A socio-rhetorical appraisal of Jesus as sacrifice, with specific reference to hilasterion in Romans 3:25-26
Ombori, Benard N.
This dissertation answers the following: "Why did Paul describe Jesus as hilasterion?" Throughout it, I have examined the questions of the "what" versus the
"why": "What is the meaning of hilasterion (hilasterion)" versus "why has the death of
Christ been metaphorised as hilasterion." Notwithstanding the uniformity among
theologians that the meaning (the "what") of the text should occupy centre space, the
enquiries of both Bible translators and Pauline scholars have yielded different meanings
as far as iA.cronpwv is concerned. The question "why" shifts the project's focus from
the meaning of the text to the performativity, which entails asking different questions.
As a result, I have problematised "propitiation," "expiation" and "mercy-seat" as
interpretational models for hilasterion, because these theological models neglect the
rhetorical situation which leads to a misunderstanding of hilasterion. Consequently,
applying the three-pronged rhetorical approaches to my text has enabled me to move the
discussion away from a purely textual, away from the harmonization of "ideas," away
from a traditional theological paradigm thinking only in terms of soteriology and the
salvific to a paradigm where the rhetorical, to where the social-cultural and the religiopolitical
contexts has been taken into consideration. Dispositio has acted as the
foreground for impartiality that facilitated the accommodation of the non-Jews in the
Abrahamic family which is hilasterion's performativity. I have argued that apostrophe
in service of stasis theory had numerous Jewish fundamentals redefined, without which
the notion of hilasterion would not have made sense. I have demonstrated how patron
versus client relationship emerged in the depiction of hilasterion as a gift from God,
evidence of his righteousness, and how riposte operated in dislodging the non-Jews from
their social position and relocating them within the nation of God.
The metaphorisation of Jesus' death and his portrayal as hilasterion had a
number of tasks. It normalised a situation, it brought about an alternative situation into
existence, it endorsed social solidarity, it brought about a different genealogy into effect,
it sanctioned the construction of a "new and superior race," and ulitmatley it produced
inclusivity of the non-Jews into the Jewish family since Jesus tremendously had high
values then extreme value was assigned to the non-Jews. Thus, I have problematised
decontextualised theologising, easy theologising (as "propitiation," "expiation," and
" mercy-seat"), in order to demonstrate that a socio-rhetorical appraisal of hilasterion requires theologians to rethink the categories they operate with.
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