Better Call Paul "Saul": Literary Models and a Lukan Innovation
This article argues that Luke's characterization of Saul as a god-fighter can be read as modeled on the biblical King Saul and on Pentheus from Euripides's Bacchae, and that the characterization of Paul in Acts 13:4-17:15 can be read as modeled on the Bacchae's Dionysus. My approach,...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Scholar's Press
[2019]
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| In: |
Journal of Biblical literature
Year: 2019, Volume: 138, Issue: 2, Pages: 433-449 |
| Further subjects: | B
BACCHAE (Play : Euripides)
B Dionysus (Greek deity) B PENTHEUS (Greek mythology) B LITERARY interpretation B HELLENISTIC antiquities |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | This article argues that Luke's characterization of Saul as a god-fighter can be read as modeled on the biblical King Saul and on Pentheus from Euripides's Bacchae, and that the characterization of Paul in Acts 13:4-17:15 can be read as modeled on the Bacchae's Dionysus. My approach, appealing to the Bacchae as a literary model, avoids a weakness of similar interpretations of the name Saul, which date to the early church, that it is a reference to King Saul. Saul remains "Saul" after the Damascus Road experience in order to demonstrate the appropriate response of one found to be a god-fighter, emulating Pentheus's model. |
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| ISSN: | 1934-3876 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of Biblical literature
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1353/jbl.2019.0023 |