Bücher der Reihe Readings

David Seal's reading of 1 and 2 Peter in this commentary, in addition to explaining the text as written, also highlights the stylistics of oral literature employed by the author. The first-century Mediterranean world was a blend of an oral and a scribal culture; many commentaries overlook the oral nature of the New Testament letters. In oral societies, most people experienced written texts by hearing them read aloud. These two letters would have been experienced primarily through the listener's ears rather than by reading with their eyes.1 Peter encourages its recipients, in their present sufferings, by reminding them of their future inheritance. One oral stylistic that Peter uses to highlight this reward and make a memorable impression on his audience is through both the cadence and the alliteration of the description of their inheritance. These oral features are captured in the English translation where Peter describes the nature of the reward as 'untouched by the ravages death, unstained by evil, and unhindered by the passing of time'. When spoken, these oral features, help to underscore the value and durability of the Christian's future reward.Peter's knowledge that the church was experiencing challenges from false teachers is one reason he writes 2 Peter. To facilitate a negative view of these teachers, Peter compares their behavior to that of pigs and dogs. Manipulation of emotions was also a characteristic of oral performance. Portraying the teachers in an emotionally disturbing manner may have helped motivate the church to remove the false teachers from their community.Some of the other oral stylistics discussed in this commentary include the author's manners of expression in terms of word choices, sentence patterns, sound patterns, and gestures that may have accompanied the recitation. By highlighting the patterns and poetic delivery of Peter's letters, which may be missed by modern readers, this commentary seeks to foster a deeper and clearer understanding of 1 and 2 Peter.

Judges is the Bible's end-of-the-frontier epic. It depicts the first generations of Israelite life in Canaan and portrays a set of memorable protagonists, the "judges," who were wild enough to tame a wilderness, but too wild to persist into the next era of royal courts, central shrines, and political states. The core of Judges consists of a series of narratives about the outlaws, warlords and war-ladies, mercenaries, and jackleg and priests and prophets from ancient Ephraim whose exploits were recounted in a series of redacted documents that, to the chagrin of pious readers over the centuries, ended up in the Bible, of all places. There is Ehud, the left-handed assassin on a grim solo labyrinthine mission in and out of an enemy fortress. There is Deborah, the alpha female who, in one chapter, commands an army and, in another, is credited with uttering her eponymous song, which deserves to be counted among the world's great war poetry. There is Jael, the man-slaughtering Bedouin woman who is handy with a hammer. There is Gideon, the insecure hero who leads, in one story, an outnumbered elite band of warriors to victory over an enemy force of uncountable proportions and, in another story, a clannish vendetta filled with torture, arson, and revenge killings. There is the tale of Abimelech which traces the rise and fall of a gangster. There is Jephthah, the outcast summoned to rescue his tribe when they need his desperado skill set, but whose rash vow has fatal consequences for his daughter. Finally, there is Samson, one of folk literature's most memorable characterizations, a walking, talking incarnation of unshaved, unbalanced hyper-masculinity. This reading of the tales of Judges as a set of adventure stories from the early centuries of alphabetic literacy requires that we dig through mounds of didactic, theological, moralistic, messianic, and nationalistic landfill in order to reclaim the full glory-and horror-of their dark violence and eroticism, as well as to marvel at the coarse folk poetry in the tales' narration and dialogue.