Vdovichenko Andrei

Literary character of the New Testament corpus. Discursive criteri

Abstract

In the article the author disagrees with the point of view according to which the language of the New Testament is considered less- or nonliterary. The main factor which maintains the literariness of the texts is that the NT corpus belongs to the tradition of Jewish prophetic literature. As well as in many other aspects of early Christianity, the Greek-speaking Jewish Diaspora becomes a key condition for a reconstruction communicative (cultural and religious, literary and linguistic) context in which the language and substantial features of the NT are adequately interpreted. To overcome A. Deissmann’s erroneous viewpoint (which ever caused the colloquial and nonliterary trend in NT researches) and to reconstruct the authentic communicative reality some historical, cultural and literary circumstances seem to be important. 1) the role of Writtings in the social, religious and literary activities in the Jewish Diaspora; 2) the linguistic situation in Diaspora and Palestinian communities; 3) Septuagint status as a sacred text and a sample for the prophetic texts in Diaspora; 4) relevance the discursive criteria for describing linguistic and cultural (including literary) realities: criterion of the relation to the literary facts of an author taking part in the tradition and implying the authentic concepts and oppositions; criterion of the audience to which the text is addressed; criterion of the language models used in the text at the level of macro- and micro rhetorical strategies, themes and frame structures of the communicative action organized in the text. If based on the criteria above, one may divide the literary production of the Greek-speaking Jewish Diaspora on prophetic and apologetic (secular) traditions which were inherited then by the Christian (including Judeo-Christian) authors.

Keywords

linguistic interpretation of the NT corpus, literary and nonliterary character of the NT texts, discursive criteria of description, literary tradition of the Greek-speaking Jewish Diaspora of the Hellenistic period, Septuagint as a model text, prophetic

References

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Information about the author

Vdovichenko Andrei