An Exemplary Man

Cornelius and Characterization in Acts 10

Bonnie J. Flessen

• Publisher: Pickwick Publications
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN: 9781610972949, 9781498259972
• eBook ISBN: 9781630876029
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Theology

While most scholars focus on the character of Cornelius as a model Gentile, Bonnie Flessen argues that Cornelius is also a model male figure for Luke's audience. When analyzed closely, the characterization of Cornelius reveals a multifaceted rhetorical strategy regarding both gender and empire. This strategy lifts up a rather surprising portrait of an exemplary man who represents the Roman Empire and yet nevertheless manifests the virtues of submission, piety, and generosity. Flessen also proposes a hermeneutic of masculinity as a means to exegete Acts and other New Testament texts. This critical lens provides interpreters with a way of thinking about gender when female characters are absent or sparse. Although constructs of gender are embedded in texts, interpreters can use recent scholarship on masculinity along with extrabiblical evidence as tools to excavate the contours of the male figure in antiquity.

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Method and Hermeneutic

Cornelius comes to us in the form of a story. Luke crafts his account in narrative form so that the audience experiences the characters and events in a literary context. This chapter focuses on the literary nature of the book of Acts and the literary methods with which Luke-Acts has been studied. I will review different scholarly perspectives on ancient characterization and characterization among modern literary critics. Here the work of Schlomith Rimmon-Kenan and David Gowler will take precedence. I will also review works written by John Darr, who has studied characterization in Luke-Acts. While this study does not wholly adopt the perspectives of these scholars, I will suggest that characterization, rhetoric, and gender can form a prism through which we can view the masculinity of Cornelius. I will define key terms and suggest that a hermeneutic of masculinity can be fused with narrative criticism in order to gauge what kind of man Cornelius is. Finally, I will review the sequence of male characters leading up to Cornelius in Acts 10, identifying how Luke characterizes each of them.

Characterization as an Area of Scholarly Debate

Since literary criticism of the New Testament began to appear on the scholarly scene, literary critics have studied how narrators of New Testament texts describe and reveal the characters that appear in New Testament narratives. In this section, I will summarize the scholarly debates regarding ancient characterization. Since New Testament narratives are ancient, some scholars insist on discussing how the ancients revealed and described their characters. Rather than focus on how modern authors build characters, these scholars study biblical stories for clues about ancient techniques of characterization. These studies have produced four insights: a preference for indirect characterization rather than direct description of characters, a focus on the outward activities of a character rather than the psychological makeup of a character’s mind, a tendency toward characters that do not change, and an emphasis on how a character is embedded in society. I will also summarize modern debates about characterization in literature, including issues of plot and narration. This summary will set the stage for an assessment of the secondary scholarship surrounding characterization in Luke-Acts.

Critical studies of ancient characterization have provided biblical scholars with four main insights about the ways in which the ancients developed and revealed their characters. First, studies point out a preference for indirect characterization rather than direct description of ancient characters. Indirect or implicit characterization relies on the audience to infer character traits. Rather than telling the audience directly about the character, the narrator describes the actions or speech of a character, and the audience extracts and infers traits from those actions. Richard Thompson states that in Greco-Roman literature, “the typical way to present a character is by implicit description, in which the narrative focuses on the character’s actions rather than one’s h1qoj.”1 This implicit method is far from incomplete, however. According to Aristotle, to know one’s praxis is to know one’s ethos.2 The description of the activities of Cornelius (his prayer and almsgiving, for example) focuses on his praxis; from these actions, the audience infers that Cornelius is pious.3

Second, ancient narratives tend to describe the outward activities of a character rather than his or her inward thoughts and reflections. Ancient narrators rarely reflect on the psychological makeup of a character; thus the audience sometimes remains unaware about a character’s motivations.4 These ancient narratives do not address psychological questions, and according to some critics, do not allow for individuality among ancient characters.5 To ask why Cornelius became affiliated with Judaism is to ask a question that the narrator will not answer; instead the narrator brings his outward activities to the fore without explaining the reasons for or complications of Cornelius’ religious choice.

Third, in ancient narratives, some scholars consider ancient characters to be “unchanging and predictable.”6 These predictable characters model certain traits or behavior that the audience can evaluate.7 In regard to classical literature such as Homer, Fred Burnett argues that “characters were presented as types, that is, either as ideal representation or as an example of the characteristics of a species or group.”8 For example, the narrator of Acts portrays Cornelius as an ideal God-fearer and faithful representative of Gentiles who can be incorporated into the Way. Because of the direction of the Holy Spirit, Cornelius changes, but he continues to appear faithful as he joins the emerging church and becomes baptized as a follower of Jesus.

Fourth, ancient characterization places emphasis on the relationships that a character has with larger families or groups. Ancient characters and people were embedded in layers of biological and fictive kin, religious groups, patron-client networks, and other political and social strata. This embeddedness appears even in one’s personality; the phrase “dyadic personality” refers to the ways that one person was intimately connected with another. As a result, even one’s view of self reflects others. In his book Portraits of Paul, Bruce Malina studies ancient rhetorical handbooks and texts as “native informants” in order to learn how ancient people described and understood the self and one another.9 According to Malina, ancient rhetorical texts such as encomiums, progymnasmata, and forensic speeches reveal a high regard for individuals who are deeply embedded in society. Encomiums included references to a person’s origin and birth, education, accomplishments, and a comparison to other persons; these references linked a person to others and compared that person to others who did not measure up.10 Although Malina’s approach is not without problems, his argument draws attention to the tightly woven nature of Greco-Roman society and the individuals who maneuvered within that society.11 As a character that is embedded in Roman political structure, Judaism, friendship, and the emerging church, Cornelius illustrates the way in which a man could be integrated into multiple groups at one time.

Characterization continues to generate debate among modern literary critics and critics of New Testament texts. While some New Testament scholars put more emphasis on comparison with ancient characterization, others consult scholars who do not limit their inquiry to ancient narratives. Critics of modern literature such as Schlomith Rimmon-Kenan figure into the current scholarly landscape about how to understand characterization in biblical literature. Biblical scholars such as Gowler see debates revolving around the theories of characterization.12 I will summarize Gowler’s analysis and include two other literary issues: telling versus showi...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Method and Hermeneutic
• Chapter 2: Scholarly Perspectives on Masculinity
• Chapter 3: Cornelius and the Virtue of Piety
• Chapter 4: Cornelius the Centurion
• Conclusion
• Bibliography