The Essence of a Spiritual House: Misunderstanding Metaphor and the Question of Supersessionism in 1 Peter.

This article interrogates the standard interpretation of οἶκος πνευματικός (“spiritual house”) in 1 Pet 2:5 as an ecclesial replacement for the Jerusalem temple. I first scrutinize the ways in which this metaphor has prejudiced New Testament scholars to misconstrue community-as-temple metaphors in t...

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Published in:Journal of Biblical Literature Vol. 139; no. 2; pp. 409 - 426
Main Author: BOTNER, MAX
Format: Article
Published: Society of Biblical Literature 2020
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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        au: BOTNER, MAX
        affil: Grand Rapids Theological Seminary, Grand Rapids, MI 49525
      su:
        Spirituality
        New Testament
        Metaphor
        Theologians
        Christianity
      sug:
        subj:
          Spirituality
          New Testament
          Metaphor
          Theologians
          Christianity
      ab: This article interrogates the standard interpretation of οἶκος πνευματικός (“spiritual house”) in 1 Pet 2:5 as an ecclesial replacement for the Jerusalem temple. I first scrutinize the ways in which this metaphor has prejudiced New Testament scholars to misconstrue community-as-temple metaphors in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Next I take these sectarian metaphors as a point of departure in order to reconsider the seemingly self-evident interpretation of the Petrine οἶκος πνευματικός. A comparison of Petrine and Pauline temple metaphors calls into question the conventional wisdom that Christian temple discourse after 70 CE is inherently supersessionist. Once this Petrine metaphor is liberated from its metaphysical captivity to Christian theology, it becomes clear that the sacrificial logic of 1 Pet 2:5 militates against equating the addressees with the “true” eschatological temple. While valid questions about the rhetoric of 1 Peter remain, it seems unlikely that the metaphor οἶκος πνευματικός funds a supersessionist ideology.
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    language: English
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