The Contribution of John Pilch to the Critical Interpretation of “the Extraordinary” in the Bible

This article assesses John Pilch's contribution to the exegesis of biblical texts dealing with extraordinary experiences and phenomena such as visions, flights of the soul, healings and the like. It focuses on Pilch's methodology for reconstructing the interpretations that the original aud...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Miquel, Esther (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Sage 2017
In: Biblical theology bulletin
Year: 2017, Volume: 47, Issue: 2, Pages: 111-117
Further subjects:B Pilch
B ASC
B Methodology
B Vision
B Healing
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Parallel Edition:Non-electronic
Description
Summary:This article assesses John Pilch's contribution to the exegesis of biblical texts dealing with extraordinary experiences and phenomena such as visions, flights of the soul, healings and the like. It focuses on Pilch's methodology for reconstructing the interpretations that the original audiences had most probably given to such texts. This methodology, which combines an emic approach with the use of different models drawn from medical anthropology, cultural and cognitive psychology and neurobiology, shows that ancient Mediterranean people would have considered those apparently fantastic stories of healings and visions plausible, because many among them had lived through similar experiences. The article contrasts the contextualized and scientifically informed realism that Pilch's interpretations ascribe to many of these texts with that pertaining to naïve and fundamentalist readings of the Bible.
ISSN:1945-7596
Contains:Enthalten in: Biblical theology bulletin
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1177/0146107917697908