Journal: Tyndale Bulletin
Volume: TYNBUL 73:1 (NA 2022)
Article: The Enthymeme In Luke 19:9 And The Salvation Of Zacchaeus
Author: Frank Z. Kovacs

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The Enthymeme In Luke 19:9 And The Salvation Of Zacchaeus

Frank Z. Kovacs

Knox College, University of Toronto
[email protected]

Abstract

Studies on salvation in the Luke 19:1–10 Zacchaean story generally tend to exhibit an underdeveloped analysis of its rhetoric as part of the controversy genre. This paucity reduces salvation to an individual event and ignores the social effect of Lukan salvation in the story. To remedy this, it is here argued that the weight of the controversy genre is felt specifically in the rhetorical use of enthymeme in verse 9, and that Jesus’s enthymemic pronouncement of salvation reveals a social aspect to Zacchaeus’s salvation. The enthymeme supports Zacchaeus’s refutation of the crowd’s position; it insinuates and infers from contrariety and obligates the crowd to distribute honour to Zacchaeus. This function of enthymeme is based on the evidence of first-century rhetors, whose position differs from modern scholarship’s view of the enthymeme as a truncated logical syllogism. Salvation has a social effect. Jesus’s enthymemic pronouncement crowns Zacchaeus’s refutation by calling the crowd to reinterpret Zacchaeus’s social-religious status on the basis of legal precedent.

1. Introduction

The genre of the Zacchaean episode in Luke 19:1–10 is widely understood in terms of a pronouncement story1 that intertwines call and controversy ‘sub-genres’ in

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which Jesus freely offers grace.2 Jesus reacts to Zacchaeus and to the crowd and pronounces salvation. Yet most analyses have stressed the episode’s call story genre, which inadvertently emphasises Zacchaeus’s declaration as the focal point of the story, with Jesus’s subsequent dictum functioning as a direct comment on that declaration and as an indirect glancing reply to the crowd’s criticism.3 Though most studies acknowledge the fundamental role of controversy for the story, their interests limit further investigation into the conflict between Jesus/Zacchaeus and the crowd. Scholarship has focused predominantly on the intention4 and on the appearance, status, and character of Zacchaeus5 in relation

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to Jesus. This is ...