Identity and moral formation in early Christian communities : discursive functioning of Paul's use of scripture in First Thessalonians

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The dissertation explores the dynamic nature and purpose of the first letter to the Thessalonians – probably one of the earliest Pauline letters. It seems to provide a significant account of the formation of identity and ethos in early (Gentile) Christian communities in the Roman Empire. The study is particularly interested in how Hebrew (Old Testament) Scriptures function in the letter, since it appears that echoes of these writings constitute a major feature of Paul's discourse (with primarily Greco-Roman believers). On the basis of an exegetical analysis of the letter, the dissertation concludes by inviting present-day readers to revisit the discursive processes represented by it. On the one hand, the letter testifies to the shaping of the Thessalonian faith community's identity and lifestyle. On the other hand, it draws its readers into its implied transformative power. In the final analysis, these processes are briefly appropriated in the context of contemporary moral challenges in South Korea. Recent scholarship on the Thessalonian correspondence focused on probable influences of the Hellenistic rhetorical environment on Paul's letter-writing. Despite valuable contributions of this approach, the study raises critical questions regarding its methodological relevance. First, scholars seem to have straitjacketed Paul's argumentation (primarily) into Hellenistic rhetorical conventions. Second, as a result of this approach, the significance of Paul's Jewishness has to a large extent been neglected. Concentration on processes of Paul's literary production has devoted little attention to ways in which Paul's scriptural orientation crucially functions in his discourse. Third, by (mainly) focusing on Paul's rhetorical strategies in a first century context, rhetorical critics have not dealt adequately with the pragmatic dimension of Paul's letter – also for today. By suggesting that New Testament scholarship move beyond the limitations of the previous approach, the dissertation acknowledges the multidimensional nature of Paul's discourse (in terms of syntactic, semantic and pragmatic elements). It takes significant additional aspects into account in order to complement previous research, but also to overcome some of its limitations. Accordingly, the project focuses on the following aspects: (1) the formative influence of social, cultural and religious occasions on Paul's discourse (both his Jewishness and the Thessalonians' historical circumstances); (2) the informative role of literary and linguistic elements in 1 Thessalonians; and (3) the text's transformative power that implicitly impacts the identity-awareness and ethos of the audience. The dissertation examines formulations in Paul's letter as part of a dynamic process. In concrete terms, Paul's discourse is viewed as a communicative act that takes place through interaction between his scriptural world and the Thessalonians' historical situation. The study argues that Paul's daily ethos in the world of first-century Hellenistic Judaism was fundamentally shaped by the Hebrew Scriptures and his Jewish tradition. Without any direct quotations, it has nevertheless been illuminating to engage probable ways in which his scriptural world seems to be embedded in his interpretation of the particular social, political and religious situation of the faith community in Thessalonica. By using biblical resources (1 Thess 1:9-10 and Acts 17:5-6) and some extrabiblical inscriptional and other archaeological witnesses, the research attempts to construct the chief discursive exigency of 1 Thessalonians as issues concerning identity and ethos in a pluralistic religious world. The community's new beliefs and morality would not necessarily be compatible with that of the Thessalonian society around them, thereby (potentially) causing social harassment and alienation. Keeping Paul's Jewishness in mind, the research argues that his apocalyptic perspective might have led him to render the Thessalonians' crisis with their neighbours as an eschatological phenomenon. The research delves into the question of how Paul, in an attempt to address a (potential) crisis confronting the Thessalonians, affirms the community's faith in Christ, their selfawareness, and moral responsibility as God's chosen people in the end-time. Through an analysis of 1 Thessalonians 1:1-2:12, 4:1-9, 5:1-11, the dissertation indicates how Paul allows probable scriptural echoes to function discursively in order to present the Gentile Christian community – in continuity with Israel. Specifically, echoes of sanctification/holiness from the Holiness Code, New Covenant prophecy, and the Day of the Lord seem to constitute major components of his identity- and ethos-building discourse. Recurrence of these echoes in the letter convincingly suggests (if not denotes) that the Gentile Christians, in Paul's view, had been incorporated into God's encompassing salvation story. In so doing, he establishes their distinctive identity and ethos as opposed to outsiders. Ultimately, the study hopes that its findings may also challenge and enable presentday readers/audiences to appreciate and (re)appropriate the (trans)formative potential of Paul's discourse in contexts of identity and moral crises, including that of the researcher in South Korea.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University