30358 - Philology and Exegesis of the New Testament (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

The students will get a deep knowledge on exegetical methods, from introductory notions to guided use of research instruments applied to the text of the New Testament.

Course contents

The Second Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians (30 hours, 6 cfu)

The program of the course will be developed as follows:

1st part (10 hours):

– the Second Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians within the whole corpus of the New Testament;

– the Second Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians within the pauline corpus;

– authenticity, canonicity, date, authorship, literary structure, theological contents.

– the influence of the Second Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians from the beginnings of Christian literature to contemporary age.

2nd part (20 hours):

– reading of the Greek text of the Second Letter to the Corinthians, translation and commentary.

Readings/Bibliography

a) A short introduction to the New Testament:

G. THEISSEN, Il Nuovo Testamento, Roma, Carocci 2003

b) Commentaries to the Second Letter to the Corinthians:

B. Corsani, La Seconda lettera ai Corinzi. Guida alla lettura, Claudiana, Torino 2000

V.P. Furnish, II Corinthians, 2 voll. [Anchor Bible, ] Doubleday, New York 1984

F. Manzi, Seconda lettera ai Corinzi, Paoline, Milano 2002

J. Murphy-OʼConnor, La teologia della seconda lettera ai Corinti, Paideia, Brescia 1993

A. Pitta, La seconda lettera ai Corinzi, Borla, Roma 2006

A. Plummer, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Second Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians (ICC), T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh 1915

K. H. Schelkle, Seconda lettera ai Corinti, Città Nuova, Roma 1968

H.-D. Wendland, Le lettere ai Corinti (ed. it.), Paideia, Brescia 1976

c) Full reading, in Italian translation, of the Pauline corpus and of the Acts of the apostles..

Teaching methods

The students will be guided to the exegesis of New Testament texts by means of oral lessons, lectures and seminars.

Assessment methods

The exam will consist of:

— reading, translating and commenting some passages from the Second Letter to the Corinthians (integral reading; for the students of Classics, in the Greek text); the chosen commentary (see Bibliography, [b]) will be the work of reference;

— discussing the texts given by the professor during the lessons and uploaded;

— discussing the full reading of the Pauline corpus and of the Acts of the apostles in Italian translation; the short introductory handbook will also be considered.

For the students who cannot attend lessons the above program is the same; they will substitute lesson notes with the reading of 2 articles – at their choice – included in the following collections of essays :

– C. Bazzi, La terza visita a Corinto. La Seconda lettera ai Corinzi come narrazione, Rivista Biblica 57/1 (2009) 71-92

– P.A. Marshall, A Metaphor of Social Shame: θριαμβεύειν in 2 Cor. 2:14, in Novum Testamentum 25 (1983) 302-317

– C.R.A. Morray-Jones, Paradise Revisited (2 Cor 12:1-12): The Jewish Mystical Background of Paul's Apostolate. Part 1: The Jewish Sources, in Harvard Theological Review 86 (1993) 177-217

– C.R.A. Morray-Jones, Paradise Revisited (2 Cor 12:1-12): The Jewish Mystical Background of Paul's Apostolate. Part 2: Paul's Heavenly Ascent and Its Significance, in Harvard Theological Review 86 (1993) 265-292

– H.T. Ong, Reconsidering the Meaning and Translation of Πνευματικός and Πνεῦμα in the Discourse Context of 1 Corinthians 12–14, in: S.E. Porter, G.P. Fewster, C.D. Land, Modeling Biblical Language, Selected Papers from the McMaster Divinity College Linguistics Circle, Linguistic Biblical Studies (LingBS 13), Brill, Leiden-Boston 2016, 309-338

– W. Schmithals, Two Gnostic Glosses in II Corinthians, in Id., Gnosticism in Corinth: An Investigation of the Letters to the Corinthians, trans. by J.E. Steely, Abingdon, Nashville TN - New York 1971, 302-325

– G. Theissen, The Veil of Moses and the Unconscious Aspects of the Law, in Id., Psychological Aspects of Pauline Theology, Fortress Press, Philadelphia PA 1987, 115-158

– S. Westerholm, Letter and Spirit: The Foundation of Pauline Ethics (Rom 2.29; Rom 7,6; 2 Cor 3.6), in New Testament Studies 30 (1984) 229-248

Teaching tools

Lessons; seminars; bibliographic tools; electronic databases

Office hours

See the website of Antonio Cacciari