Posts tagged Ben Witherington

I think most NT scholars have been aware that the term “socio-rhetorical” is being used in different ways in the field. Vernon Robbins is the name tied to the origins of socio-rhetorical criticism, and more recently David DeSilva as well. There is a socio-rhetorical SBL group for these like-minded folk.

At the same time we have the prolific Ben Witherington III (I always refer to him by his own self-created initials now, BW3). BW3 has written commentaries that he labels “socio-rhetorical.” Yet the flavor or his work is quite different. he does focus on rhetoric, but I wouldn’t say it is so radically different from other critical commentaries in the field. Reading from the Robbins et al. camp has a different feel.

So I have wondered on occasion what the original posse of socio-rhetors thought of BW3 and vice versa. I’m pretty certain BW3 is not part of the SBL group on the subject (there is no obligation to be of course), at least he wasn’t there in the sessions I managed to attend. I also noticed that Robbins (and others) names were never really prominent in BW3’s socio-rhetorical commentaries. Again, he is not obligated to engage these texts. But given the narrow classification of “socio-rhetorical” one would think there would be engagement.

All of that to say, most NT scholars have recognized that we have two camps doing their own thing under the same banner of “socio-rhetorical criticism” to mark their camp (one camp happens to be single man tent, or perhaps a 2-man tent with Craig Keener hanging out with BW3 a little). It is annoying and probably contributes to the lack of engagement with this type of criticism at the introductory-textbook level. Reading the Robbins camp, and the fine example by David DeSilva here and here, it is pretty clear what the term means for that camp. For BW3 it seems that there is just more of a focus on rhetoric and social aspects of the text (which are important by the way!)

With the recently published review of BW3’s What’s in the Word: Rethinking the Socio-Rhetorical Character of the New Testament we have a not-so-friendly review by Vernon Robbins that makes it clear that we definitely do have different camps using the same label but meaning very different things. I don’t particularly like the review, It is clear Robbins had an axe to grind and doesn’t like that BW3 is a conservative evangelical. But on another level I can understand - Robbins has spent a lot of his life’s work on developing the official socio-rhetorical method, and BW3 doesn’t seem to care enough to even engage with his work and kind of high-jacked the term. That would bug me too.