APPROPRIATING APOCALYPTIC: PAUL RICOEUR'S HERMENEUTICS AND THE DISCOURSE ...

258 Pages·2010·1.28 MB·English

APPROPRIATING APOCALYPTIC:
PAUL RICOEUR’S HERMENEUTICS AND THE DISCOURSE OF MARK 13

by
Peter C. de Vries
BA, Pennsylvania State University, 1985
MDiv, Princeton Theological Seminary, 1988

Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of
the School of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy

University of Pittsburgh
2010
UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH
FACULTY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES

This dissertation was presented

by

Peter C. de Vries

It was defended on
April 2, 2010
and approved by
Dale Allison, Professor, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary
Alexander Orbach, Associate Professor, Religious Studies
Adam Shear, Associate Professor, Religious Studies
George Taylor, Professor, School of Law
Dissertation Advisor: S. Anthony (Tony) Edwards, Associate Professor, Religious Studies

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Copyright © by Peter C. de Vries
2010
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APPROPRIATING APOCALYPTIC:
PAUL RICOEUR’S HERMENEUTICS AND THE DISCOURSE OF MARK 13
Peter C. de Vries, PhD
University of Pittsburgh, 2010

Mark 13 predicts that certain events will occur literally within the generation of Jesus’
contemporaries, and today’s reader recognizes that some of these events have not taken place.
The reader therefore appropriates the text as a false configuration of the world because it
describes the world differently from how it is. However, the hermeneutics of Paul Ricoeur
enables a reader to appropriate the text as a presentation of truth. His argument for textual
autonomy supports the contention that a text’s meaning is not limited to what the author intended
and the original readers perceived. In new reading contexts, the meaning that comes from the
text itself creates an evocative dialectic between the reader’s lived world and the world
description of the text. Although Mark 13 was originally understood literally, today’s audience
is able to read it as metaphor. Metaphor is not a rhetorically attractive literary trope; it is a
transgression of language codes and categories. Through its association of previously unrelated
concepts, metaphor creates new, multiple meanings and changes the linguistic structures within
which it operates. Metaphor is able to present truth, not as a verifiable presentation of the world
as it is perceived by the reader, but as a manifestation of the world in a new way. The reader
recognizes this truth only as she is willing to engage with the text without imposing her
preconceptions upon it. Mark 13, as it is read by today’s reader, functions as metaphor because
of the double dissonance first between the configured world of the text and the lived world of the
reader and second between claim that Jesus is able to predict when the events will take place (v.
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30) and the assertion that he is not able to do so (v. 32). One option for today’s reader to
appropriate the metaphor of Mark 13 as truth is a perception of the presence in the world of
forces that challenge and subvert powers which appear to be dominant, and which deceive,
destroy, and persecute.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE .................................................................................................................................... XI
1.0 INTRODUCTION: RESOLUTION OF A HERMENEUTICAL PROBLEM ...... 1
1.1 THE PRIMARY HERMENEUTICAL PROBLEM OF MARK 13 ............... 6
1.2 PREVIOUS ATTEMPTS TO RESOLVE THE PROBLEM .......................... 8
1.2.1 Theories for Literal Meaning of Mark 13 ..................................................... 9
1.2.2 Theories for Figurative Meaning of Mark 13 ............................................. 11
1.2.2.1 A New World Pattern ......................................................................... 12
1.2.2.2 Partial Fulfillment ............................................................................... 15
1.2.2.3 Personal or Spiritual Transformation............................................... 17
1.3 OUTLINE OF A RICOEUR-ORIENTED RESOLUTION .......................... 21
1.3.1 The Possibility for New Appropriation ....................................................... 23
1.3.2 Mark 13’s Literal Predictions When Written ............................................. 23
1.3.3 Events Did Not Occur When Predicted ....................................................... 24
1.3.4 Originally Apparent Meaning Is Recognized Today Not to Be True ....... 26
1.3.5 Appropriable Today Only as a False Text .................................................. 26
1.3.6 Appropriation Is Possible for Meaning Other Than That Apparent When
Written ........................................................................................................................ 27
1.3.7 Textual Meaning Not Limited to Meaning When Written ........................ 27
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1.3.8 Metaphorical Meaning .................................................................................. 28
1.3.9 Truth in Metaphor......................................................................................... 29
1.3.10 Mark 13 As Metaphor .................................................................................. 30
1.3.11 Different Meaning Today from When Mark Was Written ...................... 32
1.3.12 Potential Truth for Mark 13’s Metaphorical Meaning............................. 33
1.3.13 Potential Truth of Mark 13’s Meaning Today .......................................... 33
1.3.14 True Descriptions are Different from False Descriptions ........................ 33
1.3.15 Appropriation of Metaphor Is Different from Appropriation of Literal
Meaning ....................................................................................................................... 34
1.3.16 Mark 13 Is Able To Be Appropriated in a New Way ................................ 34
2.0 APPROPRIATION .................................................................................................... 36
2.1 DEFINITION OF APPROPRIATION ............................................................ 37
2.2 THE APPEAL OF THE TEXT ........................................................................ 44
2.2.1 Truth in Non-Historical Texts ...................................................................... 46
2.2.2 Appropriation of Apocalyptic Texts ............................................................ 51
2.2.2.1 Description of Apocalyptic ................................................................. 51
2.2.2.2 The Temporal Nature of Apocalyptic ............................................... 58
2.2.2.3 Mark 13 as an Apocalyptic Text ........................................................ 65
2.2.3 Ricoeur on the Bible’s Distinctiveness ......................................................... 67
2.2.3.1 The Text of a Faith Community ........................................................ 68
2.2.3.2 Distinctive Referent............................................................................. 70
2.2.3.3 Limit Expression ................................................................................. 71
2.2.3.4 Multiple Naming of God ..................................................................... 75
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2.2.4 The Challenge of the Yale School ................................................................. 78
3.0 THE ISSUES OF MARK 13 ..................................................................................... 84
3.1 PRESENTED AS LITERAL EVENTS ........................................................... 85
3.2 DESCRIPTIONS OF THE EVENTS .............................................................. 89
3.2.1 A: Temple Destruction .................................................................................. 93
3.2.2 B: Deception ................................................................................................... 94
3.2.3 C: Calamity .................................................................................................... 95
3.2.4 D: Persecution ................................................................................................ 97
3.2.5 E: Worldwide Proclamation ......................................................................... 97
3.2.6 F: The Abomination of Desolation ............................................................... 98
3.2.7 G: Cosmic Disruption .................................................................................. 102
3.2.8 H: The Appearance of the Son of Man ...................................................... 104
3.2.9 I: Ingathering of the Elect ........................................................................... 105
3.3 TIMING OF THE EVENTS ........................................................................... 106
3.4 PURPOSE FOR THE PREDICTION ........................................................... 110
3.5 PAST AND PRESENT APPROPRIATION OF THE PREDICTIONS .... 112
4.0 TEXTUAL AUTONOMY ....................................................................................... 117
4.1 ADDITIONAL MEANING PRESENT IN THE TEXT .............................. 120
4.2 MEANING IN ADDITION TO AUTHORIAL INTENT ............................ 123
4.2.1 The Author Intends Meaning ..................................................................... 124
4.2.2 The Text Exists Independently from the Author ...................................... 125
4.2.3 Reference of the Text Is Not the Ostensive Reference of the Author ..... 129
4.3 READING CONTEXT .................................................................................... 132
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4.3.1 The Text’s Presence in Different Contexts ................................................ 132
4.3.2 Reading as a Dialectical Event ................................................................... 134
4.3.3 The Mutual Influence of Text and Context ............................................... 139
4.4 MEANING FROM THE TEXT ITSELF ...................................................... 144
4.4.1 Meaning Is Found in the Text .................................................................... 144
4.4.2 The Explanatory Mode Determines Meaning ........................................... 145
5.0 RICOEUR’S DESCRIPTION OF METAPHOR ................................................. 149
5.1 REJECTION OF METAPHOR AS A RHETORICAL ORNAMENT ...... 150
5.2 METAPHOR AS A TRANSGRESSION OF CODE AND CATEGORY .. 156
5.3 THE DIALECTICAL NATURE OF METAPHOR ..................................... 161
5.4 THE CREATIVE NATURE OF METAPHOR ............................................ 164
5.5 MULTIPLICITY BUT NOT AMBIGUITY OF MEANING ...................... 168
5.6 HOW METAPHOR EXPRESSES TRUTH ................................................. 172
6.0 MARK 13 AS METAPHOR ................................................................................... 176
6.1 THE DOUBLE DISSONANCE OF MARK 13............................................. 176
6.2 THE INTEGRATION OF LITERAL AND FIGURATIVE MEANING .. 181
6.3 REVERSAL OF THE METAPHOR’S LIFE CYCLE ................................ 183
6.4 APOCALYPTICISM & MARK 13 AS POLYSEMOUS METAPHOR .... 186
6.5 CONTRASTING PERSPECTIVES .............................................................. 192
6.6 MK 13 AS AN EXPRESSION OF METAPHORIC TRUTH ..................... 198
7.0 CONCLUSION: THE APPROPRIATION OF MARK 13 .................................. 200
7.1 CUES FOR APPROPRIATION .................................................................... 201
7.1.1 Genre............................................................................................................. 202
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7.1.2 Literary Context .......................................................................................... 203
7.1.3 Structure ....................................................................................................... 210
7.2 POSSIBILITIES FOR APPROPRIATION .................................................. 214
7.2.1 Powers from the Limits of Human Experience ......................................... 215
7.2.1.1 The Apparent Powers ....................................................................... 218
7.2.1.2 The Actual Powers ............................................................................ 223
7.2.2 The Dynamics of the Recurring Interaction Between Powers ................ 225
7.2.3 The Call for Vigilance ................................................................................. 232
BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................................... 234

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