`Poetry', `Hymns' and `Traditional Material' in New Testament Epistles or How to Do Things with Indentations*

Abstract

This article explores ancient rhetorical conceptions of poetry, prose and hymn in order to better understand what should perhaps be called the epideictic or encomiastic elements of some New Testament epistles. It surveys and criticizes previous methods for isolating the supposedly poetic or hymnic portions of these texts. Furthermore, the article analyzes the hermeneutical effects of a seemingly unremarkable editorial decision, the act of indenting such texts in the New Testament. This editorial action normally signifies `poetry', `hymns', or `traditional material' to a particular community of readers, namely the guild of New Testament scholarship. The article argues that the act of indenting bears more rhetorical force than has been previously acknowledged. It concludes with an ideological analysis of that editorial decision.