Book Note | Outsider Designations and Boundary Construction in the New Testament

Paul Trebilco. Outsider Designations and Boundary Construction in the New Testament. Cambridge University Press, 2017

In Outsider Designations and Boundary Construction in the New Testament, Paul Treblico systematically identifies and explains major terms for various outsiders in the New Testament (2). This is a book about terms: how many times they appear, when they are used, and what they denote and/or connote (24). Trebilco does not focus primarily on the rhetorical construction of outsiders in entire biblical books or even brief passages, but rather on the apparent lexicon early Christian communities constructed for identifying the out-group.

Outsider Designations and Boundary Construction in the New Testament lends itself to a threefold analysis: its theoretical foundation and its concomitant goal, major words for outsiders and their use across the New Testament, and the function of outsider designations in a few specific books. The first part, comprising chapters 1-3, is an exceptionally lucid explanation of the author’s aims, where he sees this book fitting within recent studies, and what theorists he will be in conversation with through the study. Trebilco sets out to explore how early Christians used outsider designations for boundary maintenance and in-group identity construction; he also believes that his study will demonstrate that amongst early Christians “a variety of creative and innovative linguistic moves were at work in this process” (2).

Trebilco asserts that his study answers a need in contemporary scholarship by noting a number of recent studies on specific outsider designations in the New Testament (e.g. “Sinners,” “Gentiles,” and “hoi Ioudiaoi” ) and studies on the rhetorical construction of the “other” that do not treat how the lexicon developed for this purpose (e.g. Lawrence Wills, Judith Lieu).[1] In contrast to several recent writers, Trebilco eschews discussion of the “proximate other,” the category that is often the recipient of the most virulent rhetoric. In the second chapter of his book, Trebilco lays out the key “insights and perspectives” that will inform his study. There are several, but of central importance are social identity theory (SIT), sociolinguistics, and the sociology of deviance (9-21). The insights of SIT serve as a catalyst for Trebilco’s study. Quoting H. Tajfel and J.P. Forgas, Trebilco writes, “‘we are what we are because they are not what we are.’” Two major mechanisms at play in this dynamic are “categorization and stereotyping,” which serve to weaponize categories amongst types of people (11-13). Sociolinguistics provides Trebilco with the idea of a “Speech Community,” which develops “social dialects,” linguistic practices whereby groups reinforce community boundaries (14-16). Sociology of deviance explains how communities articulate the rules whose violation render someone an outsider (16-21). Importantly for Trebilco, the application of certain labels of deviance can create a “master status” that is “retrospective” (19), a person is seen only in terms of this label and its significance retrospectively colors everything about the person’s history. Finally, Trebilco differentiates between “high” and “low” boundary terms as consisting in the degree of otherness a particular term conveys (25).

The bulk of the study is a consideration of five common words for outsiders in the New Testament. Trebilco chooses “unbelievers,” “outsiders,” “sinners,” “gentiles,” and “Ioudaioi” (44-207). The author selected these terms partly because of their importance, or for how they differ in meaning and use from common Jewish, Greco-Roman, or LXX outsider designations (27-43). I found this part of Trebilco’s book to contain some of the most useful and helpful content, often beyond the scope of the book’s stated purpose. Trebilco masterfully includes relevant debates and discussions not only about a particular word and how it is used in a particular passage, but relevant exegetical debates surrounding the text. For instance, while considering the use of the word “unbeliever” in 1 Corinthians 14, Trebilco provides a three page discussion and analysis of scholarly views on where the Corinthian community gathered, how or if “unbelievers” were truly present, and what this implies about the connotations of the designation “unbeliever” (55-58). Similarly, Trebilco methodically reviews arguments about a possible interpolation in 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1 where Paul commands his readers to “not be mismatched with unbelievers” (58-62).

Trebilco’s study occasionally moves from considering the rhetoric of the text he’s interpreting, to discussions of the historical reality to which the text gives evidence. Nowhere is this clearer than in his analysis of “sinners” in the synoptic Gospels (118-132). Trebilco discusses not only each individual Gospel, but also the use of this word and related historical phenomena in the ministry of the historical Jesus. After recounting debates about Jesus’ demand for repentance and table fellowship with “sinners,” Trebilco concludes that the ministry of Jesus was an example of “un-othering” the “other” (128). In this section, Trebilco shifts from considering the original readers and authors of the New Testament to the use of outsider language in the ministry of Jesus and his followers.

For the final section, Trebilco turns to specific books of the New Testament: 1 Corinthians, Romans, 1 Thessalonians, the Pastoral Epistles, and 1 Peter to analyze language for various excluded groups (208-280). In this portion of the study, Trebilco considers outsider designations in general and no longer restricts himself to the six words of the previous section. Trebilco argues that Paul in 1 Corinthians, Romans, and 1 Thessalonians tends to favor “high boundary” outsider designations that highlight and reinforce the differences between Christians and outsiders, but that Romans is a special case containing moments where “low boundary” terms are prominent because of the delicate social situation of the Roman church (241-242). There are considerable differences between 1 Peter and the Pastorals in how they deploy and develop outsider designations, but Trebilco argues that concerns about interactions with outsiders and community respectability go some way in explaining the strategic use of “low boundary” words in certain parts of these epistles.

Outsider Designations and Boundary Construction in the New Testament, is something of a sequel to Trebilco’s Self-Designations and Group Identity in the New Testament, and like the latter book, Outsider Designations and Boundary Construction in the New Testament is part of a wider scholarly discussion about alterity in early Christianity and how social boundaries are created and policed. Recent books by Lawrence Wills and Judith Lieu are important recent participants in this discussion. This book brings to the fore methods and categories drawn from the social sciences, providing a useful complement to studies which engage post-colonial or feminist theorists. While Treblico treats almost exclusively the New Testament, one could apply his insights to other pieces of early Christian literature, (e.g. Epistle to Diognetes, Letters of Ignatius), which are only mentioned in passing (6-7).

Treblico’s work will prove generative for scholars from various fields who will find his varied questions and interlocutors thought-provoking. But his book’s usefulness is more than its stated goal or the theorists it brings to bare. This book provides a thorough and wide-ranging analysis of the New Testament. In the future, exegetical work on parts of the New Testament that Trebilco covers in this book would do well to read his crisp analysis both for its interpretive insights and an introduction to major scholarly opinions on the passage.

[1] Trebilco generally prefers the Greek rather than “Jews” or “Judeans” for reasons he explains in 177-180.

[2] The expression is drawn from J.Z. Smith, “What a Difference a Difference Makes,” in “To See Ourselves as Other See Us”: Christians, Jews, “Others” in Late Antiquity. Eds. J. Neusner, E.S. Frerichs. Scholars Press Studies in the Humanities. Chico, CA: Scholars Press: 3-48

Peter Z. Fraser-Morris is a doctoral candidate in Judaism and Christianity in Antiquity at the University of Virginia.