Category: New Testament

Continuation…..

Excursis (only — not a foundational point): Another intermediate “little Troy”

(I will discuss in depth in a later excerpt the unity of Troas, the Troad and Troy in the Classical literature)

In passing it may be worth noting that after Aeneas left Troy and while Italy was still far off Aeneas came upon a second “little Troy” in Greece. Epirus had been populated earlier by Trojan refugees who rebuilt a Troy-like citadel and even attempted a second Xanthus River nearby. Aeneas’ party were welcomed as “fellow-citizens”. Epirus and Rome were both destined to be known as a new Troy, twin sister cities (Aeneid III.503-505).

Of specific note is that the first person Aeneas met here was a woman praying by a river, the royal Andromache, who welcomed him warmly. (III.294ff) Compare below the first person Paul met on reaching his “second Rome” – a woman wealthy from selling purple who was met at a place of prayer by a river (Acts 16:13).

The next person Aeneas met was a man who had the power of prophecy, Helenus. Aeneas greeted him with “You … are Heaven’s interpreter. You know the truth of Apollo’s power …What will guide me safely through the dread ordeals to come?” (III.358ff) Compare the second person Paul is said to have met in Philippi, the slave girl with the false spirit of divination. She greeted Paul with “These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation” (Acts 16:17). The author of Acts never takes kindly to pagan prophets and rites.

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This is the continuation with the next bit of something I tried to work out a while ago. A series of many more “bits” will follow this one to suggest that the author of Acts was using the “we-passages” as a rhetorical device to advance the theme of Acts as a “mini-epic” telling the tale of a new founding myth for Rome/the church….

Continue reading “The We-Passages in Acts: a Roman Audience Interpretation. Pt 8”

Revised 25th Dec. — 6.30 am

Now that I am adding my two-year old thoughts about the we-passages on this blog segment by segment I have had to recheck what I had written and that has led to a belated reminder about the roots of this interpretation. I mentioned Bonz recently, and I now recall that it was a follow-on study from that that led to seeing the we-passages jig-sawing into a perfect fit into a vicariously involved Roman audience view. Damn. I began writing the we-passages from the wrong end. I should really have just made separate reference to the we-passages in just one section of the Bonz-conceived view of Acts as a whole.

I will have to explore this in writing over time afresh. But for now I can list some of the rubrics of what I was thinking:

Continue reading “The We-Passages in Acts: a Roman Audience Interpretation. Pt 7”

Revised:
Have just had another look in Marianne Palmer Bonz’s The Past as Legacy: Luke-Acts and Ancient Epic and rediscovered the obvious original inspiration for my view of the we-passages in Acts. She writes, after discussing the other suggestions up to the Robbins and MacDonald views:

The “we” passages do not represent historical, eyewitness accounts. But while they are, therefore, rhetorical, they were not created to add verisimilitude to Luke’s historical narrative. Nor was Luke merely attempting to follow a literary convention for certain types of adventurous voyages. Rather, the “we” references serve as rhetorical shorthand for the Pauline Christians — those who are vicariously privy to Paul’s example and who, as heirs to his legacy, have been called by him to continue his unfinished mission. They are Luke’s intended audience, whose participation in the ongoing drama of God’s salvation plan is signaled by the words of the Luke prologue: “concerning the events that have been fulfilled among us“. . .’ (p.173)

What I am attempting to do is to elaborate on this, though not necessarily in the way that Bonz herself might go. I am seeing the “we” less in terms of Pauline Christians per se than in the targets of the revised founding myth.

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