Table Of ContentRAID ON THE ARTICULATE
Comic Eschatology in Jesus and Borges
John Dominic Crossan's In Parables demonstrated how Jesus's parables demolished an idolatry
of time. In this book, he shows how the parables likewise preclude an Idolatry of language.
In a new, creative synthesis, Raid on the Articulate juxtaposes the sayings and parables of Jesus
with the works of modern Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges to reveal fresh interpretations.
Crossan locates both men as literary iconoclasts, parablers who can evoke for us the other side
of silence. The gift they bring is ·cosmic eschatology,· the ability to "stand on the brink of
nonsense and absurdity and not be dizzy.·
When Jesus says, "Whoever seeks to gain his life will lose it" he presents a paradox insoluble by
faith in language. Borges performs a similar function in literature when he inserts footnotes
referring to nonexistent books. Both are arguing against the idolatry of imprisoning reality In the
words that point to it.
Parable and Paradox makes the case for parable as paradox formed Into story. It is in this
context that Jesus and Borges must be understood. Analyzing many of Jesus's parables.
especially "The Good Samaritan,· and comparing them structurally to Borges's work, Crosson
sees them as single or double reversals of their audiences' most profound expectations. It Is
these that lend them both their power and their paradox.
Emphasizing both biblical and literary materials, John Dominic Crossan achieves a deepened
understanding of New Testament texts and forms, on understanding possible only when the
unique literary aspect of Jesus's sayings is acknowledged.
"Rold on the Articulate makes a brilliant example of how fruitfully st11JCturalist procedures In
literary criticism may be employed In the study of biblical literature. It Is, indeed, a book that one
suspects to be of a truly seminal order. •
-Nathan A. Scott Jr .. urnvers11yo1v1rg1n
J o h n D o m I n I c C r o s s a n is Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at DePoul University
Chicago. He hos written twenty books on the hlstorlcol Jesus in the lost thirty years. four of whlc
hove become notional religious bestseilers: The Historical Jesus (1991), Jesus: A Revolutiona
Biography (1994), Who Kiiied Jesus? (1995), and The Birth of Christianity (1998). He is a former
cochoir of the Jesus Seminar and a former choir of the Historical Jesus Section of the Society of
Biblical Literature.
ISBN-B : 978-1-55635-~22-7
RELIGION I New Testament ISBN-10: 1-55635-822-9
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And so each venture
Is a new beginning, a raid on the inarticulate.
T. S. Eliot, East Coker
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Comic 'Eschatology in Jesus
anJ :Borges
John 'Dominic Crossan
WIPF & STOCK· Eugene, Oregon
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for permission to
reprint selections included in this book:
E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY, INC. for 2 lines from "Heraclitus"; 3 lines
from "Cambridge"; 6 lines from "To Israel"; 4 lines from "Israel"; 2 lines
from "Plain Things" in In Fraise of Darkness by Jorge Luis Borges.
Translated by Norman Thomas di Giovanni. Copyright © 1969, 1970,
1971, 1972, 1973, 1974 by Emece Editores S. A. & Norman Thomas di
Giovanni. Reprinted by permission of E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc.
HARCOURT BRACE JOVANOVICH, INC. for permission to reprint 2 lines
from "East Coker" in Four Quartets by T. S. Eliot. Copyright 1943 by
T. S. Eliot. Renewed 1971 by Esme Valerie Eliot. Reprinted by permis
sion of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS for lines in both #501 and #883 from
The Poems of Emüy Dickinson, edited by Thomas H. Johnson, Cam
bridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, © 1951,
1955 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Reprinted by
permission of the publishers and the Trustees of Amherst College.
Wipf and Stock Publishers
199 W 8th Ave, Suite 3
Eugene, OR 97401
Raid on the Articulate
Comic Eschatology in Jesus and Borges
By Crossan, John Dominic
Copyright©1976 by Crossan, John Dominic
ISBN 13: 978-1-55635-822-7
Publication date 112112008
Previously published by Harper & Row, 1976
HOLT, RINEHART AND WINSTON, INC. for 5 lines from "West-Running
Brook" and 8 lines from "A Steeple on a House" from The Poetty of
Robert Frost, edited by Edward Connery Lathem. Copyright 1928, 1947,
© 1969 by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Copyright © 1956 by Robert
Frost. Copyright © 1975 by Lesley Frost Ballantine. Reprinted by per
mission of Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Publishers.
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN CUMPANY for #1545 (2 lines) from "The Bible is
an Antique Volume" from Life and Letters of Emily Dickinson by Martha
Dickinson Bianchi. Copyright 1924 by Martha Dickinson Bianchi. Re
newed 1952 Alfred Leete Lampson. Reprinted by permission of Houghton
Miffiin Company.
LITTLE BROWN AND COMPANY for #1095 (2 lines) from The Complete
Poems of Emily Dickinson, edited by Thomas H. Johnson. Copyright 1935
by Martha Dickinson Bianchi. Copyright © 1963 by Mary L. Hampson.
Reprinted by permission of Little, Brown and Company.
MACMILLAN PUBLISHING COMPANY, INC. for 9 lines from "The Tower"
in Collected Poems by William Butler Yeats. Copyright 1928 by Mac
millan Publishing Co„ lnc. Renewed 1956 by Georgie Yeats. Also for 8
lines from "Supematural Songs." Ibid. Copyright 1934 by Bertha Georgie
Yeats. Reprinted with permission of Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc.
NATIONAL COUNCIL OF THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST for quotations from the
Revised Standard Version of the Bible. Copyright 1946, 1952, © 1971,
© 1973.
NEW DIRECTIONS PUBLISHING CORPORATION for 10 lines from "Canto
CXVI" in The Cantos by Ezra Pound. Copyright © 1966, © 1972, by
Ezra Pound. Also for 9 lines from "The Words of the Lord to John on
Patmos" in Poems 1906-1926 by Rainer Maria Rilke, translated by J. B.
Leishman. All Rights Reserved. Also for 3 lines from "Sonnets to Or
pheus" in Selected Works:II by Rainer Maria Rilke, translated by J. B.
Leishman. Copyright © 1960 by The Hogarth Press Ltd. All works re
printed by permission of New Directions Publishing Corporatiön.
ATHENEUM PUBLISHERS AND RICHARD HOWARD for 8 lines from "Prose
for Borges" by Richard Howard in TriQuarterly 25 (Fall 1972). Origi
nally from Findings: A Book of Poems by Richard Howard. Atheneum
Publishers, 1971.
Permission to reprint is also gratefully acknowledged for parts of pp.
64-69 which originally appeared as "Jesus and Paciflsm" in No Famine
in the Land. Studies in honor of John L. McKenzie. Eds. J. W. Flanagan
& A. Weisbrod Robinson. Missoula, Montana: Scholar Press, 1975. Copy
right © 1975 by The Institute for Antiquity and Christianity, Claremont,
California; and for parts of pp. 93-131 which originally appeared as
"Parable, Allegory, and Paradox" in Semiology and Parables. Papers of
the Vanderbilt University Conference, May 15-17, 1975. Ed. Daniel
Patte. Pittsburgh, PA.: The Pickwick Press, 1976.
GROYE PRESS, rNc for 6 lines from "Chess" in A Personal Anthology by
Jorge Luis Borges. Copyright © 1967 by Grove Press, Inc. Reprinted by
permission of Grove Press, lnc.
In memory
of my father
Daniel Joseph Crossan
1904-1971
lt was he who revealed the power of poetry to me
the fact that words are .not only a means of com
munication but also magic symbols and music.
Jorge Luis Borges, speaking of bis
father in An Autobiographical Essay
