New Temporalities and a Temporal (Re)Turn in New Testament Studies? The Cullmann/Bultmann Debate Revisited
In light of a recent surge of interest in time across a range of disciplines, a case has been made that New Testament studies has experienced a “temporal turn.” This claim raises an important question about how one understands the relation of recent developments to earlier, long-held debates about time among New Testament scholars. This question is answered here by revisiting the “salvation history” debate between Oscar Cullmann and Rudolf Bultma…
“This Generation” from Mark to Judas
Although the reception of Mark has a very long tradition within New Testament studies in discussions of the Synoptic problem or the relation of the Synoptics to John, nevertheless works on reception of the Gospel beyond the New Testament are few. Further, especially for the early period, these works focus primarily on the fact of Markan reception—who knew it and accepted it—rather than its hermeneutical potential. The present essay focuses on thi…
From Unfulled Rag to New Cloak
Mark 2.21 uses unusual terminology in describing the ‘patch of an unfulled rag’ (ἐπίβλημα ῥάκους ἀγνάφου) as well as in relation to what happens when the patch subsequently fails (αἴρει τὸ πλήρωμα ἀπ’ αὐτοῦ τὸ καινὸν τοῦ παλαιοῦ καὶ χεῖρον σχίσμα γίνεται). While Matthew largely repeats Mark’s version verbatim (with only minor changes), Luke appears to make substantive changes to the ‘parable’. Several scholars have suggested that Luke lacked an u…
Gadamer, Paul and Inspired Speech in Corinth
The goal of this article is to elucidate two aspects of Hans‐Georg Gadamer’s hermeneutics that impinge on the question of transcendence and then to bring them into conversation with the Apostle Paul’s discussion of divinely inspired speech in Corinth. The two aspects of Gadamer’s thought are (1) the universality of hermeneutics rooted in the inescapability of language in the process of understanding ( WM 462) and (2) the very being of one’s inter…
Biblical Studies and Interpretation (11 works) · Philosophy (11 works) · Art (8 works) · Historical and Linguistic Studies (7 works) · Theology (7 works) · History (6 works) · Literature (6 works) · Linguistics (5 works) · Epistemology (4 works) · Gospel (3 works)