PAUL AND THE RHETORIC OF REVERSAL: KERYGMATIC ...

Josephus presents himself as attempting to persuade his fellow Jews that they must await
vindication from God, rather than fruitlessly fight against the established pattern of
divinely-timed reversal.
The Motif of Reversal as an Influential Cultural Conceptualisation
The presence and function of this motif of reversal in such a diversity of liturgy, literature,
historical interpretation, and divine address suggest a shared cultural conceptualisation.
That is, the motif represents important conceptual imagery, informing early Jewish
identity, worship, story-telling, and interpretation of history.
Clearly the motif was flexible enough to be understood and utilised differently in different
circumstances. For the Maccabeans, Judith, and the Zealots, for example, 33 it seems that
the time of divine vindication could be prompted or hurried by human activity, 34 whereas
for Daniel, the Epistle of Enoch, and Josephus, the time of divine vindication was to be
patiently awaited. Nevertheless, the pattern itself appears to be pervasive. The
Maccabeans, Daniel, Judith, the Epistle of Enoch, the Zealots and Josephus agree that
divinely granted reversal is inevitable, involving the downfall of boastful rulers and the
vindication of the righteous.
It seems that this shared cultural conceptualisation was engaged and renegotiated with the
reception of Jesus among the earliest Christians.
33 And perhaps those involved in the Bar Kokhba rebellion. Roland Deines argues that
this revolt was largely inspired by the theological calculation that the seventh decade
following the destruction of the temple marked the divine timing of Jerusalem’s
vindication – a vindication pre-empted by the rebellion. Roland Deines, “How Long?
God’s Revealed Schedule for Salvation and the Outbreak of the Bar Kokhba Revolt,”
Forthcoming.
34 Hengel writes: “The insistence on the ‘sole rule of God’ that was so closely associated
with the revolt against Roman rule was for the Zealots the first step towards bringing
about the kingdom of God, the coming of which was at least partly dependent on the
personal participation of God’s people”. Hengel, The Zealots, 228; emphasis mine.
39