The Renewal of Song: Metalepsis and the Christological Revision of Psalmody in Paul

Abstract

The productive yield of Richard Hays’ Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul for the study of Pauline intertextuality has not been matched by adequate reflection on questions of method, particularly on the character of the trope at the heart of the Haysian project: metalepsis, or “echo”. Nor has sufficient attention been given to the reception of biblical psalmody in Paul, and to the distinctiveness of psalmic discourse in relation to metaleptic process. This study accordingly attempts a close engagement with biblical psalmody as this appears at selected sites in Romans and 2 Corinthians, focusing on those sites which best demonstrate the distinctive character of psalmody, and so offer to refine an account of metalepsis. In particular, it examines quotations which are attributed or attributable to David or to Christ, and sites in which psalmody serves to modulate Paul’s discourse without recourse to quotation. In so doing, this study sets out to enrich the Haysian account of metalepsis by discerning and correcting two biases. In relation to method, Haysian metalepsis is found to license maximalist readings of intertexts on the presumption of narrativity, which cannot be fully sustained in relation to psalmody. In relation to hermeneutics, Haysian metalepsis is shown to privilege dialectical accounts of Pauline intertextuality, in which the voice of scripture is richly and sympathetically invoked in Paul’s discourse. By resisting these biases, the present study is able to offer a more nuanced account of metalepsis, one better suited to psalmody, and to discern a more complex picture of Pauline intertextuality. Within it, Christ is richly configured as a psalmist in Paul, rhetorically empowered and tendered for imitation, yet nearly always at the expense of David, subverting the mode of agency he represents, in hermeneutical gestures which are dialectical in form but heuristic in effect.