This paper considers the role of the Spirit within early Christian writers’ use of prosopological exegesis, an interpretive method which seeks to identify various persons (prosopa) as the “true” speakers or addressees of a Scriptural text in which they are otherwise not in view. While scholars are increasingly recognizing that, for some early Christian writers, the Spirit could himself be a speaking agent, there remains no systematic analysis of the texts in which the Spirit speaks from his own prosopon. After making just such an analysis, focusing on key texts in the writings of Tertullian and Justin Martyr, this paper concludes that the need for divine testimony concerning both the Father and the Son was the central motivating factor for assigning ot quotations to the prosopon of the Spirit. In particular, this paper argues that this emphasis on the Spirit’s role as one who testifies is a direct outgrowth of the portrayal of the Spirit in the Johannine corpus and arose in the context of conflict with Judaism concerning the cessation of the Spirit. By making this connection, we have a new means by which to glimpse the theological dynamics at work in the pre-Nicene period that would contribute to the development of a distinctively Trinitarian, and not merely binitarian, view of God.
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So Andresen, “Zur Entstehung,” 23; Rondeau, Les Commentaires Patristiques, 2.31-32; Slusser, “Exegetical Roots,” 476.
Bates, Birth of the Trinity, 164-165. Cf. A. Briggman, “Measuring Justin’s Approach to the Spirit: Trinitarian Conviction and Binitarian Orientation,” Vigiliae Christianae 63 (2009) 107-137, at 113-114. This article was reprinted, with only minor changes, in A. Briggman, Irenaeus of Lyons and the Theology of the Holy Spirit (Oxford 2012) 9-31.
Cf. Andresen, “Zur Entstehung,” 18-25; Slusser, “Exegetical Roots,” 464-465; Bates, Birth of the Trinity, 27-28, 164 n. 18; Rondeau, Les Commentaires Patristiques, 2.30-34.
Rondeau, Les Commentaires Patristiques, 2.33 n. 41 seems to be driving at the same point: 16 Que l’Esprit soit la troisième personne divine non parce qu’il est en fonction de troisième personne grammaticale, mais parce qu’il est en fonction de troisième locuteur, montre que, bien que Tertullien lui-même fasse interférer le schéma grammatical dont les “trois personnes” offraient une analogie séduisante, l’exégèse prosopologique porte fondamentalement sur le locuteur (et sur le ‘tu’, qui est un locuteur potentiel).
Briggman, “Measuring Justin’s Approach to the Spirit,” 107-108. For the most recent systematic treatment of Justin’s overall pneumatology, with extensive bibliography, see ibid., 107-137. See also G.N. Stanton, “The Spirit in the Writings of Justin Martyr,” in G.N. Stanton, B.W. Longenecker, and S.C. Barton (eds.), The Holy Spirit and Christian Origins: Essays in Honor of James D.G. Dunn (Grand Rapids, mi. 2004) 321-334.
Briggman, “Measuring Justin’s Approach to the Spirit,” 110. On the distinctive activity of the Spirit in Justin, see S. Wendel, “Interpreting the Descent of the Spirit: A Comparison of Justin’s Dialogue with Trypho and Luke-Acts,” in S. Parvis and P. Foster (eds.), Justin Martyr and His Worlds (Minneapolis, mn. 2007) 95-103.
Briggman, “Measuring Justin’s Approach to the Spirit,” 113. Citing Dial. 56.15, Briggman goes on to add that, for Justin, “the Holy Spirit holds a unique position of importance, since his activity stands behind the texts of scripture that Justin uses to illustrate the divinity of the Father and his Word” (114). This very closely parallels my own findings above.
Morgan-Wynne, Holy Spirit and Religious Experience, 319; cf. Dial. 11.5. Stanton, “Spirit in the Writings of Justin Martyr,” 334 sees this an innovation of Justin and a “corollary of his conviction that Christians are the true Israel.”
L. Ayres and M.R. Barnes, “Pneumatology: Historical and Methodological Considerations,” Augustinian Studies 39 (2008) 163-236. This collection includes four papers, as well as an introduction and conclusion, which were originally presented at the annual meeting of the North American Patristic Society in 2005.
M.R. Barnes, “The Beginning and the End of Early Christian Pneumatology,” Augustinian Studies 39 (2008) 169-186, at 170.
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This paper considers the role of the Spirit within early Christian writers’ use of prosopological exegesis, an interpretive method which seeks to identify various persons (prosopa) as the “true” speakers or addressees of a Scriptural text in which they are otherwise not in view. While scholars are increasingly recognizing that, for some early Christian writers, the Spirit could himself be a speaking agent, there remains no systematic analysis of the texts in which the Spirit speaks from his own prosopon. After making just such an analysis, focusing on key texts in the writings of Tertullian and Justin Martyr, this paper concludes that the need for divine testimony concerning both the Father and the Son was the central motivating factor for assigning ot quotations to the prosopon of the Spirit. In particular, this paper argues that this emphasis on the Spirit’s role as one who testifies is a direct outgrowth of the portrayal of the Spirit in the Johannine corpus and arose in the context of conflict with Judaism concerning the cessation of the Spirit. By making this connection, we have a new means by which to glimpse the theological dynamics at work in the pre-Nicene period that would contribute to the development of a distinctively Trinitarian, and not merely binitarian, view of God.
All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 155 | 29 | 0 |
Full Text Views | 251 | 5 | 0 |
PDF Views & Downloads | 50 | 19 | 0 |