Socio-Rhetorical Examples
Definition of ideology.
Clarice J. Martin's study of the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8.26-40 is an excellent beginning place for a person who wants to explore in a socio-rhetorical manner the ideology of particular individuals or groups. Martin entitled her essay 'A Chamberlain's Journey and the Challenge of Interpretation for Liberation' (C.J. Martin 1989), and in it she interweaves back and forth through inner texture, intertexture, social and cultural texture and ideological texture. In the end, she displays a thickly interwoven matrix of meanings and ideologies in and around the text.
Martin begins with past studies of inner texture of the story in the Acts of the Apostles where an Ethiopian eunuch, riding back on his chariot after his visit to Jerusalem, converts to Christianity as a result of Philip's interpretation of a scriptural passage to him. The past studies Martin cites proceeded thematically. Many observed the role of the Holy Spirit in the preaching and evangelism in the story of the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch itself (8.29, 39) and in the broader narrative of Luke-Acts (Luke 4.18; 24.44; Acts 1.8; 4.8-10; 7.55; 10.11-12; 13.4-10; 16.6-7). Others observed Philip's 'witness' to the death and resurrection of Jesus in the story and the theme of witness throughout Luke and Acts (Luke 1.1-4; 24.48; Acts 1.21-22; 4.33; 10.39-41; 22.14-15). Still others observed the 'joy' of the Ethiopian at the end of the story in (8.39) relation to the theme of joy throughout Luke and Acts (Luke 1.44; 2.10; 15.4-7; 19.6, 37; 24.41; Acts 2.47; 8.8; 11.18; 16.33) (pp. 106-7).
From these observations about the inner texture of the Ethiopian story and the overall narrative of Luke and Acts, Martin moves to an ideological phenomenon in the inner texture that provides a transition to intertextual analysis. In the story about the Ethiopian eunuch and throughout Luke and Acts, there is a presupposition that Old Testament prophecy is fulfilled in the experiences and activities recounted about Jesus and early Christianity. The Ethiopian eunuch is reading in the fifty-third chapter of the prophetic book of Isaiah about the lamb that does not open its mouth as it is led to slaughter. Philip, of course, uses the opportunities to tell the eunuch 'the good news of Jesus'. But for Martin, this moment in the story takes us to Isaiah 53. Going to the intertext that is explicitly recited in Acts 8, Martin observes that three chapters later in the book of Isaiah, Isaiah prophesied that eunuchs who keep the sabbath, who choose the things that please the Lord God and who hold fast to the Lord's covenant will go to God's holy mountain, be made joyful in God's house of prayer, and their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on the altar, because the Lord's house 'shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples' (Isaiah 56.4, 7-8). This prophecy reverses the prohibition in Deuteronomy 23.1 that forbids eunuchs from entering 'the assembly of the Lord'. With this move, Martin has extended her analysis beyond the oral-scribal intertexture of the story with Isaiah 53 to the broader social intertexture that Second and Third Isaiah nurture within biblical discourse.
Since the eunuch has, according to the story in Acts, gone up to Jerusalem to worship and is now returning home in his chariot (8.27-28), the story enacts the 'social reality' of the temple at Jerusalem becoming a 'house of prayer for all peoples' as Isaiah 56.4, 7-8 predicted, since the eunuch has just worshipped at the Temple and is now returning. But, the intertextuality of the story with biblical social reality does not end here. The eunuch is not simply a eunuch; he is an Ethiopian. In Psalm 68.31 it says that Ethiopia will 'stretch out her hands to God'. This social reality also has been fulfilled in the story. Without saying that Psalms also are considered to be fulfilled in the activities in Luke and Acts, Martin has expanded the intertexture of the story beyond the specific issue of eunuchs in biblical culture. Her interest lies in an aspect of his identity that extends beyond his being a eunuch. He is an Ethiopian, an issue of special importance for an African-American interpreter of scripture. This story enacts the inclusion not only of eunuchs but also of Ethiopians in worship in the Jerusalem temple. But now we need to know who Ethiopians are. Thus, Martin has found a passageway through oral-scribal, social and cultural intertexture to a context for exploring the ethnographic identity of Ethiopians in Mediterranean antiquity (pp. 107-10).
In summary, adopting the modern mode of discourse regularly called liberation theology, Martin moved from analysis of inner texture to an ideological phenomenon within the text that provided a transition from traditional oral-scribal analysis of Isaiah 53 and 56 to analysis of Psalm 68.31 where Ethiopians worship the God of Israel. In the context of this intertextual analysis, she moves the issue in which she is most interested, the identity of the man as an Ethiopian, into the center. This opens a passageway into an ethnographic exploration of cultural intertexture of the story in relation to Hellenistic-Roman society and culture, which is a prominent aspect of the text of the Acts of the Apostles. Instead of going physically to a particular location like anthropologists do, Martin, as other researchers of antiquity, does her 'fieldwork' in the literature, art and other cultural artifacts available in libraries, museums, etc.
Aided by Frank M. Snowden, Jr.'s studies of blacks in antiquity (Snowden 1976a, 1976b, 1979), Martin brings to the reader's attention that: Ethiopians were the yardstick by which antiquity measured colored peoples. The skin of the Ethiopian was black, in fact, blacker, it was noted, than that of any other people. (Snowden 1979: 23.) In addition, Ethiopians persistently were characterized as having '"puffy" or "thick" lips, tightly curled or "wooly" hair, [and] a flat or "broad" nose' (C.J. Martin 1989: 111.) Martin works through classical art to Homer, Herodotus and Seneca to thicken her description of Ethiopians in Mediterranean society and culture (pp. 110-14.)
When Martin completes her ethnographic analysis and interpretation, she returns to Luke and Acts to exhibit a thicker texture for its ideology of promise and fulfillment. In Luke there is reference to 'all flesh' seeing the salvation of God (Luke 3.6), to repentance and forgiveness of sins being preached to 'all nations' (Luke 24.47) and to people coming from 'east, west, north and south' to sit at table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Luke 13.29). At the beginning of Acts there is a proclamation that the mission in Acts will reach to the 'end of the earth' (Acts 1.8c). From this thicker picture of the ideology of Luke and Acts, she moves to Mediterranean cultural ideology about 'the end of the earth' and concludes, using Homer, Herodotus and Strabo, that Ethiopia lies on the edge of the 'Ocean' at the southernmost limit of the world. Her conclusion, in turn, suggests that the identification of the eunuch as Ethiopian should be significant, because in its context of culture this baptized Ethiopian is returning to his home at the end of the earth. In this context, then, Martin, much like Wordelman, moves to a discussion of the geo-cultural map the discourse in the book of Acts evokes.
From these observations about the cultural ideology and geo-cultural map of Acts, Martin returns once again to Luke and Acts and observes that these two volumes participate in a cultural ideology that focuses on Rome as the center of the Mediterranean world. As a result of this ideology, using the words of Cain Felder, 'the darker races outside the Roman orbit are circumstantially marginalized by New Testament authors' and the 'socio-political realities' of this 'tend to dilute the New Testament vision of racial inclusiveness and universalism'. (Felder 1982: 22). When she turns to biblical maps for the New Testament to find Ethiopia, she discovers a 'politics of omission'. Only a map of the Roman World at the Birth of Jesus in The Westminster Historical Atlas to the Bible includes Meroë (or Nubia). In all other cases, a person can find this area only in some maps for the Hebrew Bible. This 'politics of omission' is not only present in investigations of the New Testament, however. Quoting Snowden, Martin emphasizes that a similar omission has existed in classical scholarship, despite rich data of various kinds. But then, she observes, post-enlightenment culture itself has marginalized and omitted not only blacks but also women and other groups. It is necessary to activate a hermeneutics of suspicion, she therefore suggests, that can intercept ideologies that thrive on a 'politics of omission' (C.J. Martin 1989: 120-6).
The end of Martin's article addresses the issue of interpretation itself. Her words are as follows:
If the ongoing process of interpreting biblical traditions is to be in any sense 'interpretation for liberation'--that is, interpretation which effects full humanity, empowerment, and justice in the church and society under God--interpreters must continue to critically discern ways in which a 'politics of omission' may be operative in perpetuating the marginalization and 'invisibility' of traditionally marginalized persons, groups, and ideologies in biblical narratives. It is only as we undertake such critical analyses that a potentially liberatory vision of biblical traditions can emerge and function as an empowering force in all contemporary communities of faith. (1989: 126)
In Martin's interpretation, then, there is concern about boundaries that nurture a 'politics of omission' and a plea for interpreters to bring to light the ways in which both the texts we interpret and the methods we use to interpret them marginalize, exclude and hide persons, groups and ideologies. Her article is an excellent model of one way to proceed. Using the discursive power of liberation theology, she works carefully in the inner texture both of Luke-Acts and Hebrew Bible, identifying ideological moments that expand intertextual exploration beyond a genetic mode to a broader literary mode that leads to social, cultural and ideological exploration of the meaning of the text.
Instead of functioning within tightly sealed boundaries, Martin finds passageways through boundaries into arenas of exploration that shed additional light on the story in Acts. As she moves through passageways to other arenas of exploration, Martin does not forget the text she is interpreting. She continually comes back to it to find the interwoven webs of significance within its inner, social, cultural and ideological texture. Moreover, she does not flee from environments of closure. She continually returns to them to look for passageways to other arenas of disciplinary investigation that have produced data that will help her explore additional webs of significance in the text.
Martin's investigation could have performed an even fuller socio-rhetorical analysis and interpretation if it would have analyzed repetitive, progressive, narrational, argumentative and aesthetic features in the inner texture of the account of the conversion of the Ethiopian. Also, it could have explored the nature of the social response to the world in the discourse, which is dominantly conversionist, as we have seen in the previous chapter. The issue of the final categories at work in the narration would also be a highly interesting matter. Acts 8.33 specifically raises the issue of justice in a context of humiliation and Acts 8.39 suggests that a benefit that brings joy is a final category at work in the discourse. In addition, an important aspect of the story is the identification of the converted man as a eunuch, which is an aspect of the story Martin does not attempt to address at any length (cf. A. Smith 1995).
From: Vernon K. Robbins (1996) The Tapestry of Early Christian Discourse: Rhetoric, Society and Ideology, London: Routledge: 216-220.
Back to ideological texture index
For other examples from the Acts of the Apostles, click here.
Textures Index | Text Index | Discourse Index | Oppositional Rhetoric Index