Books by Douglas Estes
Edited volume, co-edited by Ruth Sheridan.
Like our world, the world of the Greek New Testament is one that is full of questions. This book ... more Like our world, the world of the Greek New Testament is one that is full of questions. This book tries to understand these questions and take the exegete a little further down the road in their understanding of these questions. Thus, this book is more of a beginning than an end. In this book, I have not tried to be exhaustive in cataloguing and categorizing every question in the Greek New Testament. The reason for this is both practical and philosophical. Practically, there are too many questions with too many unique features for just one book. Philosophically, the idea of exactly identifying and categorizing a question goes against what it means to ask a question. There are always new logical angles and rhetorical effects for a reader to discover in questions asked. I also have purposefully limited the study to the questions in the New Testament and have not interacted (much) with questions in the Septuagint or other texts of Classical and Koine Greek. I believe that these kinds of investigations would be profitable, but they were beyond the scope of this work.
The reason for writing this book was simple: questions represent a numerically significant but largely overlooked feature of the Greek New Testament (GNT). Questions also play a much more important role in ancient discourse than modern readers assume. This book hopes to begin to address the imbalance. Even if the reader is not passionate about questions, I hope that at the least this will expose the reader to bigger questions about the style, discourse features, rhetoric, and aesthetics of the GNT — to move away from “flat” readings that are so common.
In this book, we explore twenty-eight linguistic features of question asking, the four major formations of questions, and thirty-six question types. We do so through more than forty in-depth case studies and hundreds of detailed examples. This book is by purpose and design interdisciplinary: I freely sample from such diverse fields as ancient and modern rhetoric, ancient Greek literary and grammatical theory, argumentation theory, linguistics, historiography, conversation analysis, speech act theory, psychology, and many more. Readers may notice, though, that the organization for this book is different from the organization of my previous book on questions, The Questions of Jesus in John (Leiden: Brill, 2013). This does not reflect a change in my thinking about questions as much as it has to do with the specific goals for each book. In The Questions of Jesus in John, my goal was solely to look at Jesus’s questions in one Gospel, and the five categories I created for organizing those questions moved the reader from the less rhetorical in quality to the more rhetorical in quality. Those categories were descriptive categories, and while I could have used them in this book, I felt that the more exhaustive nature of this book required a less descriptive and more taxonomic approach to questions. Unlike my previous book, this book is intended as a ready reference for Greek exegesis; therefore, my hope is that this organizational style will make it easier for readers to get out of it what they need more quickly than if I had retained my descriptive categories. I have divided the questions of the GNT up into their more native categories as driven by their syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. I have tried to keep footnotes to an absolute minimum, choosing instead to rely on targeted bibliography sections at the end of each section.
Why do the New Testament gospels depict a Jesus who asks questions almost as often as he gives an... more Why do the New Testament gospels depict a Jesus who asks questions almost as often as he gives answers? In The Questions of Jesus in John Douglas Estes crafts a highly interdisciplinary theory of question-asking based on insights from ancient rhetoric and modern erotetics (the study of interrogatives) in order to investigate the logical and rhetorical purposes of Jesus' questions in the Gospel of John. While scholarly discussion about Jesus cares more for what he says, and not what he asks, Estes argues a better understanding of the rhetorical and dialectical roles of questions in ancient narratives sheds a more accurate light on both John’s narrative art and Jesus' message in the Fourth Gospel.
SimChurch invites you to explore the vision, the concerns, the challenges, and the remarkable pos... more SimChurch invites you to explore the vision, the concerns, the challenges, and the remarkable possibilities of building Christ's kingdom online. What is the virtual church, and what different forms might it take? Will it be an extension of a real-world church, or a separate entity? How will it encourage families to worship together? Is it even possible or healthy to 'be' the church in the virtual world? If you're passionate about the church and evangelism, and if you feel both excitement and concern over the new virtual world the internet is creating, then these are just some of the vital issues you and other postmillennial followers of Jesus must grapple with. Rich in both biblical and current insight, combining exploration and critique, SimChurch opens a long-overdue discussion you can't afford to miss.
Spiritual but broken, theological but flawed—these are the words critics use to describe the Gosp... more Spiritual but broken, theological but flawed—these are the words critics use to describe the Gospel of John. Compared to the Synoptics, John’s version of the life of Jesus seems scrambled, especially in the area of time and chronology. But what if John’s textual and temporal flaws have more to do with our implicit assumptions about time than a text that is truly flawed? This book responds to that question by reinventing narrative temporality in light of modern physics and applying this alternative temporal lens to the Fourth Gospel. From the singularity in the epic prologue to the narrative warping of event-like objects, this work explodes the elemental temporalities simmering below the surface of a spiritual yet superior Gospel text.
Articles by Douglas Estes
Catholic Biblical Quarterly, 2023
The Gospel of John contains not only paradoxical thought but also formal paradoxes—short logical ... more The Gospel of John contains not only paradoxical thought but also formal paradoxes—short logical riddles of a kind put to rhetorical use by ancient speakers. One overlooked formal paradox is the aphorism in John 13:20. The evangelist models this paradox on a reversal of the logic of Heraclitus’s river paradox. While Heraclitus’s river paradox is a means to deliberate essence, Jesus’s “receiver’s paradox” is a means to deliberate agency. Jesus intends the paradox as a way to help the disciples reflect further on their concerns for mission. As a result, this interpretation alleviates concerns that the utterance is unrelated to the discourse.
Bible Study Magazine, Mar 2016
Didaktikos, 2019
Suggestions for overcoming perfectionism and procrastination as an academic writer.
The Bible Translator, 2021
The formation of variable questions in direct speech is remarkably regular in Hellenistic Greek. ... more The formation of variable questions in direct speech is remarkably regular in Hellenistic Greek. There are, however, a few exceptions to the standard rule that the Greek New Testament exhibits. These exceptions occur for rhetorical and social reasons and in such a way that they affect the information structure and meaning of these interrogatives. Questions that follow the rule—and the exceptions—both evidence the regularity of word order in New Testament Greek.
Journal of Ethics in Antiquity and Christianity, Aug 31, 2021
Journal of Ethics in Antiquity and Christianity, 2020
Being teachable is a virtue, by modern expectations. Yet why does the church father Jerome label ... more Being teachable is a virtue, by modern expectations. Yet why does the church father Jerome label teachableness (docilis) as a vice? This essay explores Jerome's ideas in relation to knowledge, emotion, against pliability the expectations of Socrates, Plato, Paul, Eckhart, Rousseau, and more.
Criswell Theological Review, 2019
John’s Apocalypse is well known for possessing a difficult structure. Although most modern editio... more John’s Apocalypse is well known for possessing a difficult structure. Although most modern editions of the Apocalypse follow the medieval model for outline, a narrative reading of the text alongside ancient narrative expectations suggests that the “last chapter” of Revelation is Rev 20:7–22:21. When this segment is read as a unit, it moves the climax away from heaven and toward victory, and it alters the role of the conclusion away from warnings and toward the final look of divine consummation. A narrative reading of the “last chapter” enhances, instead of diminishes, the apocalyptic overtones in the text.
Didaktikos, 2019
“Love one another” (John 13:34) is, according to conventional scholarly understanding, the only e... more “Love one another” (John 13:34) is, according to conventional scholarly understanding, the only ethical statement in the Gospel of John. Compared to Paul, or the Synoptic Gospels, the Gospel of John has no paraenetic arguments or virtue lists. For most of the last two centuries, then, New Testament ethics has largely shunned the Gospel of John. Even today, it is not uncommon to encounter otherwise solid works on biblical ethics that eschew interaction with the Fourth Gospel almost completely. Is the Fourth Gospel so focused on matters of faith and salvation that it has no ethical impulse? Or has modern scholarship missed an opportunity to renew New Testament ethics through a reevaluation of John’s Gospel?
Journal of Theological Studies, 2020
Modern scholarship maintains the Gospel of John is dualistic. This view is uneasily held as there... more Modern scholarship maintains the Gospel of John is dualistic. This view is uneasily held as there is a growing move to distance the gospel from the original history-of-religions concept of dualism that reached its peak in the mid-twentieth century with expectations of incipient Gnosticism in John. Instead of further nuancing the dualistic-sounding ideas in John, this essay challenges directly the claim that John is dualistic-and it proposes that what is often understood to be a dualistic metaphysic is actually paradoxical language as part of the Gospel's oral and literary language games. Starting with a survey of how dualism entered into the scholarly purview of John, the essay then turns to the meaning and function of paradox in the ancient world. Since scholars point to John's 'light' and 'darkness' imagery as the most prominent example of dualism, this essay uses the paradox language of 'light' and 'darkness' as a test case to demonstrate how paradox, and not dualism, is a more accurate and historical descriptor for John's communicative strategy.
Bulletin of Ecclesial Theology, 2019
The essay explores the intersection of transhuman and Christian thought in the area of imperfecti... more The essay explores the intersection of transhuman and Christian thought in the area of imperfection/sin.
Journal of Biblical and Theological Studies, 2018
There is a critical need today for pastor-scholars to serve the Church and
to advance theological... more There is a critical need today for pastor-scholars to serve the Church and
to advance theological knowledge. The pastor who is a scholar will utilize the format of the written word to dialogue with an important part of modern society—scholars and educated readers—through the form of scholarly discourse. Though the pastor-scholar is not a common calling, once one embraces this calling, there are several essential characteristics that can positively impact the pastor-scholar’s profession
and standing.
Essays by Douglas Estes
Postdigital Theologies: Technology, Belief, and Practice, 2022
In this chapter I argue that humans have been cybernetic since their creation; or, to be more pre... more In this chapter I argue that humans have been cybernetic since their creation; or, to be more precise, humans were divinely created to be cybernetic-ready. Humans have not simply adjusted to technology; God made humans compatible with technology (physically, spiritually, emotionally, intellectually) and capable of creating and using technology.
The Gospel of John as Genre Mosaic, Nov 2015
A novel approach to how John constructed and shaped the prologue to his gospel, based on a simple... more A novel approach to how John constructed and shaped the prologue to his gospel, based on a simple Graeco-Roman rhetorical form, with comparison to many ancient prologues.
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Books by Douglas Estes
The reason for writing this book was simple: questions represent a numerically significant but largely overlooked feature of the Greek New Testament (GNT). Questions also play a much more important role in ancient discourse than modern readers assume. This book hopes to begin to address the imbalance. Even if the reader is not passionate about questions, I hope that at the least this will expose the reader to bigger questions about the style, discourse features, rhetoric, and aesthetics of the GNT — to move away from “flat” readings that are so common.
In this book, we explore twenty-eight linguistic features of question asking, the four major formations of questions, and thirty-six question types. We do so through more than forty in-depth case studies and hundreds of detailed examples. This book is by purpose and design interdisciplinary: I freely sample from such diverse fields as ancient and modern rhetoric, ancient Greek literary and grammatical theory, argumentation theory, linguistics, historiography, conversation analysis, speech act theory, psychology, and many more. Readers may notice, though, that the organization for this book is different from the organization of my previous book on questions, The Questions of Jesus in John (Leiden: Brill, 2013). This does not reflect a change in my thinking about questions as much as it has to do with the specific goals for each book. In The Questions of Jesus in John, my goal was solely to look at Jesus’s questions in one Gospel, and the five categories I created for organizing those questions moved the reader from the less rhetorical in quality to the more rhetorical in quality. Those categories were descriptive categories, and while I could have used them in this book, I felt that the more exhaustive nature of this book required a less descriptive and more taxonomic approach to questions. Unlike my previous book, this book is intended as a ready reference for Greek exegesis; therefore, my hope is that this organizational style will make it easier for readers to get out of it what they need more quickly than if I had retained my descriptive categories. I have divided the questions of the GNT up into their more native categories as driven by their syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. I have tried to keep footnotes to an absolute minimum, choosing instead to rely on targeted bibliography sections at the end of each section.
Articles by Douglas Estes
to advance theological knowledge. The pastor who is a scholar will utilize the format of the written word to dialogue with an important part of modern society—scholars and educated readers—through the form of scholarly discourse. Though the pastor-scholar is not a common calling, once one embraces this calling, there are several essential characteristics that can positively impact the pastor-scholar’s profession
and standing.
Essays by Douglas Estes
The reason for writing this book was simple: questions represent a numerically significant but largely overlooked feature of the Greek New Testament (GNT). Questions also play a much more important role in ancient discourse than modern readers assume. This book hopes to begin to address the imbalance. Even if the reader is not passionate about questions, I hope that at the least this will expose the reader to bigger questions about the style, discourse features, rhetoric, and aesthetics of the GNT — to move away from “flat” readings that are so common.
In this book, we explore twenty-eight linguistic features of question asking, the four major formations of questions, and thirty-six question types. We do so through more than forty in-depth case studies and hundreds of detailed examples. This book is by purpose and design interdisciplinary: I freely sample from such diverse fields as ancient and modern rhetoric, ancient Greek literary and grammatical theory, argumentation theory, linguistics, historiography, conversation analysis, speech act theory, psychology, and many more. Readers may notice, though, that the organization for this book is different from the organization of my previous book on questions, The Questions of Jesus in John (Leiden: Brill, 2013). This does not reflect a change in my thinking about questions as much as it has to do with the specific goals for each book. In The Questions of Jesus in John, my goal was solely to look at Jesus’s questions in one Gospel, and the five categories I created for organizing those questions moved the reader from the less rhetorical in quality to the more rhetorical in quality. Those categories were descriptive categories, and while I could have used them in this book, I felt that the more exhaustive nature of this book required a less descriptive and more taxonomic approach to questions. Unlike my previous book, this book is intended as a ready reference for Greek exegesis; therefore, my hope is that this organizational style will make it easier for readers to get out of it what they need more quickly than if I had retained my descriptive categories. I have divided the questions of the GNT up into their more native categories as driven by their syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. I have tried to keep footnotes to an absolute minimum, choosing instead to rely on targeted bibliography sections at the end of each section.
to advance theological knowledge. The pastor who is a scholar will utilize the format of the written word to dialogue with an important part of modern society—scholars and educated readers—through the form of scholarly discourse. Though the pastor-scholar is not a common calling, once one embraces this calling, there are several essential characteristics that can positively impact the pastor-scholar’s profession
and standing.