“… striving for the prize”: The Theological Significance of Athletic Language in Philippians 3:12-16
Reimund Bieringer
Catholic University of Leuven/Belgium https://orcid. , Belgiumhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-5953-2736
Abstract
This study focuses on potential athletic language in Phil 3:12-16. The main focus is the question what the assumption of the presence of athletic language in this text contributes to understanding it and especially its theological meaning better. The study consists of three parts. In part 1, the author analyses the preceding and the subsequent context of Phil 3:12-16 joining the defenders of a concentric structure: 3:1-11 (A), 3:12-16 (B), 3:17-4:1 (A’). The two framing sections (A and A’) focus on the opposition between Paul and his opponents, but the main point is Paul’s command to the Philippian addressees to “stand firm in the Lord”. Part 2 contains a brief exegetical analysis of 3:12-16. Our analysis focuses on the most important words (gaining/attaining; movement; thinking) and the goal of heavenly perfection with which they are connected. In the third part we analyse the potential athletic images in 3:12-16 which finds its “anchor point” in the noun τὸ βραβεῖον in 3:14. Based on the acceptance of this noun as an agonistic terminus technicus, other verbs and nouns which are not in and of themselves referring to athletics are interpreted as having an thletic meaning in our context. The study concludes with the caution that Paul counterbalances the “effort-reward scheme” of athletic language with the “giving-receiving scheme” of his call language. In this way, Paul introduces an emphasis on the future-orientedness of the message which is characteristic of his preaching and living.
Keywords:
New Testament, biblical exegesis, P hilippians, Paul, letters of the apostle P aul, athletic languageReferences
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Catholic University of Leuven/Belgium https://orcid.
duchowny Kościoła Rzymskokatolickiego, od 1990 r. profesor egzegezy Nowego Testamentu na Wydziale Teologii Katolickiej w Katolickim Uniwersytecie w Leuven (Belgia). Od 2014 r. jest koordynatorem Forschungsabteilung Biblische Exegese powyższego fakultetu. W latach 2012–2015 był przewodniczącym European Association of Biblical Studies. Wykładał gościnnie w USA i na Filipinach. Obszary badawcze: Listy
Pawłowe, Ewangelia według św. Jana oraz hermeneutyka biblijna. Najnowsze publikacje książkowe: Geld en genade. Uitdagingen van het christelijk geloof in de hedendaagse economische context, (2018); wraz z: Peter De Mey, Ma. Marilou S. I bita i Didier Pollefeyt (red.), The Spirit, Hermeneutics and Dialogues, ANL 76 (2019); R. Bieringer (red.), 2 Timothy and Titus Reconsidered - Der 2. Timotheus- und der Titusbrief in neuem Licht,
Colloquium Oecumenicum Paulinum 20 (2018); wraz z: Joseph Verheyden, Jens Schröter i I nes Jäger (red.), Docetism in the Early Church: The Quest for an Elusive Phenomenon, WUNT 402 (2018); wraz z Barbarą Baert i Karlijn Demasure (red.), Noli me tangere in Interdisciplinary Perspective: Textual, Iconographic and Contemporary Interpretations, Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium, 283 (2016). Adres do korespondencji: reimund.bieringer@kuleuven.be.
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