Saturday, April 23, 2022

Katherine M. Hockey on κοινωνέω in 1 Peter 4:13 Teaching Believers’ “Mystical Union with Christ”

  

But rejoice insofar as you are sharing (κοινωνέω) Christ's sufferings, so that you may also be glad and shout for joy when his glory is revealed. (NRSV)

 

. . . I take [κοινωνέω] to have the sense of “to have” or “to do something in common with someone,” and by implication, as “to share, to take part/participate in something in common with someone”’. Therefore, the believer rejoices because they participate in suffering in common with Christ. But how is the audience to understand its participation? . . .

 

Mystical Union with Christ

 

Dubis explains mystical union with Christ as, ‘to suffer in Christ rather than simply like Christ. Here the notion is that believers are incorporated into Christ so that they participate in Christ’s historical sufferings. And Christ likewise participates in the sufferings of his body, the church’ (Dubis, Messianic Woes, 98). At points in 1 Peter the believers appear to be un inion with Christ. One indication of spiritual union is 2.24. Here Christ bears the believers’ sin on the cross (cf. 3.18) so that they can die to sins and live for righteousness. Thus, if this depicts union, the believer is spiritually incorporated into Christ’s death and given the notion of living to righteousness, also his resurrection. . . . In 5.10 the author says that God has called them ‘in Christ’ into his eternal glory. This could be saying that their incorporation into Christ enables their entry into eternal glory. Feldmeier offers an alternative. He reads ‘in Christ’ in 5.10 as meaning the born anew people who belong to God (Feldmeier, Peter, 251). In this case, εν Χριστω in 5.10 refers more to incorporation into a group of people than spiritual union. 5.14 supports Feldmeier’s reading. It closes the letter by wishing Ειρηνη υμιν πασιν τοις εν Χριστω (lit. Peace to you, all the ones in Christ). Here εν Χριστω functions in a similar way to λαος θεου in 2.10 in that it distinguishes the believers from others and so designates a particular group of people. Consequently, in 5.14, εν Χριστω does not have to mean mystical union but could refer to a body of people. But, equally this corporate usage could be a consequence of a union idea: spiritual union with Christ is what brings one into a defined body of people distinguished by their incorporation into Christ. Other examples in 1 Peter that could infer spiritual union are the stone imagery of 2.4-6; the offering of sacrifices to God δια Ιησου Χριστου (through Jesus Christ, 2.5); and the adaptation of Isa 11.2 in 4.14. For Dubis, 4.14 is ‘suggestive of an incorporation theology’ because the Spirit rests on the Messiah in Isaiah now rests upon the believers (Dubis, Messianic Woes, 103). From this survey, it does appear that the idea of spiritual union with Christ is potentially present in the letter, but the examples are not explicit and some could imply simply being part of a body of people. Regardless, I do not think that mystical union is what is being referred to by κοινωνέω in 4.13, though it is potentially related to it. (Katherine M. Hockey, The Role of Emotion in 1 Peter [Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series 173; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019], 148, 149-51, emphasis in bold added)