1. I first gave a version of this article for the New Testament and Christian Theology seminar at Durham University, where the British New Testament Society conference was held in August 2021. I would like to thank Jamie Davies and Erin Heim for allowing me to present my research in the inaugural session of their newly formed seminar. Thanks are also due to the scholarly audience for such a warm reception on this occasion on the Bailey in Durham. I offer this piece to Peter Ochs, whose creativity and kindness have led us to find more confluence in interpretation.
2. S.E. Fowl, Engaging Scripture: A Model for Theological Interpretation (Oxford: Blackwell, 1998). In this paper, we will tend to use the terms “Scripture,” “biblical texts,” and “text” interchangeably. Fowl’s own way of using these terms seems to justify a certain level of flexibility around terminology in the discussion that follows.
3. S.E. Fowl, “Know Your Context: Giving and Receiving Money in Philippians,” Interpretation 56 (2002): 45–58, at 47. See also M.R. James, Learning the Language of Scripture: Origen, Wisdom, and the Logic of Interpretation (Leiden: Brill, 2021); P. Ochs, Peirce, Pragmatism, and the Logic of Scripture (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998).
4. Fowl, Scripture, 2.
5. See Fowl, Scripture, 13–31.