David P. Moessner has pioneered the study of early Christian narrative both through the investigation of the principles and methods of good storytelling outlined by ancient authors, and through the demonstration that Christians, especially the author of Luke-Acts, used these principles and methods in crafting their own stories. The contributors to this volume recognize Moessner’s enormously valuable research and warm collegiality with twenty-one essays on narrative hermeneutics, characterization, genre, intertextuality, and reception history. Several focus fittingly on Luke and Acts, while others press the implications of Moessner’s work for comprehension of the wider world of Jewish, Christian, and Greco-Roman storytelling.
Robert Matthew Calhoun, Ph.D. (2011), University of Chicago, is Research Assistant to the Bradford Chair at Texas Christian University. He has recently published articles on Pauline literature (both authentic and pseudepigraphic) and early Christian apotropaic practices.
Margaret M. Mitchell, Ph.D. (1989), is Shailer Mathews Distinguished Service Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at the University of Chicago. Her research focuses on and analyzes the development of an early Christian literary and religious culture, from the letters of Paul to the late fourth century.
Tobias Nicklas, Dr. theol. (2000), is Professor of New Testament and Director of the Centre of Advanced Studies "Beyond Canon" at Universität Regensburg, Germany. He is author of more than 250 scholarly publications centering, among other topics, on Christian apocrypha, early Christian Gospels, the Book of Revelation, Jewish-Christian Dialogue, and Biblical Hermeneutics.
Janet E. Spittler, Ph.D. (2007), University of Chicago, is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia. Her research centers around early Christian apocrypha, particularly the apocryphal acts of the apostles.
Abbreviations Notes on Contributors David P. Moessner’s Publications (1978–2023)
Introduction Robert Matthew Calhoun, Margaret M. Mitchell, Tobias Nicklas and Janet E. Spittler
Part 1: Narrative Hermeneutics
1 Bending Time: Time and Eternity in the Fourth Gospel Harold W. Attridge
2 The Beheading of John the Baptizer and the Mutilation of Masistes’s Wife (Mark 6:17–29, Esther, Josephus, Ant. 18.116–119, and Herodotus, Hist. 9.109–112) Cilliers Breytenbach
3 Metalepsis in Narrative Charms and Miracle Stories Robert Matthew Calhoun
4 Repetition and Narrative Progress: on the Arrangement of Doublets in the Gospel of Luke Wolfgang Grünstäudl
5 Hopes of Resurrection in Greek Texts of Early Judaism
Narrative Theology in the Greek Life of Adam and Eve in Light of the Septuagint Translation of the Psalms, Sirach, and Job
Karl-Wilhelm Niebuhr
6 Messianic Interpretation of Israel’s Scripture and the Recognition of Jesus’s Identity in Luke 24 Lidija Novakovic
7 Corpse Care in the Lukan Corpus: the Rhetoric of Ritual Mikeal C. Parsons
Part 2: Characterization
8 Character Studies: What Theophrastus Could Have Learned from Luke C. Clifton Black
9 Paul the Mystic in His Letters and Acts Predrag Dragutinović
10 Love and the Lukan Jesus Jan G. van der Watt
11 Imperial Characters and Imperial Language in Luke-Acts Michael Wolter
Part 3: Genre
12 Prioritizing Process over Product: toward a Genre of Matthew’s Gospel Thomas R. Hatina
13 Is Acts History? The Dog That Didn’t Bark Carl R. Holladay
14 Acts as a Construction of Social Memory Daniel Marguerat
15 The Acts of Peter (Actus Vercellenses): a Jesus Christ Story? Tobias Nicklas
16 The Bioi of Pythagoras as Gospels Johan C. Thom
Part 4: Intertextuality and Reception History
17 The Form of God and the Emotional Qualities of Piety in the Greek Pseudo-Clementine Novel Patricia A. Duncan
18 Reading the Rhetoric of Papias and Eusebius on Mark, Once More Margaret M. Mitchell
19 The Lukan Character of Extensively Rewritten Passages in 127 and D05 Clare K. Rothschild
20 The Acts of Timothy, Luke’s Prologue, and Gospel Prologues: Accounts of the Composition of Early Christian Narratives Janet E. Spittler
21 A Faint Echo of Acts with No Small Implication in Justin Martyr’s Dialogue with Trypho Joseph Verheyden
Index of Ancient Sources Index of Modern Authors
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