The Use and Abuse of the Enthymeme in New Testament Scholarship

Abstract

Though the enthymeme is usually defined as a truncated syllogism, that definition does not go back to Aristotle. By the first century ce there were four ways of understanding the enthymeme in both Greek and Latin rhetorical theory, of which the truncated syllogism was just one. Aristotle's theory of the enthymeme had little effect on the subsequent history of the enthymeme, just as his Rhetorica had only a restricted circulation and impact from the first century bce on. In light of these considerations, the work of seven scholars who have used the enthymeme to understand argumentation in the NT is reviewed and critiqued.