An early Byzantine Pseudepigraphon: the Apocryphal Acta Barnabae

This paper treats the fifth-century AD apocryphal Acta Barnabae (= ABarn). § I sets out briefly the consensus view of ABarn’s main aim - to establish the autocephaly of the Cypriot Church by endowing it with an apostolic founder, Barnabas, in a text modelled on Acts which affects to be contemporary...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Cairns, Francis (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: De Gruyter [2019]
In: Byzantinische Zeitschrift
Year: 2019, Volume: 112, Issue: 1, Pages: 47-66
Further subjects:B Byzantine studies
B Patristics
B Theologie und Religion
B Altertumswissenschaften
B History
B Diverses
B Historische Epochen
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Volltext (doi)
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Summary:This paper treats the fifth-century AD apocryphal Acta Barnabae (= ABarn). § I sets out briefly the consensus view of ABarn’s main aim - to establish the autocephaly of the Cypriot Church by endowing it with an apostolic founder, Barnabas, in a text modelled on Acts which affects to be contemporary with Acts and to be the work of John Mark. § II examines ABarn’s detailed interactions with Acts, its foregrounding of Barnabas over Paul, and its centralising of Cyprus in early Christianity; ‘itinerary style’ is highlighted as a prominent feature of ABarn’s striving for verisimilitude. § III treats ABarn’s use of further ‘novelistic’ strategies for the same purpose; they mostly draw on topoi, but sometimes arguably on personal knowledge of Cyprus. § IV reflects on ABarn’s curious downgrading of its inscribed author, John Mark. This is attributed to the anti-Monophysite stance of the fifth-century (Orthodox) Cypriot Church towards both the Antiochene and Alexandrian Patriarchates.null
ISSN:1868-9027
Contains:Enthalten in: Byzantinische Zeitschrift
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1515/bz-2019-0004