Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2009
The kiss is defined as the placing of the lips upon another's lips, another person or another thing as a mark of homage or affection. It is a common phenomenon in many religions, generally directed towards inanimate objects.Early Christian sources confine their descriptions and prescriptions of the kiss to a public greeting between two people. Its practice within the community raises two questions: where did it originate? and what function did it serve beyond strengthening the ties of affection that exist in the fellowship? The fact that the command to kiss appears four times in Paul and once in 1 Peter makes it necessary to ask why something as spontaneous as a kiss would need to be commanded. Finally we inquire into the specific meaning of the adjective ‘holy’ (Paul) or ‘love’ (Peter) when attached to the word kiss.
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12 According to Thraede, a terminus technicus (‘Ursprünge’, footnote 129). I am grateful to Harold Remus for calling my attention to this reference and to the Waterloo Biblical Colloquium which discussed many features of this article with me. See Betz, H. D., Lukian von Samosata (Berlin: Akademie, 1971) 114–15Google Scholar, who wonders if Lucian did not malign Alexander the prophet here and misunderstood a liturgical kiss of the mystery cults. Pseudo-Lucian (Asin. 17) describes a public greeting with kiss and embrace in a rural setting (φιλήμασιν ὴσπάζοντο ἀλλήλους).
13 K. Thraede, ‘Ursprünge’, note 48. See also Kroll, ‘Kuss’, 514, who concludes that at the time of Claudius men kissed each other when they met on the streets.
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23 The term was made popular by Tertullian although according to Thraede (145, n. 53) it was already in Philo but not as a kiss of reconciliation.
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26 One looks in vain for any discussion of this in books on holiness like Nicholl, Donald, Holiness (London: Darton, 1981)Google Scholar or Kreider, A., Journey towards Holiness (Basingstoke: Marshall Pickering, 1986)Google Scholar even though both authors have a fine appreciation for the communal dimension of Christianity.
27 See the evidence in ‘Musonius Rufus, Jesus and Paul: Three First Century Feminists’, From Jesus to Paul: Studies in Honour of Francis Wright Beare (ed. Peter Richardson and John Hurd; Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University, 1984) 185–202Google Scholar. The arguments of Balch, David and Ward, R. B. [NTS 36 (1990) 281–9]Google Scholar which challenge my thesis deal with a different definition of ‘feminism’ and do not compare Paul and Musonius with their contemporaries.
28 It is noteworthy that one modern translation of the NT, in contemporary German (Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1982), consistently calls it a ‘brother kiss’ (‘Bruderkuss’), a travesty of Paul's (and Peter's) instructions.
29 Hofmann, Philema, 23–4.
30 ‘Gemeint ist natürlich: bei nächster Gelegenheit’, says Thraede, ‘Ursprünge’, 129.
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36 Thraede speaks (‘Ursprünge’, 144) of a ‘new social basis’ in a group founded on a confession, which brought a shift of accent: the heartiness (Herzlichkeit) of the profane greeting was institutionalized as a sign of belonging to the Christian Community and as holy kiss ‘wurde er glaubensbedingte Regelform’.
37 So especially Perella in his otherwise excellent book (Kiss, 17; followed by Benko, Rome, 91), errs in describing ‘the basic issue of religion’ for Paul as ‘the mystical union of the individual soul with God’. Instead of saying the holy kiss symbolized that union I would, with Benko, see ‘the stark physical character of the mouth-to-mouth kiss as an actualization and realization of the Christians’ hope to overcome separation and to find union in and with [God] and each other’ (see 98).
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39 MacDonald, Margaret in her study, ‘Women Holy in Body and Spirit: The Social Setting of I Corinthians 7’, NTS 36 (1990) 161–81CrossRefGoogle Scholar, does not touch at all on this important Pauline usage. Paul does not speak of the ‘celibate women who strove to be holy in body and spirit’ (181). He spoke rather of the sanctifying influence believing husbands/wives can have on their spouses in the marriage bond as they set no limits to their expressions of erotic affection for each other (1 Cor 7.3–5). Is it by chance that Paul never uses the word ‘holy’ for the celibate?
40 The terms ‘sacred’ and ‘holy’ are here used without distinction. Paul Minear's attempt to distinguish them as the sacred where religion is found and the holy wherever God is present does not persuade me. It is strange, however, that even his thorough study of New Testament usage does not venture to treat the ‘holy kiss’ (TToday 47 [1990] 5–12).Google Scholar
41 Gamble, H., The Textual History of the Letter to the Romans (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1977) 75–6.Google Scholar
42 E. Kreider, ‘Faithful’, 38 – quoting from Paed. 3.11.
43 Benko, Rome, 86.
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