Sarcasm in Paul’s Letters

Matthew Pawlak

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2022
• eBook ISBN:
  9781009271936
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Studies

In this book, Matthew Pawlak offers the first treatment of sarcasm in New Testament studies. He provides an extensive analysis of sarcastic passages across the undisputed letters of Paul, showing where Paul is sarcastic, and how his sarcasm affects our understanding of his rhetoric and relationships with the Early Christian congregations in Galatia, Rome, and Corinth. Pawlak's identification of sarcasm is supported by a dataset of 400 examples drawn from a broad range of ancient texts, including major case studies on Septuagint Job, the prophets, and Lucian of Samosata. These data enable the determination of the typical linguistic signals of sarcasm in ancient Greek, as well as its rhetorical functions. Pawlak also addresses several ongoing discussions in Pauline scholarship. His volume advances our understanding of the abrupt opening of Galatians, diatribe and Paul's hypothetical interlocutor in Romans, the 'Corinthian slogans' of First Corinthians, and the 'fool's speech' found within Second Corinthians 10-13.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title
• Series information
• Title page
• Copyright information
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• Abbreviations
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Part I What Is Sarcasm? How Is Sarcasm Expressed? What Does Sarcasm Do?
• Part II Sarcasm in Paul's Letters
• Appendix A Sarcasm in Paul with Signals and Translations
• Appendix B Passages Considered Ironic or Sarcastic by Other Interpreters that I Do Not Consider Instances of Sarcasm
• Appendix C Hellenistic Jewish Texts
• Bibliography
• Index of Ancient Sources
• Index of Modern Authors
• Subject Index