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Literary Studies in Luke-Acts: Essays in Honor of Joseph B. Tyson, pp. 191-214

From Enthymeme to Theology in Luke 11:1-13*


Luke 11:1-13 presents an abbreviated version of the Lord's prayer followed by nine verses that elaborate parts of the prayer.1 Among the notable rhetorical features in this text is a series of rationales (beginning with "for," "because," or "since"), including one in the Lord's Prayer itself. This invites a special way to analyze this passage.2 Rationales in discourse create enthymemes. An enthymeme is an assertion that is expressible as a syllogism.3 A special characteristic of an enthymeme is to leave a premise or conclusion unexpressed, with a pre-


* I am grateful to H. J. Bernard Combrink, David Armstrong-Reiner, Lynn R. Lutes, and Thomas D. Stegman for their probing rhetorical exegeses of this sequence in Luke for my Ph.D. seminar on rhetorical criticism in the New Testament at Emory University during spring of 1997. In addition, I am highly indebted to Gordon D. Newby, Laurie L. Patton, R. Alan Culpepper, and Margaret E. Dean for their supportive, critical reviews of this ongoing work. Back

1Matthew 6:9-13 contains an expanded version of the Lord's Prayer. See Vernon K. Robbins, "Divine Dialogue and the Lord's Prayer: Socio-Rhetorical Interpretation of Sacred Texts," Dialogue 28 (1995): 117-46, for a socio-rhetorical analysis of the abbreviated and expanded versions of the Lord's Prayer in Matthew, Luke, Did., and the Book of Mormon. Back
2Cf. Burton L. Mack and Vernon K. Robbins, Patterns of Persuasion in the Gospels (Sonoma, CA: Polebridge 1989); Richard B. Vinson, "A Comparative Study of the Use of Enthymemes in the Synoptic Gospels," in Persuasive Artistry: Studies in New Testament in Honor of George A. Kennedy, ed. Duane F. Watson, JSNTSup 50 (Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1991) 119-41; Wesley H. Wachob,"The Rich in Faith and the Poor in Spirit: The Socio-Rhetorical Function of a Saying of Jesus in the Epistle of James" (Ph.D. diss., Emory University, 1993); Vernon K. Robbins, The Tapestry of Early Christian Discourse: Rhetoric, Society and Ideology (London: Routledge, 1996), Exploring the Texture of Texts: A Guide to Socio-Rhetorical Interpretation Philadelphia: Trinity Press International, 1996), "The Dialectical Nature of Early Christian Discourse," Scriptura 59 (1996) 353-62, and "The Present and Future of Rhetorical Analysis," in The Rhetorical Analysis of Scripture: Essays from the 1995 London Conference, ed. Stanley E. Porter and Thomas H. Olbricht, JSNTSup 146 (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1997) 32-41; Anders Eriksson, Traditions as Rhetorical Proof: Pauline Argumentation in 1 Corinthians, ConBNT 29 (Stockholm: Almquist & Wiksell International, 1998); and L. Gregory Bloomquist, "The Place of Enthymemes in Argumentative Texture," forthcoming. Back
3George A. Kennedy, Aristotole, On Rhetoric: A Theory of Civic Discourse (New York: Oxford Univeristy Press, 1991) 297-98; and Patrick J. Hurley, A Concise Introduction to Logic, 2nd ed. (Belmont CA: Wadsworth, 1985) 230-35. Back

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