In the foregoing survey of Lucan studies, we have noted how, for decades, the field was dominated by the 'Luke the Historian' and 'Luke the Theologian' schools. While we may give qualified support to V.K. Robbins' observation that
Prior to 1970, data in the Bible was either 'historical' or 'theological', it could represent historical theology or theological history but not something else. The battles, victories and defeats - drawn in historical versus theological lines - kept
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other disciplines from entering the battlefield... with any kind of status,
it is necessary to acknowledge that a number of pre-1970's writers had already undertaken social-scientific or social description approaches to biblical studies, and this trend has continued to blossom post-1970's. Some of these scholars were innovative pioneers in the field whose works became a guide for both method and result in what we might call the 'social criticism' of religion in general, and biblical literature in particular,283 whether that 'social criticism' was from a historical perspective284 or from a scientific one.285 For both methods the social experience is fundamental, and engagement with it allows the reader to reconstruct various social dimensions of the biblical text in a way that provides the reader with a framework for
281 C.G. Mttller, Mehr als ein Prophet, 310.
282 V.K. Robbins, "Social-Scientific Criticism and Literary Studies" in P.F. Esler (ed.), Modelling Early Christianity: Social-Scientific Studies of the New Testament in its Context, London, Routledge,
1995,274-275.
283 See also B. Wilson, Religious Sects: A Sociological Study, London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1970, 170.
284 See for example, and among others, the works of A.J. Malherbe, Social Aspects of Early Christianity, Philadelphia, Fortress Press, 1983; J. Jeremias, Jerusalem in the Times of Jesus: An Investigation into Economic and Social Conditions During the New Testament Period, Philadelphia, Fortress Press, 1969; R.M. Grant, Early Christianity and Society, San Francisco, Harper & Row, 1977;
and R.F. Hock, The Social Context of Paul's Ministry, Philadelphia, Fortress Press, 1980.
285 An example of works generally acknowledged to be 'social scientific' is seen in, among many others, G. Theissen, Sociology of Early Palestinian Christianity, Philadelphia, Fortress Press, 1978;
J.H. Elliot, A Home for the Homeless: A Sociological Exegesis of 1 Peter, Its Situation and Strategy, Philadelphia, Fortress Press, 1983; W.A. Meeks, Meeks, The First Urban Christians; B.J. Malina &
J.H. Neyrey in their joint book, Calling Jesus Names: The Social Value of Labels in Matthew, Sonoma, Polebridge Press, 1988. This is of course a very selective listing in a field that is expanding rapidly.
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understanding social and religious phenomena that are different from those found in the dynamics of modern life. In a similar way, engagement with the social or human context of the text allows the reader to devise hermeneutical tools that make it possible for the text to be relevantly applied to the reader's own 'world'.
R.M. Grant, a representative of the social description school, argues for sensitivity to the social dimensions of early Christianity, especially if we are to appreciate matters of "everyday Christian practicality".286
J.H. Elliot of the social-scientific school is strong in his argument that the traditional literary, theological and historical questions in biblical studies cannot be answered satisfactorily without making a "determination of the sum of its features which make it a vehicle of social interaction and an instrument of social as well as literary and theological consequences."
While the subtitle of the present work indicates that one of the methodological legs on which the study stands is a social description one, it is important to note the distinction between social description and a social-scientific study. Social description works without the explicit use of models or of specific theories, while social-scientific criticism works with explicit models and theories to be proved. These models and theories are applied to the biblical text in an attempt to reconstruct the social worlds behind it. Social description works with generalizations of social actualities or everyday practicalities, It seemed clear to us that the questions raised in the present study would be best answered through the application of a flexible methodology that is not restricted to specific models or theories for, as A. J. Malherbe has noted, "we should strive to know as much as possible about the actual social circumstances... before venturing theoretical descriptions or explanations of them".288
In his effort to experience this "everyday Christian practicality" Grant explores various areas of life, such as, among others, population, occupations, property, poverty and relationship to political leadership. Grant studies these areas as a historian and not as a sociologist even though Susan R.
Garret has noted, "several times [he] borders on sociological analysis: for example when he discusses the possible relationship between millenarianism and the rejection of private property (chap. 5), or when he treats the "triumph of Christianity" as an "economic matter" (chap. 7)". See S.R. Garret,
"Sociology of Early Christianity" in ABD 6 (1992), 94.
287 J.H. Elliot, A Home for the Hornless, 8.
288 A.J. Malherbe, Social Aspects of Early Christianity, 20.
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The distinction between social description and social-scientific study is described by T. Schmeller as
one between description and explanation, i.e. between the collection of historical material and the interpretation of that material with the help of sociological theory. It is reasonable to ascribe to social history the depiction of typical interpersonal behavior, and to sociology the interpretation of the broader social functions of this behavior.
It has been noted, however, that the distinction between social description and social- scientific study has not always been easy to maintain. T. Schmeller has, for example, astutely observed that "No assembling of material is free of theory, and not every theory is applicable to all forms of material." Nonetheless, the application of these methodologies allows the reader to reconstruct and engage with various social dimensions of the biblical text, as well as with the reality represented by that text.
For the scholars of the social description or social-historical 'school' in general, there is an endeavour to study either biblical characters or events within particular social and cultural milieux. In this way the material and cultural ties that link the biblical characters and/or events to particular times and places are elucidated. These aspects of the social description approach provide an important rationale behind the methodology that is adopted in the project of the present study.
When it comes to scholars of the social-scientific 'school', one thinks of such pioneering scholars as P.L. Berger,290 R.W. Smith,291 H.C. Kee.292 This last, Howard Clark Kee, is especially distinguished among biblical scholars for his ability in combining archaeological research with literary study in search of the social foundations of the biblical world. Not satisfied with the abstract data gathered from his earlier interest in archaeology, he moved to the social sciences so as to study the relationship of religion and society in antiquity, thus making his archaeological insights come alive within the social-scientific milieu of ancient Mediterranean society. Scholars of the social-scientific school, in general, may also address
289 T. Schmeller, "Sociology and New Testament Studies", DBIII, 489.
290 P.L. Berger, The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion, New York, Anchor, 1967.
291 R.W. Smith, The Religion of the Semites: The Fundamental Institutions, New York, Ktav, 1957.
292 H.C. Kee, The Living World of the New Testament, London, Darton, Longman and Todd, 1960.
See also H.C. Kee, Understanding the New Testament, Englewood Cliffs, Prentice Hall, 1965.
79 traditional social historical issues and/or theological issues, but they do so from methodological models more commonly associated with sociologists, anthropologists or social psychologists.
Modern trends have been moving away from the earlier and often polemical approaches of the two schools ('history' and 'theology') and have sought to widen the platform of Lucan studies and approach them from a broader perspective that includes, among other approaches, recourse to literary theory as well as to the social sciences or social description and reconstruction. The names representing this last trajectory have multiplied in the last two or so decades. The forte of the new approach is that while it incorporates the strong points of both the traditional 'history' and 'theology' (or, to paraphrase Robbins, 'history versus theology') approaches into its methodology, it recognizes, first and foremost, that Luke-Acts is a work written in time and space. The major breakthrough has been the realization that, in the words of R.L. Rohrbaugh, "Mediterranean society is the NT's original social location and therefore the ethnography of that region is critical to all that follows."293
There has been a realization that much more lay behind an informed interpretation of Luke-Acts than merely historical or theological considerations; namely the 'social distance' that separates today's reader of Luke-Acts from the people to whom and for whom the work was written. Rohrbaugh, in the context of the New Testament in general, succinctly expresses this 'new discovery' when he says,
The variety of critical methods... have concentrated primarily on historical, linguistic, and, more recently, literary issues. All these methods are necessary and helpful; yet in spite of what they have taught us, it turns out they are not enough. Now social- critics, working on the anthropology of the ancient Mediterranean world, have begun to realize the magnitude of the social distance between the NT and ourselves.294
It is precisely because of this 'social distance' between modern reader and ancient reader or listener that an understanding of patterns of social interaction and social relations is obviously basic to reading Mediterranean literature and to relating to ancient Mediterranean society, a process which Hans-Georg Gadamer calls a 'fusion
293 R.L. Rohrbaugh, The Social Sciences and New Testament Interpretation, Peabody, Hendrickson Publishers, 1966,7.
294 R.L. Rohrbaugh, The Social Sciences, 2.
of past and present horizons'. This understanding in turn generates the insight that reading the Bible is thus in fact an exercise in cross-cultural communication.
Richard Rohrbaugh29 compares an extra-cultural reading of the Bible (i.e. reading the bible outside of its ancient Mediterranean social context) with Psalm 137:4's reference to "singing the Lord's song in a strange land", as very often in our times the Bible is in fact read in strange lands and by people to whom it was never addressed.
Mediterranean society is the original social and cultural location of the New Testament; hence the ethnography of that region is critical for our understanding of the New Testament message. Gadamer calls this process of covering the social distance between the modern reader of the New Testament and the people of the ancient Mediterranean world for whom and to whom the New Testament message was originally written a 'fusion' of two horizons. This, for Gadamer, is the end-result of the new hermeneutic path that he outlines. He insists upon the necessity of understanding the horizon of the past, which in our case is represented by the New Testament texts, in order to understand the horizon of the present. For Gadamer, the continual testing of our current outlook which produces the horizon of the present depends upon an encounter with our past and its traditions. In other words, we cannot know where we are unless we can appreciate where we have come from. Knowledge and understanding are the result of the fusion of these two horizons. By 'fusion of the two horizons' Gadamer does not, however, mean the assimilation of the horizons, but their co-existence in a state of continuous interaction.297 Therefore in order to understand the horizon of the past (the primary function of the social-sciences as an exegetical and hermeneutical methodology), historical analysis is indispensable.
While the traditional positions (history and theology) often emphasized the 'either-or' approach in respect of the other, the approach that leans towards social description, or indeed towards the social-scientific study of Luke-Acts in general has appeared to create a more objective mind-set. The authors discussed below are a representative sample in a field that has in recent times put forward an increasingly more convincing
5 See J.H. Elliott (What Is Social-Scientific Criticism, Minneapolis, Augsburg Press, 1993) for a full discussion of the need for cross-cultural study of the Bible, including methods and results of social- scientific criticism.
296 R.L. Rohrbaugh, The Social Sciences, 2.
7 For a fuller description of the horizons of the past, their fusion and continuous interaction with the horizons of the present see H.-G. Gadamer, Truth and Method, London, Sheed & Ward, 1979, 273ff, 337ff.
argument in favour of the indispensability of a social descriptive methodology in exegesis and hermeneutics. After all, argue some of these writers, Luke-Acts offers us
many 'snapshots' that permit us to glimpse that distant, foreign, vivid and sometimes even dangerous world in which the Christian messengers of the first century after Christ moved.298
Some writers, like Howard Clark Kee before them, have been instrumental in setting new trends that have defined, and will continue to define the new social-scientific approach to Lucan studies for some time to come.
4.2 Social-Critical Studies on Luke-Acts
The social description, reconstruction, analysis and interpretation of the New Testament world in general, and of Luke-Acts in particular has been under way for some decades. What follows is an eclectic sampling of some of the works that offer studies on Luke-Acts from either the perspective of social description or of social- scientific criticism. Lucan studies have in general tended to be approached from the perspectives of social and cultural anthropology, politics, and economics.
Economics, which necessarily takes into consideration the various economic strata and social location and mobility within the Roman Empire, with special emphasis on their impact in Palestine, has added a new dimension to Lucan studies. Examples in this category abound. W. Schottroff and W. Stegemann's combined editorial work in God of the Lowly (1984) provides an analysis which is a model for a socio-theological critique of Luke's community. The book's main thrust is divine solidarity with the oppressed, and a system of justice measured by the treatment of society's most vulnerable members, for example women, the sick, and social outcasts. Halvor Moxnes' The Economy of the Kingdom: Social Conflict and Economic Relations in Luke's Gospel (1988) with its descriptive sub-title "Social Conflict and Economic Relations in Luke's Gospel" offers a social-scientific study of Luke's work in its original context, an approach that brings out the significance of Luke's radical social
H.-J. Klauck, Magic and Paganism in Early Christianity: The World of the Acts of the Apostles, Edinburgh, T&T Clark, 2000, 2.
message, namely a world of new relationships according to the 'economy of the kingdom of God'.
Both of Cassidy's works, Jesus, Politics and Society: A Study of Luke's Gospel (1983) and Society and Politics in the Acts of the Apostles (1987) explicate the social and political contents of Luke-Acts. The books present early Christians as ready to denounce every social and political stance contrary to the message of Jesus, and gives examples of how to cope with being persecuted and tried before the Roman Empire's political officials.
Esler's Community and Gospel in Luke-Acts: The Social and Political Motivations of Lucan Theology (1989) makes use of sociology and anthropology to study Luke's theology as a response to the social and political pressures upon the community for which he was writing. Esler's work offers a new paradigm for generating a theology of Luke attuned to the social and political realities of the time which impact on contemporary Christian communities. The book shows how theories of sociologists and anthropologists can be used as an aid to a fruitful understanding of the New Testament in general, and Luke-Acts in particular.
In their combined work Jesus and the Hope of the Poor (1986), Luise Schottroff and Wolfgang Stegemann set out to correct what they view as an unfortunate tendency in the search for the historical Jesus, namely the tendency to isolate Jesus from his disciples, from his immediate context, and from Judaism. Jesus, they argue, is inseparable from the context within which he lived and worked. The book offers an informative socio-historical interpretation of the Jesus movement by focusing, among other areas, on Luke's Gospel.
The works of J.H. Neyrey and others have in recent times made a tremendous contribution to the social-scientific study of Luke-Acts. D. Rhoads comments in a review of The Social World of Luke-Acts299 that
Edited by Neyrey (1991), with contributions from well-known biblical social-scientists such as B.J.
Malina, R.L. Rohrbaugh, J.H. Elliott, H. Moxnes, V.K. Robbins, M. McVann, D.E. Oakman, and J.J.
Pilch.
This is clearly the best collection of articles available from the New Testament scholars employing methods of interpretation from cultural anthropology. The writers introduce a wide range of innovative models to unravel the culture of the Biblical world. They offer the first comprehensive analysis of a single New Testament text from the perspective of the social sciences. This highly readable volume will be essential for anyone eager to experience the flood of insights coming from recent social study of the New Testament.30
The writers take the reader through social psychology, social institutions, and social structures, to the social dynamics that Luke uncovers in the presentation of his material, and by so doing they provide the reader with powerful tools for a social- scientific re-creation of the First Century scenarios within which Luke's narrative unfolds.
The five-volumed series The Book of Acts in its First Century Setting is possibly the most comprehensive series on Lucan studies. Not since Schiirer's Beginnings of Christianity and other older studies on Luke-Acts has the scholarly community been treated to such a veritable feast of inter-disciplinary research by highly qualified authors. The series takes, as its starting point, the understanding that Luke-Acts is rooted within the setting of the peoples and cultures of the Mediterranean area in the first century C.E. This allows for a multi-disciplinary approach to Luke-Acts that takes account of ethnic, regional, social, cultural, ideological, political, and theological contexts. Overall, the series provides an essential background for the understanding of the world behind the text of not only the Lucan literature (especially the Acts of the Apostles), but of other New Testament writings as well.
A less critical application of the social-scientific method or the social description approach to Luke-Acts, it seems to us, runs the risk of creating the impression that the author of Luke-Acts was perhaps familiar with the part of the Mediterranean world in which he set his narrative - especially the Gospel narrative. The author of Luke-Acts has been noted, on occasion, to be not well informed of the geography of, and conditions in Palestine.302 What we have in Luke-Acts is a cross-pollination of
Review on the back cover (jacket) of The Social World of Luke-Acts.
301 B.W. Winter, I.H. Marshall, D.W.J. Gill (1993-1996). E. Schiirer's own work, The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ, 3 vols. (1973-1987), though purportedly historical in content and method, offers some useful social and anthropological insights into what is commonly referred to as the inter-testamental period.
302 See, for example, R. Bultmann, The History of the Synoptic Tradition, New York, Harper and Row, 1963; W.G. Kiimmel, 1985, Introduction to the New Testament; E.P. Sanders, Jesus and Judaism,