To Know All Mysteries

C. Andrew Ballard

doi:10.5771/9781978711112

Summary

This book examines the way that Paul presents himself as a guide into mysteries, a “mystagogue,” in 1–2 Corinthians. By describing himself as a type of mystagogue for the community, Paul was following a precedent in both Jewish and non-Jewish sources for invoking mystagogic language to engage in polemics with a rival. In opposition to the precedent, however, Paul understands the mystagogue to be a bi-partite figure—comprised of both foolishness and wisdom simultaneously. C. Andrew Ballard argues that ancient mystagogues were often described in two disparate ways: figures of power, and figures of weakness and foolishness. Paul synthesizes both aspects of the mystagogue in his self-presentation to the Corinthians. The figure of the mystagogue, as a wise-fool, was useful to Paul because it was descriptive not only of his own experience as a suffering yet authoritative apostle, but also of the experience of his deity, the suffering and glorified Christ. By presenting himself as both a powerful and foolish mystagogue, Paul could argue that he was a more authentic imitator of Christ than his opponents in Corinth, who boasted in self-exaltation instead of self-humility. In this way, Paul used the character of the mystagogue as a strategic rhetorical tool in his communication with the Corinthians.

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Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2022
ISBN-Print: 978-1-9787-1110-5
ISBN-Online: 978-1-9787-1111-2
Publisher: Lexington, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 396
Product type: Book Titles

1. Contents No access
2. Acknowledgments No access
1. Overview of Five Mystery Cults No access
2. The Mystagogue and Mystery Initiation No access
3. The History-of-Religion Approach to the Mysteries and Early Christianity No access
4. Critiques of the History-of-Religion Approach No access
5. Current Scholarly Approaches to Early Christianity and the Mysteries No access
6. Taking the Discussion in a New Direction No access
7. An Outline for the Present Study of the Mystagogue in Antiquity and in Paul No access
8. Notes No access
1. Mystagogues of Eleusis in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter No access
2. The Mystagogue in Menander’s Fragment 714 No access
3. Mystagogues of Eleusis in Inscription LSS 15 No access
4. Mystagogues in the Rule of the Andanian Mysteries No access
5. Mystagogues of Dionysus in Euripides’s Bacchae No access
6. Mystagogues in Aristophanes’s Frogs and Clouds No access
7. Dionysiac Initiation in the Villa of the Mysteries at Pompeii No access
8. Orphic Mystagogues No access
9. Mystagogues of Private Cults No access
10. Mystagogues in the Mysteries of Isis No access
11. Mystagogues in the Mysteries of Mithras No access
12. Conclusions No access
13. Notes No access
1. Metaphorical Mystagogues in Classical Literature No access
2. Metaphorical Mystagogues in Pagan Literature of the Hellenistic and Early Imperial Periods No access
3. Notes No access
1. Erwin Goodenough and the Jewish Mystery Cult Hypothesis No access
2. Mystery Cults, Jewish Apocalypticism, and Qumran No access
3. Joseph and Aseneth No access
4. Wisdom of Solomon No access
5. Aristobulus and the Pseudo-Orphic Fragments No access
6. Philo No access
7. Conclusion No access
8. Notes No access
1. The Mystagogue and Power No access
2. The Mystagogue and Foolishness No access
3. Conclusion No access
4. Notes No access
1. The Mystagogue in 1 Corinthians No access
2. Conclusion No access
3. Notes No access
1. The Mystagogue in 2 Corinthians No access
2. Conclusion: Paul’s Appropriation and Disruption of the Mystagogue No access
3. Notes No access
Bibliography No access Pages 343 - 378
Index No access Pages 379 - 394
About the Author No access Pages 395 - 396