Research

Projects by Daniel Christensen

Gospel Data

Operationalizing Exegesis through Empirical Analysis of the Synoptic Problem

A Master’s Thesis by Daniel K. Christensen | University of Chicago | 2019

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Gospel Data

Gospel Data

Abstract

Scholars have long examined the Synoptic Problem through traditional methods of Biblical exegesis, including textual, source, and narrative criticisms. Scholars have also utilized digital media to compile data from the gospel texts, which they then employ in statistical analyses to explain the historical and literary origins of the Synoptic Gospels. However, there remains reluctance to use this data in extended exegesis. This adversity comes from skepticism that data collected in the digital humanities are unable to explain adequately the nuanced nature of literary composition. This research explores how quantitative approaches to studying the synoptic texts through the digital humanities can allow the qualitative methods of literary theory and Biblical exegesis to operate. Inorporating empirical data into Biblical exegesis is becoming increasingly important for both scholars and laypersons as access to digital resources increases. This research takes a three-step approach to determining the exegetical impact of empirical data derived from the Synoptic Gospels. First, it examines three pericopae (The Healing of the Paralytic [Mt 9:1–8; Mk 2:1–12; Lk 5:17–26; The Beelzebub Controversy [Mt 9:32–34; 12:22–30; Mk 3:22–27; Lk 11:14–23]; The Rich Young Man [Mt 19:16–22; Mk 10:17–22; Lk 18:18–23]) through traditional exegetical means. Second, it compiles these pericopae into extensive databases, which will be published and made available in an online medium. Third, using these databases it examines these pericopae vis-à-vis the various empirical methods employed by scholars and then evaluates the changes in exegetical outcome. This study concludes with a tentative pedagogical approach that can be employed when incorporating digital hermeneutics into synoptic exegesis. While this research does not intend to offer a solution to the Synoptic Problem, it does show how statistical analyses of the Synoptic Gospels can contribute to the study of the historical and literary relationships between the texts.

Roman Citizenship as a Climactic Narrative Element

Paul’s Roman Citizenship in Acts 16 and 22 Compared with Cicero’s Against Verres

A Master’s Thesis by Daniel K. Christensen | Whitworth University | 2018

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Roman Citizenship as a Climactic Narrative Element

Roman Citizenship as a Climactic Narrative Element

Abstract

Ancient authors presented the institution of Roman civitas in their works judiciously. Cicero in Against Verres uses Roman civitas as a means to condemn the corrupt Roman governor Gaius Verres. In Acts, Luke utilizes Paul’s Roman citizenship to critique the Roman and Jewish responses to the gospel message. Roman officials in Philippi and Jerusalem respond positively to Paul’s civitas after his citizen status is revealed. Jewish authorities continue to reject Paul and his message even when confronted with his dignified civic identity. Both Cicero and Luke place Roman citizenship at culminating points in their narratives to achieve their rhetorical and theological goals. Roman citizenship functions as more than a personal description in these texts. Roman civitas is a rhetorical device that causes the characters and audience to reevaluate their assumptions about how Gaius Verres and the Apostle Paul should be characterized.

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This research project is the culmination of four years of studying Paul as a Roman citizen in Acts. It began as a class paper for an undergraduate Roman Empire course at Eastern Washington University. Originally, I concerned myself with the historicity of Paul’s civitas and whether or not the historical account in Acts was factually accurate. After studying the scholarly literature on the “Quest for the Historical Jesus,” however, I began to reconsider the authorial intentions of Luke when it came to the historical descriptions of his subjects, especially Paul. Upon reading other accounts of Roman citizens in Greco-Roman literature it became apparent that these authors were less concerned with historical accuracy than with properly characterizing their subjects.

This research project builds upon two considerations present in existing scholarship. It starts from the scholarly consensus on Luke’s reliable historiographical methods to explain how he characterizes Paul as a Roman citizen. Thus, the research takes a narrative-critical approach to consider how Luke portrays Paul as a Roman citizen within the text. This approach extends from within the cultural encyclopedia of Luke’s audience and first century Greco-Roman authors and hopes to explain why Luke edited his writing about Paul’s citizenship. This research will help to further scholarship on the literary conventions used in the Book of Acts by providing criteria for how to compare the topic of Roman citizenship between Biblical writings and other ancient authors.

A condensed version of this paper was presented at the Pacific Northwest Region Annual Meeting for the American Academy of Religion (AAR), Society of Biblical Literature (SBL), and American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) at Pacific Lutheran University in Parkland, WA on May 12, 2018. That version of the paper has also been accepted for publication in Conversations with the Biblical World.