“God Is Witness” A Classical Rhetorical Idiom in Its Pauline Usage.

Five times in the undisputed letters Paul invokes God as guarantor of the truth of a claim with a form of the phrase “God is witness.” Interpreters have long identified these sayings as self-imprecatory oaths after a pattern attested in the Hebrew Bible. In this article, I argue that the Pauline phr...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Novum Testamentum Vol. 52; no. 4; pp. 355 - 376
Autor principal: Novenson, Matthew V.
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Brill Academic Publishers Sep2010
Materias:
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
fields @attributes:
  recordID: 1
pdfLink:
plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=53768500&site=ehost-live
header:
  @attributes:
    shortDbName: hlh
    uiTerm: 53768500
    longDbName: Humanities International Complete
    uiTag: AN
  controlInfo:
    bkinfo:
    jinfo:
      jid:
        00481009
        C4I
      jtl: Novum Testamentum
      issn: 00481009
      maglogo: Y
    pubinfo:
      dt: Sep2010
      vid: 52
      iid: 4
      pid: 639
      pub: Brill Academic Publishers
    artinfo:
      ui:
        53768500
        10.1163/004810010X12591327956385
      ppf: 355
      ppct: 21
      formats:
        fmt:
          @attributes:
            type: P
            size: 520KB
      tig:
        atl: “God Is Witness” A Classical Rhetorical Idiom in Its Pauline Usage.
      aug:
        au: Novenson, Matthew V.
        affil: Princeton, New Jersey
      su:
        Attributes of God
        Witness bearing (Christianity)
        Witness bearing (Christianity) in the Bible
        Paul, the Apostle, Saint
        Christianity
        Truth
      sug:
        subj:
          Attributes of God
          Witness bearing (Christianity)
          Witness bearing (Christianity) in the Bible
          Paul, the Apostle, Saint
          Christianity
          Truth
      keyword:
        divine testimony
        God
        idiom
        oath
        Paul
        rhetoric
        witness
      ab: Five times in the undisputed letters Paul invokes God as guarantor of the truth of a claim with a form of the phrase “God is witness.” Interpreters have long identified these sayings as self-imprecatory oaths after a pattern attested in the Hebrew Bible. In this article, I argue that the Pauline phrase “God is witness” is not a self-imprecatory oath at all, but rather a figure of speech with roots in the rhetoric of classical Greece and a long tradition in postclassical pagan, Jewish, and Christian literature. In this figure of speech, God is not testifying against Paul in case Paul should default on a promise; rather God is testifying for Paul that Paul’s character can be trusted.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
    refInfo:
    copyright:
      @attributes:
        flag: Y
      custom: Copyright of Novum Testamentum 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: Novum Testamentum
      holder: Brill Academic Publishers
      dt:
        @attributes:
          year: 2010
    holdings:
      @attributes:
        islocal: N