Sung-uk Lim

Onesimus has so far remained a colonized or marginalized other in the text and history of reception across historical and cultural constraints. In contrast to this colonizing strategy of reading, the thesis of this paper is that Onesimus, as a minor character, plays a major role in liberating himself from the bondage of slavery’s hierarchical structures within the context of Roman imperial rule. There is a commonly held consensus among most, though not all, Western interpreters that Philemon is

Drawing on Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory of double-voicedness and James Scott’s theory of public and hidden transcripts, this essay investigates the colonial context of Romans 13:1–7 with particular attention to the Roman imperial cult. It is my contention that Paul attempts to persuade the audience to resist the imperial cult, whilst negotiating colonial power and authority. It is assumed that colonial discourse is, by nature, a double-voiced discourse in that the public transcript of the dominant a

The present study aims to deconstruct the myth of origin, a quest after essential identity, in the context of Japan's colonization of Korea (1910-1945). First, I will contextualize the myth of origin as a particular historical construction of Japanese colonization, which stems from Romantic nationalism in the second half of the 19 th century. Then, I will critique the structuralism, monologism, and colonialism standing behind the myth of origin through the lens of deconstruction, dialogism, and

A contribution of the "new perspective on Paul" to New Testament Scholarship is that it provides a crucial clue to reconsidering the pervasive misunderstandings and misrepresentations of Judaism widespread among religious scholars. The publication of E. P. Sanders, Paul and Palestinian Judaism in 1977 triggered controversies over Paul's relationship to Judaism in the new perspective. In his book Sanders attempts a new understanding of Paul and Palestinian Judaism. My paper aims to summarize seve

This article explores the biopolitical dimension of the trial of Jesus in John 18:28–19:16a from the Agambenian perspective of “bare life.” According to Giorgio Agamben, bare life, namely, life at risk of death through sovereign power, operates in the “state of exception.” The state of exception is a state wherein the threshold between the juridical order and anomie, or that between an insider and outsider of the juridical order becomes blurred as a result of a law that is suspended from its eff

Paying special attention to the advent of multiculturalism in local, national, global contexts, the present study attempts to come to grips with the thorny problem of economic justice in the Acts of the Apostles in such a way as to explore women in a multicultural diaspora. This study scrutinizes the passages in Acts, which deal with the roles of women in redistribution of wealth in earliest Christianity: (1) Hellenist and Hebrew widows (6:1-7); (2) Tabitha and widows in Joppa (9:36-43); (3) Mar

The present study proposes parentist criticism as a new approach to reading the biblical text. As a test case, we revisit the healing of Jairus's daughter (Mark 5:21–24, 35–43) to reconfigure family dynamics with a focus on the role of each parent and their collaboration for the sake of their child. A review of recent scholarship reveals that the roles of Jairus and his wife as parents are treated in isolation from one another, when considered at all—thus, failing to address the larger picture o

The present study explores the performative nature of the Bible as a sacred text in the Korean context. Drawing on the theory of scriptural performance advocated by James W. Watts, I investigate its character as words and contents. First, I delve into the scriptural performance of thoroughly reading (and listening to) the Bible at the level of words. Second, I scrutinize the scriptural performance of singing and dramatizing the Bible at the level of contents. The specific context of South Korea—

Abstract This paper intends to delve into the political economy of the symbolic practice of eating idol meat in 1 Corinthians 8 from a Bourdieuian perspective. My contention is that Paul attempts to undermine the Roman socioeconomic system by substituting a dietary habitus of abstention for a dietary habitus of consumption. In Bourdieu’s view, the Roman colony of Corinth can be seen as a religious field consisting of a conflict over different capital between the strong and the weak. Through rhet

This article explores the transformation of both the character of Jonah and the text of Jonah, especially in ch. 2, from the Bakhtinian perspective of (re-)authoring. Bakhtin's concept of authoring shows that the disobedient Jonah is transformed into an obedient prophet in ch. 2 in his understanding of God and himself. Simultaneously, Bakhtin's notion of re-authoring reveals that the book of Jonah has been transformed in the history of Bible translation as seen in the Masoretic Text, Septuagint,

본 논문은 신약성서의 갈릴리인의 정체성을 역사적·문학적 맥락 내에서 파악하고자 한다. 학계 내외에서 갈릴리를 흔히 이방인의 땅으로, 그리고 갈릴리인을 손쉽게 이방인으로 단정하는 편견을 뒤로하고, 본 연구는 신약성서가 표상하는 갈릴리인(들)이라는 헬라어 용례 사용을 중심으로 갈릴리인의 정체성을 분석한다. 이를 위해 먼저 갈릴리인의 역사적 정체성에 대한 최신 연구 동향을 정리하여 소개한다. 다음으로 갈릴리인의 정체성을 지역, 종족, 정치, 종교, 문화라는 범주에 각각 입각하여 신약성서 속 본문을 하나하나씩 문학적인 차원에서 분석한다. 마지막으로 신약성서가 암시하는 갈릴리인의 의미가 역사적으로 무엇을 지시하는지 그 실체를 파악한다. 이처럼 역사적·문학적 고찰을 통하여 독자들은 갈릴리인의 정체성에 대해 보다 통합적인 이해를 획득할 수 있을 것이다. 그 결과, 정치적인 관점을 제외하고는 신약성서가 표상하는 갈릴리인은 역사적으로 유대적인(Jewish) 갈릴리 지역민으로 이해할 수 있을 것이다.

This paper aims at foregrounding race and ethnicity discourse in Biblical Studies and beyond in order to undermine transhistorical and transcultural racism and ethnocentrism in religious discourse. It is my argument that matters of race and ethnicity should be approached as analytical categories in an interdisciplinary manner, albeit in a specific context, Hellenistic, Roman, Jewish, or Christian. In doing so, I first examine the works of Steve Fenton as well as Robert Miles and Malcolm Brown in

The current study examines the Johannine theology of oneness in Jesus’ Farewell Prayer (John 17:1-26). First, it maps the Gospel’s structure of conflict at two levels: a cosmic opposition that fractures heaven and earth, and a historical antagonism between Jewish religious leaders and Roman political authorities. Second, it offers a close reading of John 17, interrogating how the prayer responds to these cosmic and social fractures. It draws special attention to the Father-Son-Disciples schema a