Plots of epiphany : prison-escape in Acts of the Apostles / John B. Weaver.

Format:

Book

Thesis/Dissertation

Author/Creator:

Weaver, John B.

Series:

Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft und die Kunde der älteren Kirche ; Beiheft 131.

Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft und die Kunde der älteren Kirche ; Band 131

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Miracles--Comparative studies.

Miracles.

Escapes--Mythology--Comparative studies.

Escapes.

Myth in the Bible.

Bible. Acts--Criticism, Form.

Bible.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (347 pages)

Edition:

Reprint 2012

Place of Publication:

Berlin ; New York : W. de Gruyter, [2004]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Der Autor vergleicht die drei Erzählungen der Apostelgeschichte über Gefängnisausbrüche mit anderen Befreiungswundern in griechisch-römischen und jüdischen Mythen. Eine Analyse dieser Geschichten und ihrer konventionellen Darstellung göttlicher Epiphanie und Kultbegründung ermöglicht neue Einblicke in den kulturellen Kontext und die narrative Darstellung frühchristlicher Geschichte in der Apostelgeschichte.

Past scholarship on the prison-escapes in the Acts of the Apostles has tended to focus on lexical similarities to Euripides' Bacchae, going so far as to argue for direct literary dependence. Moving beyond such explanations, the present study argues that miraculous prison-escape was a central event in a traditional and culturally significant story about the introduction and foundation of cults - a story discernable in the Bacchae and other ancient texts. When the mythic quality and cultural diffusion of the prison-escape narratives are taken into account, the resemblance of Lukan and Dionysian narrative episodes is seen to depend less on specific literary borrowing, and more on shared familiarity with cultural discourses involving the legitimating portrayal of new cults in the ancient world.

Contents:

Prison-escape and myth-criticism

Epiphanic rescue from prison in ancient myth and history

"Beginning from Jerusalem" : prison-escape and the mythopoesis of Christian origins in Acts 1-7

Rescue and regicide : the poetics and politics of group validation in Acts 12

"A door of faith opened to the Gentiles" : prison epiphany and cult foundation in Acts 16.

Notes:

Dissertation Emory University 2004.

Slight revision of the author's thesis (doctoral)--Emory University, 2004.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [289]-314) and indexes.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9783110915617

3110915618

OCLC:

868954329