Guest Scholar:

A Conversation with David Lincicum

Reading Paul Reading Scripture: Thinking with Paul about Biblical Interpretation

It is a fact that sometimes goes unnoticed: to read Paul’s letters is not only to hear from Paul as a writer but to engage with Paul the reader. Paul recurrently draws on authoritative texts as he makes his appeals, presents his arguments, and seeks to persuade his hearers to enter into greater alignment with the gospel of God. But he doesn’t draw on any authoritative texts! Reading Paul as a reader means reading a specific collection of texts: the sacred scriptures of Israel.

What kind of reader of Israel’s scriptures is Paul? What version of the Bible (Hebrew? Greek?) is he reading? How does he work with the language of the texts he’s citing to make his point? Why does he sometimes allude to scripture rather than cite it? And what, for Paul, do the scriptures mean for his own community?

Join the Theological Society on Feb 19 as we welcome David Lincicum, Associate Professor of Christianity and Judaism in Antiquity at Notre Dame, to help us probe these matters. Along with being a leading expert in NT studies in the theology, philosophy, and biblical interpretation of the modern scholar, F. C. Baur, David has done extensive research into Paul as a reader of scripture and is therefore well-established to guide us through the complex matters involved in reading Paul as he reads the scriptures of Israel.

David Lincicum, Tisch Family Associate Professor of Theology, University of Notre Dame

Professor David Lincicum is honoring a long tradition. He works at the intersection of early Jewish, early Christian, and New Testament studies.

Professor Lincicum’s research has especially focused on investigating early Christian and Jewish biblical interpretation, Pauline literature, as well as the history of interpretation. He hopes that his monograph on Paul and the Early Jewish Encounter with Deuteronomy makes contribution not only to an understanding of Paul, but also to the apprehension of Second Temple Judaism and the relation between the Old and New Testaments.

Professor Lincicum is currently at work on an edition, translation, introduction and commentary for the curious text known as the Epistle of Barnabas. All of this research reflects his broad interest in New Testament and Early Christian studies, but also his attempt to grapple seriously, in cross-disciplinary investigations, with Second Temple Judaism, the formation of self-consciously Christian appropriations of the Old Testament, and the history of New Testament study, including the theological reception of the New Testament as Scripture.

THEOLOGICAL SOCIETY
This society seeks to gather Cornell faculty and graduate students to discuss major themes in biblical and theological studies. Discussion aims to satisfy what Simone Weil once described as the basic need of the soul to consider “every sort of opinion, without the least restriction or reserve.” To this end, we invite dialogue that explores and even challenges historic orthodox beliefs as well as those ideas that reign in the contemporary church, academy, and culture.

Our dialogue is collegial and cordial without shying away from the hard questions scholars face in their life and work. Members of the group seek to nurture discussion by listening attentively to one another, guarding the length of our responses, and avoiding diversions to pet issues unrelated to the subject at hand. In short, we seek to embody a uniquely Christian form of intellectual hospitality that we can pass on to future generations.

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