Paul's Reversal of Jews Calling Gentiles 'Dogs' (Philippians 3:2): 1600 Years of an Ideological Tale Wagging an Exegetical Dog?
The commentary tradition on Philippians 3:2 (and on Matt. 15 and Mark 7 too) has been claiming at least since Chrysostom that Jews commonly called Gentiles dogs, thereby legitimating a pattern of calling Jews dogs. Contemporary commentaries indicate no awareness of the harmful legacy or the continue...
| Published in: | Biblical Interpretation Vol. 17; no. 4; pp. 448 - 483 |
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| Format: | Literary Criticism |
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Brill Academic Publishers
2009
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=43568408&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 43568408 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 09272569 C1F jtl: Biblical Interpretation issn: 09272569 maglogo: Y pubinfo: dt: 2009 vid: 17 iid: 4 pid: 639 pub: Brill Academic Publishers artinfo: ui: 43568408 10.1163/156851508X329692 ppf: 448 ppct: 35 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: P size: 243KB tig: atl: Paul's Reversal of Jews Calling Gentiles 'Dogs' (Philippians 3:2): 1600 Years of an Ideological Tale Wagging an Exegetical Dog? aug: au: Nanos, Mark D. affil: Rockhurst University su: Invective in literature Paul, the Apostle, Saint Bible. Philippians Gentiles in the New Testament Dogs in religion Biblical commentaries Polemics in the Bible sug: subj: Invective in literature Paul, the Apostle, Saint Bible. Philippians Gentiles in the New Testament Dogs in religion Biblical commentaries Polemics in the Bible keyword: CANAANITE WOMAN CYBELE CYNICS DOGS HEKATE JESUS JEWS PAUL PHILIPPIANS ab: The commentary tradition on Philippians 3:2 (and on Matt. 15 and Mark 7 too) has been claiming at least since Chrysostom that Jews commonly called Gentiles dogs, thereby legitimating a pattern of calling Jews dogs. Contemporary commentaries indicate no awareness of the harmful legacy or the continued implications of the polemic to which it contributes when perpetuating this invective. Moreover, evidence of this supposed common prejudice is often not provided, and when it is, usually consists of sayings attributed to Jesus and the Syro-Phoenician or Canaanite woman—thus available to us only in documents that post-date Paul, representing early "Christian" polemic. In addition to being anachronistic and not likely known to Paul's audience in Philippi, upon examination, it is also not clear that these Gospel sayings provide the proof supposed. Sometimes an appeal is made to Psalm 22 and other Jewish texts, but under examination, none of these substantiate the claim. Likewise, the many supposed cases in rabbinic literature—which could only provide anachronistic evidence at best—do not in fact substantiate that Jews ever called Gentiles dogs, much less that Jews commonly did so, even long after Christians habitually called Jews dogs. This essay examines the texts and challenges the interpretive tradition's claims, as well as its failure to exhibit hermeneutical distance when repeating this supposed invective against Jews and Judaism. Having exposed this ideological tale, several exegetical options worth exploring are noted. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Literary Criticism src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Biblical Interpretation is the property of Brill Academic Publishers and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Biblical Interpretation holder: Brill Academic Publishers dt: @attributes: year: 2009 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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