Plots of Epiphany

Prison-Escape in Acts of the Apostles

John B. Weaver

• Publisher: De Gruyter
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN:
  9783110182668
• eBook ISBN:
  9783110915617
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Criticism & Interpretation

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.

Table of contents

• Acknowledgements
• Chapter One: Prison-Escape and Myth-Criticism
• 1.1. Mythistory in Ancient and Modern Historiography
• 1.2 Myth and History in Acts
• 1.3. Prison-Escape Narratives in Acts
• Chapter Two: Epiphanic Rescue from Prison in Ancient Myth and History
• 2.1. Dionysian Epiphanies and Resistance Myths
• 2.2. Liberating Appearance in Mythic Context
• 2.3. The Recrudescence of Dionysian Myth
• 2.4. Artapanus’ Concerning the Jews
• 2.5. Third Maccabees
• 2.6. Conclusions
• Chapter Three: “Beginning from Jerusalem:” Prison-Escape and the Mythopoesis of Christian Origins in Acts 1–7
• 3.1. Prison-escape as Angelophany
• 3.2. Epiphany and the Poetics of Cult Foundation in Acts 1–7
• 3.3. The Architectonics of Arche: The Role of the Prison-Escape in Acts 1–7
• 3.4. The Myth of the God-fighter
• 3.5. Conclusions
• Chapter Four: Rescue and Regicide: The Poetics and Politics of Group Validation in Acts 12
• 4.1. An History of Comparisons
• 4.2. Epiphanic Syntax of Acts 12
• 4.3. Miraculous Rescue and Regicide as Lukan Mythistory
• 4.4. Conclusions
• Chapter Five: “A Door of Faith Opened to the Gentiles:” Prison Epiphany and Cult Foundation in Acts 16
• 5.1. Previous Interpretation of Acts 16
• 5.2. The Charges in Acts 16 and the Conventions of Roman Conservatism
• 5.3. The Poetics of Cult Foundation in Acts 16
• 5.4. The Foundation of the Christian Cult in the Colony of Philippi
• 5.5. Conclusion
• Chapter Six: Conclusions
• 6.1. Narratological Conclusions
• 6.2. Theological Conclusions
• 6.3. Political Conclusions
• Bibliography
• Index of Ancient Sources
• Index of Subjects
• Index of Modern Authors