Wisdom and foolishness in 1 Cor 1:18-2:5 : towards an interactional model of interpretation

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:The study on wisdom and foolishness was done in the realization that ourdescriptions of language in terms of single decontextualized sentences could neverhope to reveal the true essence of the structure and use of natural language. Asentence is not a purpose unto itself. Sentences occur in situations, they areembedded in discourse, they are surrounded by sentences and perhaps pictures oractions and gestures with which they must link. In order to understand why Paul haschosen to describe the cross event in seemingly mutually exclusive terms we mustreckon with overall text strategies and with the links of the sentence with its textual,discoursal and situational environment.Once you are committed to describing language in terms of processes, a textbecomes a communicative interaction between its producer and its consumer withinrelevant social contexts. The moment one canalizes a text as communicativeinteraction one is under an obligation to develop a proper apparatus or model whichwill take into consideration concepts such as strategies (a goal determined weighingof various alternatives) and tactics (the choice of words and sentence patterns).Hence the development of the interactional model. Working and analyzing wisdomand foolishness within this model I have found it to be two strategic phrases inPaul's strategy to achieve the double edged goal of defending his apostleship andprovoking the Corinthian reinterpretation of their calling. Through the use of ironyPaul attempts to implement a system of value that is itself ironic. As prospected by 1Cor. 1:18-2:5, the world of God's calling takes to itself and transcends theappearances of the realities that occur within it. In that world foolishness expressesthe value of wisdom and wisdom foolishness. Strength expresses the value ofweakness and weakness expresses strength. Wisdom and foolishness become twoimportant terms through which Paul would enable his reader to perceive the world'srealities and their value in terms of their opposites.What Paul intends to achieve through the ironic use of wisdom and foolishness canbest be understood by means of the different strategies he employed.His apologetic strategy is to concede his limitation of wisdom and strength, alimitation which has already engendered criticism of Paul or constitutes anaccusation he anticipated.In establishing an ironic perspective in 1: 18-2:5 of the cross, Paul takes hold of thevery categories of the controversy and gives them paradoxical values. Wheninterpreted in the light of the cross Paul's apparent lack of wisdom and so calledfoolishness becomes ironic testimony on his behalf. It is these realities, he wouldclaim, that demonstrate God's backing of his apostleship. Paul engages theCorintians not at the point of whether he lacks wisdom or whether he is foolish, butat their valuation of wisdom and foolishness. He engages his readers not over theevidence, but over the criteria, the system of values, which shapes theirinterpretation.Paul's epideictic strategy is to juxtapose and maximise the tension between what heconsiders to be the reality of the Corinthian calling and what he understands to betheir perception of it. What is proven in the calling of the Corinthians is God's andPaul's ironic system of values, namely wisdom that is foolish and a foolishness that isfull of wisdom.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University