British New Testament Society

In 'history of influence' understood as wider than but including biblical commentaries through the ages, Luz attempts to reach the world and its culture by going through the church's engagement with its foundational texts to reach the heart of the matter of these texts, that is the spiritual life which Christians across the centuries have had in common, yet about which modern-day believers have a lot to learn. Some of this recovery of the freshness of the text can happen through ideological criticism but the chain of exegetes and the unity of Erfahrung through the ages ensures that discontinuity does not estrange us completely and make the bible merely a stern moral book. The tradition helps us to read it joyfully. Luz is sufficiently an adherent of sola scriptura to see the interconnections of Scripture in the light of the living Lord in his Church (the key hermeneutical principle) ­ interchangeable with 'the spirituality of the various NT writers and their religious awareness being recreated'. The task of achieving this is for the reader to perform, not the exegete, whose task is simply skilfully to give pointers to the earlier experiences. In the resurrection of Jesus the flesh became text, or perhaps rather a living text which is more like a ghost, a smell, a presence or 'the general idea' but not divisive dogmas. Luz's ecumenism in this Evangelisch-Katholischer Komentar is wide-embracing and welcomes even Jewish readings of the NT. In his dealing with one text from Matthew (26:6-13) we can see that the gospel is defined as a collection of stories, and yet these stories can each have a message: e.g., faith produces love. The Sache or res of each text which stands behind it and its message is the presence of Jesus: as Luz put it himself in the foreword to the first volume: 'Behind this commentary stands the conviction (or the hope!) that an intensive interaction with the subject matter of their texts is a labour which will stimulate clergy persons and prevent them from premature burnout.' The paper concludes with an assessment of the worthwhileness of Luz's impressive achievement.

This paper will examine the afterlife of the Whore of Babylon motif, and the impact its interpretation held in forming the ecclesiology and eschatology of the Christian Brethren community in the 19th century. The interpretation of Revelation 17 & 18 holds the key to understanding how the Brethren viewed both the end times and the present and also has lessons in the wider context of the self-perception of Sectarian Christian Millenarian movements more generally.

The group are highly sectarian in their ecclesiology believing themselves to be the one true church: a righteous remnant. Not only Catholicism but also Protestantism and all of its offshoots are guilty of not keeping themselves pure from the world. In the present 'Babylon' represents a corrupt secular system to which established Churches of all denominations and world religions will become the submissive handmaid, placing idolatry and wealth above Truth, inaugurating the coming of Antichrist. 'Babylon' is the 'thing' from which this group- the 'true Church' are dissenting. It is a means of defining the self by vilifying the other.

The group are fervently eschatological believing in the imminent parousia and literal fulfilment of the Apocalypse. It is future but will happen very soon and very suddenly. In the future chapters 17 & 18 show the Whore's ultimate demise and the victory of the 'true Church' over the world. The fulfilment of the Apocalypse in Brethren exegesis, I will argue, rejects the normative Protestant Historicist framework in favour of a Jesuit Futurist hermeneutic.

Joint Session with the Hermeneutics: Theory & Practice Seminar

Panelists: Richard Burridge, Helenann Francis, Mark Goodacre