Commission Narratives: A comparative Study of the Canonical and Apocryphal Acts
István Czachesz
Peeters Publishers, 2007-08-09 - 322 pages
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Commission
Narratives is based on the author's doctoral dissertation in Groningen
(2002). The monograph offers the first overarching, comparative
treatment of commission narratives in the canonical and apocryphal Acts
of the Apostles, analysing them in their ancient literary setting.
Following a survey of this widespread narrative theme in the cultural
environment of early Christianity, Czachesz establishes a threefold
social typology of divine commission (institutional, prophetic and
philosophical) and explores the occurences of the three types in the
canonical and apocryphal Acts. The central chapters of the book provide a
close reading of the textual evidence, investigating intertextual
relations, the function of commission in the narrative structure, and
the biographical models of self-definition that commission stories
offered to the ancient readers in their changing social and
ecclesiastical environments. Based on this textual analysis, Czachesz
makes new proposals about the reconstruction, Sitz im Leben and dating
of several apocryphal Acts. Finally, he examines the synchronic
structure of commission, showing that the variety of commission
narratives emerges from a constant set of motifs that are generated by
interactions among the characters.
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