A Text centred rhetorical analysis of Paul's Letter to Titus

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i) Pseudonymity or fiction hypothesis In Germany, it was J.G. Eichorn, who in 1812 argued for the pseudonymity of each letter. Gradually, this snow-balled to become what some have termed “contemporary critical orthodoxy” (Carson, Moo, et al. 1992:360). One contemporary scholar considers the original argument of Holtzmann so watertight that he alleges incorrectly that Holtzmann’s five objections still wait to be rebutted (Lea and Griffin, 1992:22). Such a rebuttal has been adequately proffered by the respected scholar and commentator, Donald Guthrie (1957:11-53). Still, it remains true to say that pseudonymity was initially a formidable challenge to the authenticity of the Pastoral Letters. The simplistic, outright rejection of Pauline authorship has developed some rather complex twists and turns since its original conception in Germany. At its simplest level, pseudonymity implies that the letters were written by someone other than Paul at a time much later than that of the apostle. This person is designated a Paulinist (Harrison, 1921:9), while at other times he is awkwardly referred to as the mysterious “pastor” (Harding, 1998:103, 16; Goulder, 1996:242). In the majority of instances, he is simply called the “author” who was probably a disciple of the apostle (Goulder, 1996:243; Dibelius and Conzelmann, 1972:1). It is argued, that since this “disciple” was familiar with the writings of the apostle, he wanted to preserve the teaching of the apostle for a new (second) generation church setting in the light of the delay of the parousia, as well as for subsequent generations (Dibelius and Conzelmann, 1972:8; Beker, 1991:35-75). Pseudonymity raised several tricky questions that have kept scholars occupied and continue to do so. A major implication relates to the content of these letters and the matter of authorship. If Paul did not write them, then the people and historical references contained in this corpus are not real. Caution is sounded not to assume “that the historical data of these pseudonymous Epistles are necessarily true” (Barrett 1963:30). Hence, some scholars refer to pseudonymity as the fiction hypothesis (Mounce, 2000: cxviii; Marshall, Travis et al. 2002:179). Thus, references to Paul, Timothy, Titus, Crete, Ephesus, PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com 13
etc. are not referring to actual people or places. Moreover, the situations depicted within the letters are not real. This implies that the perceived threats were not real, but the imaginative creations of the pseudonymous author, who envisaged future developments and wrote to protect and guide the church by means of these letters. A representative of this fictive Pauline authorship is Michael Wolter, who believes that what we have in the Pastoral Letters is an attempt to represent Pauline tradition for the current situation of the author (Wolter, 1988:11-25). Timothy and Titus function typologically as the kind of leaders who have to shoulder the responsibility to maintain the Pauline deposit. The plot thickens, because if this is true, then more than simple pseudonymity is on the table. Hence, according to Raymond Collins (2002:10), these letters are “doubly pseudonymous”. Since Timothy and Titus would probably have been dead by the time these letters were written, they simply “lent their names to the Pastor’s work, because they represented Paul’s presence”. Thus, the author and recipients are “literary fictions” (Collins, 2002:10). Apart from complicating the matter, this interpretation weakens the pseudonymity view. Where do we then stop? Several other names appear in this corpus. Are we, therefore, to assume they are also the product of a healthy imagination? Besides, the letters are indirectly addressed to the congregation through the evidence of the second persona plural pronoun, “you”, that occurs within these letters. Was the congregation therefore also imaginary? While double pseudonymity might be a novel term, it does nothing to ease an already complex situation. Scholars are unanimous in their assessment of the complexity of the matter and correctly caution against any dogmatic tendencies when so much depends on conjecture and so little certainty prevails (Achtemeier, Green et al. 2001:464). The implications of pseudonymity have however not gone unchallenged. Reactions to the pseudonymity hypothesis Several key works highlight the substantial reaction by various scholars to the claims of those who espouse pseudonymity. The foremost work is PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com 14
Page 1 and 2: A TEXT-CENTRED RHETORICAL ANALYSIS
Page 3 and 4: DECLARATION I declare that the diss
Page 5 and 6: SECTION 2 RHETORICAL ANALYSIS 2.1 R
Page 7 and 8: SECTION 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 OVERVIEW
Page 9 and 10: The content of the authorship debat
Page 11 and 12: consistently identified as pioneer
Page 13 and 14: J. Quinn. Their list of scholars ad
Page 15: Uncharacteristic Pauline theology:
Page 19 and 20: History never lies” (Titus 1:2)?
Page 21 and 22: meaning as determined by historical
Page 23 and 24: other to explain what these critics
Page 25 and 26: 1.1.2.4 Conclusion The various theo
Page 27 and 28: Excursus: Cumulative-complimentary
Page 29 and 30: Lumping or clustering apparent oppo
Page 31 and 32: these letters on a more individual
Page 33 and 34: Furthermore, the name Jesus Christ
Page 35 and 36: C. 1. qeou` and swthvr depend on do
Page 37 and 38: accentuate the unmistakable role of
Page 39 and 40: order to prove issues of authorship
Page 41 and 42: Miller (1997:124) is particularly u
Page 43 and 44: Next, Van Neste goes on to show how
Page 45 and 46: There have been some recent excepti
Page 47 and 48: The first part of the analysis is e
Page 49 and 50: offer any translations in this rega
Page 51 and 52: novel. To the best of my knowledge,
Page 53 and 54: ather than as a supplement to the T
Page 55 and 56: Accordingly, the research hypothesi
Page 57 and 58: •Step 3: Where deemed necessary,
Page 59 and 60: The rhetorical situation correspond
Page 61 and 62: Titus' primary assignment is to app
Page 63 and 64: Throughout the letter, Paul shares
Page 65 and 66: equally negative conduct (1:16). In
Page 67 and 68:
2.2.1.1 Emphasising the legitimacy
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strategically throughout this secti
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This section is suffused with the r
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and trustworthiness. This choice of
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“By whose authority are you imple
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“shared knowledge”. The qualiti
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espectively within the same sentenc
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dichotomy at the front end of this
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church. Implicit contrasting is als
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aijscrokerdhv", and these false tea
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The second part of verse 13 contain
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different groups. He relentlessly p
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implicit contrasting. The negative
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marker is the use of the plural of
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instruction in this regard. “Heal
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almost desirable. Thus, legitimate
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The subject is the older women. Thi
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negatively upon the oJ lovgo" tou`
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2.2.5.6 The behaviour of slaves In
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or originating from God (tou' … q
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to God and this paves the way for t
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This explains the use of inclusive
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Furthermore, through the direct rep
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what grace is instructing the belie
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Paul demonstrates that he is himsel
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The section closes with the apostle
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Another technique is personificatio
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the apostle adopts to persuade his
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Most commentators treat ejxousivai
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person. Interestingly, both instanc
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2.2.8 Titus 3:3: Evoking disgust wi
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purpose while Mounce (2000:446) bel
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negative. Paranomasia and the metap
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conformity to the divine example. I
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as traditional, with verse 3 as an
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aptism effected by the Holy Spirit
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exclusively or that this constitute
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through self-vilification in the op
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crhstovth" and filanqrwpiva of God
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ejpoihvsamen hJmei`" (works) ajlla;
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these titles. The future appearance
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The certainty and completeness of t
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The next two words in v. 7 are exam
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their salvation by God. The divine
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discourse. In this regard, consider
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two groups is accentuated and the d
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Verse 9 opens with the adversative
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awareness of the insidiousness of f
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This is a very tight unit, carefull
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turn, requires the presence of soun
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closing greeting to the Cretans inv
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SECTION 3 CONCLUSION In Section 1,
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7: Titus 3:1-2: Persuading the Cret
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apostles and lay leaders appointed
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In unit 7 (3:1-2), the relationship
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The second objective is to highligh
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These four objectives may be summar
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expected manner can look forward to
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f. Arguments based on the use of vi
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m. Example. For example, in 3:4-7 G
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ehaviour expected of older men. In
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BIBLIOGRAPHY Aageson, J. W. (1997).
Page 191 and 192:
Everts, J. M. (1993). Hope Dictiona
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Lea, D. and H. P. Griffin (1992). 1
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Sumney, J. L. (1996). “A Reading
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ABSTRACT This study has been conduc
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In Section 3 the results of the stu
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amanuensishipotese en die allonieme
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KEY TERMS 1. Pastoral Letters 2. Rh
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A Text centred rhetorical analysis of Paul's Letter to Titus

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