Paul and postcolonial hermeneutics: Marginality and/in early biblical interpretation

The paper explores Paul’s engagement with the Scriptures of Israel from the point of view of (his sense of) marginality, which invites a postcolonial perspective on his hermeneutics. It first briefly considers the deployment of postcolonial criticism in biblical studies, followed by a consideration of the value of postcolonial theory for Paul’s biblical hermeneutics. Four areas where postcolonial criticism can make a contribution to the understanding how Pauline hermeneutics interacted with issues of power and authority are discussed in 2 Corinthians 10-13: the importance of acknowledging the influence of ideological concerns on Paul’s hermeneutical strategy; the conceptualisation and portrayal of “others” in the hermeneutical enterprise; considering hybridity in postcolonial identity and hermeneutics; and, the interplay, confluence and (contradictory yet inherent) tension between operational marginality and hermeneutics – aspects of which are also demonstrated from the Pauline epistles. The paper is concluded with specific attention to the underlying argument that also Paul’s hermeneutics was informed by the tension between centre and margins within the first-century imperial context.