HIDDEN TRANSCRIPTS AND THE ARTS OF RESISTANCE Semeia Studies Gale A. Yee, General Editor Editorial Board: Roland Boer Elizabeth A. Castelli Musa Dube David M. Gunn Richard A. Horsley David Jobling Cheryl Kirk-Duggan Stephen D. Moore Tina Pippin Ilona N. Rashkow Fernando Segovia Yvonne M. Sherwood Abraham Smith Gerald O. West Number 48 HIDDEN TRANSCRIPTS AND THE ARTS OF RESISTANCE Applying the Work of James C. Scott to Jesus and Paul HIDDEN TRANSCRIPTS AND THE ARTS OF RESISTANCE Applying the Work of James C. Scott to Jesus and Paul Edited by Richard A. Horsley BRILL LEIDEN • BOSTON 2004 HIDDEN TRANSCRIPTS AND THE ARTS OF RESISTANCE Copyright © 2004 by the Society of Biblical Literature This edition published under license from the Society of Biblical Literature by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands All rights reserved.No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by means of any information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted by the 1976 Copyright Act or in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission should be addressed in writing to the Rights and Permissions Office, Society of Biblical Literature, 825 Houston Mill Road, Atlanta, GA 30329 USA. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hidden transcripts and the arts of resistance : applying the work of James C. Scott to Jesus and Paul / edited by Richard A. Horsley p. cm. — (Semeia studies ; no. 48) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 90-04-13053-5(cloth binding : alk. paper) 1. Jesus Christ—Political and social views. 2. Bible. N.T. Mark—Social scientific criti- cism. 3. Bible. N.T. Epistles of Paul—Social scientific criticism. 4. Opposition (Political sci- ence) in the Bible. 5. Scott, James C. I. Horsley, Richard A. II. Series: Semeia studies ; no. 48. BS2417.P6H53 2004b 225.6—dc22 2004024392 ISSN 1567-200X Printed in The Netherlands on acid-free paper. CONTENTS Abbreviations..................................................................................................vii Introduction—Jesus, Paul, and the “Arts of Resistance”: Leaves from the Notebook of James C. Scott Richard A. Horsley ....................................................................................1 Part 1: Jesus, Hidden Transcripts, and the Arts of Resistance The Arts of Resistance in an Age of Revolt Allen Dwight Callahan............................................................................29 Onstage and Offstage with Jesus of Nazareth: Public Transcripts, Hidden Transcripts, and Gospel Texts William R. Herzog II................................................................................41 The Politics of Disguise and Public Declaration of the Hidden Transcript: Broadening Our Approach to the Historical Jesus with Scott’s “Arts of Resistance” Theory Richard A. Horsley ..................................................................................61 James C. Scott and New Testament Studies: A Response to Allen Callahan, William Herzog, and Richard Horsley Warren Carter ..........................................................................................81 Part 2: Hidden Transcripts and Arts of Resistance in Paul’s Letters Strategies of Resistance and Hidden Transcripts in the Pauline Communities Neil Elliott..................................................................................................97 The Role of Symbolic Inversion in Utopian Discourse: Apocalyptic Reversal in Paul and in the Festival of the Saturnalia/Kronia Erik M. Heen ..........................................................................................123 vi contents Reconstructing “Resistance” or Reading to Resist: James C. Scott and the Politics of Interpretation Cynthia Briggs Kittredge ......................................................................145 Hidden Transcripts and Arts of Resistance in Paul’s Letters: A Response Susan M. (Elli) Elliott ............................................................................157 Explicating Domination and Resistance: A Dialogue between James C. Scott and Biblical Scholars Gerald West ............................................................................................173 Works Consulted ..........................................................................................195 Contributors....................................................................................................207 ABBREVIATIONS AB Anchor Bible ABD Anchor Bible Dictionary. Edited by D. N. Freedman. 6 vols. New York: Doubleday, 1992. AJP American Journal of Philology AThR Anglican Theological Review BibInt Biblical Interpretation BibOr Biblica et orientalia CBQ Catholic Biblical Quarterly FCNTECW Feminist Companion to the New Testament and Early Christian Writings JAAR Journal of the American Academy of Religion JAC Jahrbuch für Antike und Christentum JBL Journal of Biblical Literature JRH Journal of Religious History JSJ Journal for the Study of Judaism in the Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman Periods JSNT Journal for the Study of the New Testament JSNTSup Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement Series JSOTSup Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series JTSA Journal of Theology for Southern Africa LCL Loeb Classical Library NICNT New International Commentary on the New Testament NTS New Testament Studies SBLSP Society of Biblical Literature Seminar Papers SNTSMS Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series TynBul Tyndale Bulletin -vii- INTRODUCTION JESUS, PAUL, AND THE “ARTS OF RESISTANCE”: LEAVES FROM THE NOTEBOOK OF JAMES C. SCOTT Richard A. Horsley James C. Scott offers a rich range of knowledge and theory that helps biblical studies broaden and deepen approaches to texts in contexts. Bib- lical studies, understandably for a field devoted to illumination of the Jewish and Christian scriptures, focuses heavily on the religious and cul- tural dimension to the neglect of other aspects of life that are also abundantly evident in biblical texts. As the product mainly of Protestant theology and North Atlantic societies that operate with a separation between church and state, biblical studies focuses on “the things of God,” as opposed to “the things of Caesar.” Trained as a political scientist, Scott is an expert in “the things of Caesar.” Yet Scott insists throughout his scholarship that politics cannot be understood apart from culture and religion. His work can help biblical scholars understand the relation between often separated dimensions of texts and history. Biblical studies, devoted to understanding the sacred writings central to the canon of established Western culture as well as of churches and synagogues, writings that played an instrumental role in Western Euro- pean colonial rule of other peoples of the world, has tended to ignore power relations in texts and history. Yet all civilizations, including West- ern civilization in which the Bible has been instrumental, have been based on the domination and exploitation of the vast majority of people by an elite ruling class. Scott is unusual among political scientists not only in acknowledging the power relations that constitute civilizations but also in repeatedly coming up with sophisticated original ways of under- standing relations of domination and resistance that can be helpful to biblical scholars, who are only recently discovering such issues. Biblical studies, because of the Herculean tasks involved in learning ancient languages and sophisticated methods of criticisms, tends to be focused intensively but narrowly on the particular languages and cultures of ancient Israel and early Jewish and Christian groups in the ancient east- ern Mediterranean world. In his rich and varied scholarly work James -1-