Bert Harrill: “Exegetical Torture” in Early Christian Biblical Interpretation

This communication examines the use of the Greek term basanos (touchstone), the flinty slate used to test the purity of silver and gold by the streak it left on the stone when scraped against metal, to define a particular method of exegesis favored by such patristic authors as Origen (and many others).  The goal is to understand the term in its historical context, which was the juridical torture of slave witnesses to extract a concealed truth from their bodies.  In patristic reading culture, the interpretative device known as “exegetical torture” (basanos tēs exetaseos) advanced a particular discourse of truth being understood as something generally concealed and hidden.  In this way, I offer a new insight into the methods and aims of patristic allegory, especially as exemplified by Origen, by showing how they evoked specific ideologies of the Roman slave culture in which the patristic authors wrote.