Nicole Frank
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Current position
Ph. D. student at the Department of Theology, Utrecht University.
Education
Graduation in Linguistics and (cath.) Theology.
Invited lecture
‘Neutestamentliche Pseudepigrapha als Mittel der Identitätsstiftung und –vergewisserung im frühen Christentum. Ein intertextueller Zugang zu Kol 4,9’, delivered at the 5. “Konferenz der Niederländischen und Mittel- und Osteuropäischen Fakultäten und Instituten”, Department of Theology, Leiden University (1.-5. may 2006).
Forthcoming publication
Nicole Frank, ‘Neutestamentliche Pseudepigrapha als Mittel der Identitätsstiftung und –vergewisserung im frühen Christentum. Ein intertextueller Zugang zu Kol 4,9’, forthcoming in N.N., eds. N.N. Leiden (2006).
Current project
‘Wie ihr gelehrt worden seid’: Der Kolosserbrief als Interpretations-anweisung zum Verständnis zentraler paulinischer Texte: intertextuelle Strategien und ihre Funktion im Streit um die Auslegung des paulinischen Erbes. (Ph. D. thesis, working title; supervisor prof. A. Merz).
This project studies the Epistle to the Colossians as a specimen of a Pauline pseudepigraphon which employs specific forms of intertextuality to create a past whose remembrance can serve as a shared basis of identity and a guideline for behaviour for the second and third Christian generations. Part of this process is a re-interpretation and domestication of inherited memories that are regarded as dysfunctional to this purpose.
This study will for the first time consider the intended effects of intertextuality on the original Pauline texts that are re-used and re-interpreted in Colossians. This pseud-epigraphon provides the earliest example of intertextual modification of authentic Pauline texts through fictitious self-references. By using fictitious self-references to texts such as the baptism-formula of Gal 3:28 or the letter of Philemon Colossians functions as a ‘reading instruction’ on how these earlier texts are to be understood and– by means of the (fictitious) Pauline correction – which interpretations are to be excluded (e.g. with regard to the role of Christian slaves and wives).
In aiming to reconstruct and analyze those forms of fictitious self-references and intended ‘reading instructions’, the main issues of Colossians will be analyzed in comparance to their Pauline pretexts – beginning with the adaption of Pauline letter formulas, especially the strong correspondence between Colossians and Philemon. The investigation of the genuine letter-corpus will follow the three main issues discussed in Colossians – the understanding of the apostle’s role, the new life in Christ, given with baptism, and the ethical orders linked to this Christian identity. Especially the accordances and divergences concerning ethics and the understanding of baptism, as it is expounded in the Pauline letters to Romans and Galatians, will build a central hermeneutic key to the understanding of the intertextual constitution of Colossians.
Further information
For further information about this individual project, previous work, or related questions, please contact Nicole Frank at: N.M.Frank@theo.uu.nl. For obtaining more information about the project in general, see Contact
