He Whom a Dream Hath Possessed: The Life and Works of the American John Knox

310 Pages·2019·4.053 MB·English

by  Jordan Almanzar

He Whom a Dream Hath Possessed
Arbeiten zur Religion und Geschichte des

Urchristentums / Studies in the Religion
and History of Early Christianity
BAND/VOLUME 17
Jordan Almanzar
He Whom a Dream Hath Possessed
The Life and Works of the American John Knox
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Zugl.: Göttingen, Univ., Diss., 2016

Cover Design: © Atelier Platen
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ISSN 0949-3069
ISBN 978-3-631-76031-4 (Print)
E-ISBN 978-3-631-76631-6 (E-PDF)
E-ISBN 978-3-631-76632-3 (EPUB)
E-ISBN 978-3-631-76633-0 (MOBI)
DOI 10.3726/b14595

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Preface

John Knox may be the most underappreciated American New Testament scholar

of the twentieth century.1 This is remarkable, given that he was influential in some
of the most noteworthy theological circles in the United States as a prominent
writer, editor, minister, historian, and teacher. During his extraordinary career,
Knox held academic positions at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, the
University of Chicago, Hartford Seminary in New Haven, Connecticut, Union
Theological Seminary in New York City, and spent his final active years as a
professor at Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Texas. In 1963, Knox served
as president of the Society of Biblical Literature; he was later esteemed by his
friends, colleagues, and former students with the publication of a Festschrift in his

honor.2 Cambridge University Press published the Festschrift and its contributors
were some of the most well-known biblical scholars and theologians of the day—

for example, Richard Niebuhr (1894–1962),3 Nils Alstrup Dahl (1911–2001),4
1 The name John Knox is almost always associated with the sixteenth-century protes-
tant reformer. This fact has made researching the man who is the subject of this book
sometimes very difficult. Additionally, there is a “John Knox Press” which turns up
much more often in search results than the subject of this work, who has yet to even
have a Wikipedia page written about him. Recently, however, William Baird has ded-
icated twelve pages to providing some biographical details about John Knox along
with a critical assessment of some of Knox’s most important works, William Baird,
History of New Testament Research: Volume Three: From C. H. Dodd to Hans Dieter
Betz (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2013), 488–500.
2 William R. Farmer, C. F. D. Moule, and Richard R. Niebuhr (eds.), Christian History
and Interpretation: Studies Presented to John Knox (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1967).
3 Richard Niebuhr is the younger brother of the famous theologian Reinhold Niebuhr.
Richard taught at Yale Divinity School and was an important figure in the “neo-
orthodox” movement of the twentieth-century American Protestantism. Arguably,
his most important book is Christ and Culture (New York: Harper, 1951).
4 Nils Alstrup Dahl was Norwegian New Testament scholar who taught at the University
of Oslo and later took a position at Yale University. Dahl published many impor-
tant works on New Testament topics including his titles: Studies in Paul: Theology for
the Early Christian Mission (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Publishing House, 1977);
and Jesus in the Memory of the Early Church: Essays (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg
Publishing House, 1976).
6 Preface

William Reuben Farmer (1921–2000),5 C. F. D. Moule (1908–2007),6 Robert

W. Funk (1926–2005),7 Norman Pittenger (1905–1997),8 and W. D. Davies

(1911–2001)9 contributed a chapter.10
5 William Reuben Farmer was student of Knox’s at Union Theological Seminary, an
ordained minister in the Methodist Church and professor at Southern Methodist
University in Dallas, Texas; in 1990 he converted to the Catholic Church. Farmer is
probably most famous for arguing against a Markan-priority solution to the synoptic
problem, proposing instead Matthew’s Gospel. See William R. Farmer, The Synoptic
Problem: A Critical Analysis (New York: Macmillan, 1964). See also his important work
Maccabees, Zealots, and Josephus: An Inquiry into Jewish Nationalism in the Greco-
Roman Period (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1973).
6 C. F. D. Moule was an Anglican priest, New Testament scholar, and professor of
divinity at the University of Cambridge. He had read Knox and engaged some of
Knox’s proposals directly in his early publications.
7 Robert W. Funk was the founder of the Westar Institute, Scholars Press, and also
served as chairman of the Graduate Department of Religion at Vanderbilt University.
Along with his many publications, Funk provided an English translation of Blass and
Debrunner’s Grammatik des neutestamentlichen Griechisch. See Friedrich Blass and
Albert Debrunner, A Greek Grammar of the New Testament and Other Early Christian
Literature: A Translation and Revision of the Ninth-tenth German Edition Incorporating
Supplementary Notes of A. Debrunner, trans. Robert W. Funk (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1961). Notably, Funk included Debrunner’s notes in his edition, which
are lacking in the German original.
8 Norman Pittenger was an Episcopalian priest and theologian who taught at the
General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church in New York. He also served
as chairman of the Theological Commission of the World Council of Churches in the
1960s and spent the last thirty years of his life as an honorary member of Cambridge
University where he lived until his death. Pittenger was the first process theologian
not connected with Chicago; one of his most important works is Process-Thought and
Christian Faith (New York: Macmillan, 1968).
9 William D. Davies was a Welsh theologian who held professorships at Yorkshire United
College, Duke Divinity School, Princeton University, Union Theological Seminary,
and returned once again to Duke. Davies was influential in drawing attention to the
Jewish background of the New Testament, publishing books such as Paul and Rabbinic
Judaism: Some Rabbinic Elements in Pauline Theology (London: SPCK, 1948); The Gospel
and the Land: Early Christianity and Jewish Territorial Doctrine (Berkeley: University
of California Press, 1974); and Christian Engagements with Judaism (Harrisburg,
PA.: Trinity Press International, 1999). See also William D. Davies and Dale C. Allison’s
three-volume work, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel According to
Saint Matthew (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1988–1997).
10 See also the insightful reviews of this volume made by Eduard Lohse, “Review: Christian
History and Interpretation: Studies presented to John Knox, ed. by W. R. Farmer, C. F.
Preface 7
Throughout his life, Knox was a highly sought-after lecturer and spent a year as
a Fulbright scholar in residence at Cambridge University. Knox was also associated

with numerous influential theologians such as Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–1971),11

Ernest Colwell (1901–1974),12 Charles Hartshorne (1897–2000),13 and Paul Tillich

(1886–1965).14 As will be seen, Knox’s theological stance is somewhat similar to that
D. Moule, R. R. Niebuhr,” Biblica 49, No. 4 (1968): 581–584, where he highlights
Knox’s contribution to the Church; John Bowden, “Review: Christian History and
Interpretation: Studies Presented to John Knox, ed. by W. R. Farmer, C. F. D. Moule, R. R.
Niebuhr,” The Journal of Theological Studies 20, No. 2 (1969): 594–596; and William G.
Doty, “Review: Christian History and Interpretation: Studies Presented to John Knox,
ed. by W. R. Farmer, C. F. D. Moule, R. R. Niebuhr,” Journal of the American Academy
of Religion 36, No. 3 (1968): 256–258.
11 Reinhold Niebuhr is one of the most notable American theologians of the twen-
tieth century. Numerous works are dedicated to assessing Niebuhr’s influence on
American Protestantism and the effect he had on his students and colleagues at
Union. See, for example, Daniel F. Rice, Reinhold Niebuhr and His Circle of Influence
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013); and Charles C. Lemert, Why Niebuhr
Matters (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2013).
12 Ernest Colwell was a leading biblical scholar and New Testament textual critic who
held positions at Emory University and the University of Chicago, and later served
as president of the Claremont Graduate School of Theology in California. One of his
most notable works is Studies in Methodology in Textual Criticism of the New Testament
(Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1969). Colwell is also known for proposing a rule for interpreting
New Testament Greek, which states that if the sense requires it, predicate nouns pre-
ceding verbs can be taken as definite even if they lack a definite article. See Ernest
C. Colwell, “A Definite Rule for the Use of the Article in the Greek New Testament,”
Journal of Biblical Literature 52 (1933): 12–21. For more on Colwell see Sections 1.3,
2.2.2, 3.2.3, and chapter 7 footnote 755 below.
13 Charles Hartshorne was a theologian and philosopher who was instrumental in devel-
oping Alfred North Whitehead’s process philosophy into what is now known as process
theology. See William L. Reese and Eugene Freeman, Process and Divinity: Philosophical
Essays Presented to Charles Hartshorne (LaSalle, IL: Open Court, 1964).
14 Paul Tillich is widely regarded as one of the most influential theologians of the twen-
tieth century. He held teaching positions in the Universities of Berlin, Marburg,
Dresden, Leipzig, and Frankfurt before accepting a position at Union Theological
Seminary at the age of 47. Numerous books have been written about the extraordinary
life and thought of Tillich and his ongoing influence on American theology. Two of
his best known works are The Courage To Be (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press,
1952); and Dynamics of Faith (New York: Harper, 1958).
8 Preface

of Rudolf Bultmann (1884–1976),15 although Knox arrived at his conclusions quite

independently of his German contemporary.16 Knox eventually read Bultmann
and appreciated his work, feeling a close kinship to his ideas, although he always
maintained several important, divergent theories which led him to reject some
of Bultmann’s propositions. Nevertheless, comparisons between the two scholars,

primarily with regard to demythologizing the New Testament,17 were made by

those who had read both men and by Knox himself.18
Knox’s most noteworthy contributions, however, are products of his exeget-
ical and historical research, and a number of scholars who have found value in
his innovative methods have developed some of his propositions into complete

studies.19 Knox began his academic career with his 1935 doctoral dissertation
15 Rudolf Bultmann was a prominent figure in biblical studies and is typically associated
with liberal Christianity. He was a professor of New Testament at the University of
Marburg and is possibly most famous for his method of “demythologizing” the biblical
texts. See, for example, Rudolf Bultmann, New Testament and Mythology and Other
Basic Writings (Philadelphia, PA: Fortress Press, 1984), 95–130.
16 For the background to Bultmann’s development, see Gerd Lüdemann, “Kêrygma
and History in the Thought of Rudolf Bultmann,” Forum Third Series 3, No. 2 (Fall
2014): 45–61.
17 According to John Bennett, “Knox had his own method of demythologizing, long
before Bultmann was much discussed,” John Bennett, “John Knox at Union,” in
Christian History and Interpretation: Studies Presented to John Knox, ed. William R.
Farmer, C. F. D. Moule, and Richard R. Niebuhr (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1967), xiii.
18 For Knox’s opinion of Bultmann and a description of their similarity and differences,
see Sections 7.3.1, 7.3.2, and Appendix II in this book.
19 Knox’s work on Pauline chronology (and by extension his contribution to the study of
the Book of Acts) is a development of his earlier exegetical positions, which are covered
in Chapters 5 and 6 of this book. Chapter 7 is dedicated to Knox’s proposals concerning
Pauline chronology, although Gerd Lüdemann has provided as complete a treatment
of Knox’s theory as possible—Knox himself wrote the foreword to Lüdemann’s book
on this theme. See John Knox, “Foreword,” in Paul, Apostle to the Gentiles: Studies in
Chronology, by Gerd Lüdemann, trans. F. Stanley Jones (Philadelphia, PA: Fortress
Press, 1984), xiii–xiv. See also John Knox, “Chapters in a Life of Paul—A Response
to Robert Jewett and Gerd Luedemann,” in Colloquy on New Testament Studies: A
Time for Reappraisal and Fresh Approaches, ed. Bruce Corley, (Macon, GA: Mercer
University Press, 1983), 345, where Knox calls Lüdemann’s work, “(…) a magnificent
contribution, the first full-length, full-bodied, fully document chronology based only
on the letters.” See Lüdemann’s own chapter in the same volume, “A Chronology of
Paul,” where he attributes his initial approach to the work of John Knox, 290; and also