Picturing Saulâs Vision on the Road to Damascus: A Question of Authorityâ©
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Saulâs vision of the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1-9) has been a popular theme for artists over the centuries because it expresses something meaningful to both the artists and their audiences. Meaning, however, changes over time. My aim in this article is to explore how and why the narrative of Acts asserts the authority of Saulâs vision and how audience perception of this authority evolved over time, as evident in artistic representations of Saulâs vision. By employing literary and rhetorical analysis, I will clarify the claim that the author of Acts employs this vision as a reliable message from God by exploring two related issues: (1) the centrality of the life of the community to the function of the vision; and (2) the establishment of credibility by means of the shared visionary experiences of unrelated corroborative witnesses. However, as many visual interpretations of Saulâs vision indicate, the conception of this vision encounter as divine guidance for a whole community did not continue to be a central part of its value for later Christians. On the contrary, Paulâs personal authority and/or transformation become(s) the significant outcome of the vision for later audiences. Therefore, this article will also engage in the study of reception history to show how perception of the authority granted to this vision changed over time and ultimately reframed the power of the vision by elevating the transformation of the individual over the transformation of the community.â©
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2
âSusan Niditch, Ancient Israelite Religion (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), pp. 35-45; Frances Flannery-Dailey, Dreamers, Scribes, and Priests: Jewish Dreams in the Hellenistic and Roman Eras (JSJSup, 90; Leiden: Brill, 2004), pp. 53-56; Susan Garrett, No Ordinary Angel: Celestial Spirits and Christian Claims about Jesus (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008), p. 30.
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5
âJohn A. Darr, Herod the Fox: Audience Criticism and Lukan Characterization (JSNTSup, 163; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 1998), pp. 20-21.
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15
âFlannery-Daily, Dreamers, p.17- 22. Flannery-Dailey states that dreams in the ancient world were thought to be âactual meetings with a transcendent realityâ (p. 17) and that a âmessage dream is a theophanyâ (p. 22). See also Johannes Lindblom, âTheophanies in Holy Places in Hebrew Religion,â HUCA 32 (1961), pp. 91-106 (93).
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32
âCharles W. Hedrick, âPaulâs Conversion/Call: A Comparative Analysis of the Three Reports in Acts,â JBL 100.3 (1981), pp. 415-32 (425, 427-32); Haenchen, The Acts of the Apostles, p. 322; Gerhard A. Krodel, Acts (Augsburg Commentary on the New Testament; Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1986), pp. 172-73; Joseph A. Fitzmyer, The Acts of the Apostles (AB, 31; New York: Doubleday, 1998), pp. 426, 706.
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35
âWitherup, âFunctional Redundancy in the Acts of the Apostles,â p. 78; Walsh, ââRealizingâ Paulâs Visions,â pp. 31-33. Robert L. Brawley, concludes that Paulâs characterization in Acts is intentionally ambiguous, the discrepancies between the three vision accounts both subordinate and do not subordinate Paul to the apostles (Centering on God: Method and Message in Luke-Acts, [Louisville: Westminster/John Knox, 1990] pp. 155, 158).
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42
âA.H.M. Kessels, Studies on the Dream in Greek Literature (Utrecht: HES, 1978), pp. 203-205.
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46
âCorley, âInterpreting Paulâs Conversion,â pp. 7-8. Walter Friedlaender notes that horses are not present in the oldest depictions of the scene, specifically in Byzantine manuscripts of the ninth and mosaics of the twelfth century (Caravaggio Studies [Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1955], p. 3).
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49
âJohn Shearman, Raphaelâs Cartoons in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen and the Tapestries for the Sistine Chapel (London: Phaidon, 1972), p. 44, cited in Hornik and Parson, Illuminating Luke, vol. 3. p. 66.
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51
âWilliam E. Wallace, âNarrative and Religious Expression in Michelangeloâs Pauline Chapel,â Artibus et Historiae 10.19 (1989), pp. 107-121 (107).
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53
âWallace, âNarrative and Religious Expression in Michelangeloâs Pauline Chapel,â p. 119.
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54
âWallace, âNarrative and Religious Expression in Michelangeloâs Pauline Chapel,â p. 119.
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56
âHelen Langdon, Caravaggio: A Life (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1999), p. 184.
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57
âAndrew Graham-Dixon, Caravaggio: A Life Sacred and Profane (New York: Penguins, 2011), p. 214.
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63
âGraham-Dixon, Caravaggio: A Life Sacred and Profane, p. 216.
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64
âHoward Hibbard, Caravaggio (New York: Harper & Row, 1983), p. 126.
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66
âGraham-Dixon, Caravaggio: A Life Sacred and Profane, p. 217. See also Friedlaenderâs conclusion that this unusual combination of biblical scenes imitates Michelangeloâs frescos in the Pauline Chapel (Caravaggio Studies, p. 7).
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67
âGrietje Sloan, âThe Transformation of Religious Conversion from the Renaissance to the Counter-Reformation: Petrarch and Caravaggio,â Historical Reflections/Réflexions Historiques 15.1 (1988), pp. 131-49 (143, 146), emphasis mine. Sloan sees a connection between the Cerasi Conversion and Protestant religious traits that were developing at this time.
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74
âKee, âThe Conversion of Paul,â p. 55; Walsh, ââRealizingâ Paulâs Visions,â p. 30.
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Picturing Saulâs Vision on the Road to Damascus: A Question of Authorityâ©
In: Biblical InterpretationSearch for other papers by Deborah Thompson Prince in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Saulâs vision of the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1-9) has been a popular theme for artists over the centuries because it expresses something meaningful to both the artists and their audiences. Meaning, however, changes over time. My aim in this article is to explore how and why the narrative of Acts asserts the authority of Saulâs vision and how audience perception of this authority evolved over time, as evident in artistic representations of Saulâs vision. By employing literary and rhetorical analysis, I will clarify the claim that the author of Acts employs this vision as a reliable message from God by exploring two related issues: (1) the centrality of the life of the community to the function of the vision; and (2) the establishment of credibility by means of the shared visionary experiences of unrelated corroborative witnesses. However, as many visual interpretations of Saulâs vision indicate, the conception of this vision encounter as divine guidance for a whole community did not continue to be a central part of its value for later Christians. On the contrary, Paulâs personal authority and/or transformation become(s) the significant outcome of the vision for later audiences. Therefore, this article will also engage in the study of reception history to show how perception of the authority granted to this vision changed over time and ultimately reframed the power of the vision by elevating the transformation of the individual over the transformation of the community.â©
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 1547 | 119 | 30 |
| Full Text Views | 665 | 6 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 347 | 9 | 0 |
