Luke, Acts, and Their Generic Conversation Partners

This article offers a new way of thinking about the contested issue of Lukan genre. It outlines a dynamic conception of how genre functions, including attention to »generic enrichment« and »generic mobility,« and argues that identification of appropriate generic conversation partners provides a prox...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Crabbe, Kylie 1977- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Mohr Siebeck 2024
In: Early christianity
Year: 2024, Volume: 15, Issue: 1, Pages: 27-49
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Lucan writings / Historie (Prose) / Kind / Literary genre / History / Genre theory / Apocalypticism / Azariah
IxTheo Classification:AD Sociology of religion; religious policy
HA Bible
HC New Testament
Further subjects:B Historiography
B generic mobility
B Apocalypse
B Biography
B Genre
B Gospel of Luke
B generic enrichment
B Acts of the Apostles
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Summary:This article offers a new way of thinking about the contested issue of Lukan genre. It outlines a dynamic conception of how genre functions, including attention to »generic enrichment« and »generic mobility,« and argues that identification of appropriate generic conversation partners provides a proxy for contemporary readers of ancient texts to gain insight into that dynamic process among their texts' first readers. Applying these insights to Luke and Acts, the article then discusses two sets of generic conversation partners that illuminate Lukan interpretation. First, it explores the relevance of Hellenistic and early imperial period historiographies and biographies, alongside biblical historiography, with particular attention to Luke's infancy narratives. Second, it considers apocalypses, especially Daniel, as a source of generic enrichment in Luke's text. It concludes that early Christian audiences would find their reading of Luke's historiography enriched by previous familiarity with apocalypses, while noting the further generic mobility that will lead some readers of Acts to push into a new genre informed by Hellenistic novels, when they develop the apocryphal Acts tradition.
ISSN:1868-8020
Contains:Enthalten in: Early christianity
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1628/ec-2024-0004