Plots of Epiphany: Prison-Escape in Acts of the Apostles (Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft Book 131)

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. Acknowledgements 7 Chapter One: Prison-Escape and Myth-Criticism 13 1.1. Mythistory in Ancient and Modern Historiography 13 1.2 Myth and History in Acts 18 1.3. Prison-Escape Narratives in Acts 23 Chapter Two: Epiphanic Rescue from Prison in Ancient Myth and History 41 2.1. Dionysian Epiphanies and Resistance Myths 41 2.2. Liberating Appearance in Mythic Context 44 2.3. The Recrudescence of Dionysian Myth 71 2.4. Artapanus’ Concerning the Jews 76 2.5. Third Maccabees 90 2.6. Conclusions 101 Chapter Three: “Beginning from Jerusalem:” Prison-Escape and the Mythopoesis of Christian Origins in Acts 1–7 105 3.1. Prison-escape as Angelophany 106 3.2. Epiphany and the Poetics of Cult Foundation in Acts 1–7 129 3.3. The Architectonics of Arche: The Role of the Prison-Escape in Acts 1–7 138 3.4. The Myth of the God-fighter 144 3.5. Conclusions 156 Chapter Four: Rescue and Regicide: The Poetics and Politics of Group Validation in Acts 12 161 4.1. An History of Comparisons 161 4.2. Epiphanic Syntax of Acts 12 173 4.3. Miraculous Rescue and Regicide as Lukan Mythistory 201 4.4. Conclusions 229 Chapter Five: “A Door of Faith Opened to the Gentiles:” Prison Epiphany and Cult Foundation in Acts 16 231 5.1. Previous Interpretation of Acts 16 231 5.2. The Charges in Acts 16 and the Conventions of Roman Conservatism 238 5.3. The Poetics of Cult Foundation in Acts 16 245 5.4. The Foundation of the Christian Cult in the Colony of Philippi 257 5.5. Conclusion 289 Chapter Six: Conclusions 293 6.1. Narratological Conclusions 295 6.2. Theological Conclusions 296 6.3. Political Conclusions 298 Bibliography 301 Index of Ancient Sources 327 Index of Subjects 341 Index of Modern Authors 343 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