Rättssäker examination i ny upplaga

Universitetskanslersämbetets vägledning Rättssäker examination utkom 2017 i sin tredje upplaga. I denna kommentar uppmärksammas några av de nya anvisningarna. Dessutom diskuteras ett antal punkter som skulle kunna beröras i nästa utgåva av vägledningen

Jesus and the Forgiveness of Sins. An Aspect of His Prophetic Mission

This study investigates the topic of forgiveness of sins in the mission of the historical Jesus. Gospel material that pertains to the question is authenticated by the use of criteria for historicity and interpreted within the wider context of first-century Judaism as part of a broader reconstruction of Jesus’ career as a healer and prophet. Questions posed and answered concern the historical plausibility of the Gospel accounts of how Jesus purported to forgive sins, the meaning that such an activity would have conveyed to his contemporaries, and its implications for his identity. The method combines criteria conventional to historical Jesus research with a tradition-historical analysis informed by ancient progymnastic rhetoric. Jesus’ announcement of forgiveness is found to be attested across multiple sources, dissimilar to primitive Christian theology, and coherent with his activity as a healer and prophet. All this speaks in favour of the basic historicity of the topic. The study suggests that Jesus was guided by his distinctively literal interpretation of the Book of Isaiah’s eschatological prophecies to announce God’s forgiveness as part of his own mission as the Prophet-Messiah. At the same time, the alleged controversy over forgiveness between Jesus and his adversaries includes elements that are implausible within a first-century Jewish setting and incoherent with historical Jesus traditions. An analysis of Mark 2.1-12 with the help of ancient textbooks suggests progymnastic rhetoric as the force behind the elaboration of this episode. The results carry implications for the understanding of how the gospel tradition developed, for the formulation of the criterion of discontinuity, and for the recognition of Jesus’ place within early Judaism as marked by both contextual appropriateness and contextual distinctiveness

Is Luke's Rhetoric Hellenistic, Semitic or Both? The Last Supper as a Test Case

Two approaches to the rhetorical analysis of Gospel texts are being compared in this essay: on the one hand, the use of the rhetorical categories of the Hellenistic Progymnasmata, and on the other, «Biblical and semitic rhetoric». It is argued that these two approaches are not mutually exclusive, but complementary. The last supper in Luke 22,14-38 functions as a test case. An introduction offers some reasons in favour of the assumption that the Gospel of Luke draws on both types of rhetoric. Then, two recent rhetorical analyses of the account are presented: firstly, the essay author’s own analysis of the account as a chreia elaboration, and secondly, R. Meynet’s analysis of it from the perspective of biblical and semitic rhetoric. Points of agreement and disagreement between the two analyses are identified and discussed. Finally, some suggestions as to how the two perspectives can complement each other are made

Prophetic Forgiveness in Josephus and Mark

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