David P. Moessner has pioneered the study of early Christian narrative both through the investigation of the principles and methods of good storytelling outlined by ancient authors, and through the demonstration that Christians, especially the author of Luke-Acts, used these principles and methods in crafting their own stories. The contributors to this volume recognize Moessnerâs enormously valuable research and warm collegiality with twenty-one essays on narrative hermeneutics, characterization, genre, intertextuality, and reception history. Several focus fittingly on Luke and Acts, while others press the implications of Moessnerâs work for comprehension of the wider world of Jewish, Christian, and Greco-Roman storytelling.
Robert Matthew Calhoun, Ph.D. (2011), University of Chicago, is Research Assistant to the Bradford Chair at Texas Christian University. He has recently published articles on Pauline literature (both authentic and pseudepigraphic) and early Christian apotropaic practices.
Margaret M. Mitchell, Ph.D. (1989), is Shailer Mathews Distinguished Service Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at the University of Chicago. Her research focuses on and analyzes the development of an early Christian literary and religious culture, from the letters of Paul to the late fourth century.
Tobias Nicklas, Dr. theol. (2000), is Professor of New Testament and Director of the Centre of Advanced Studies "Beyond Canon" at Universität Regensburg, Germany. He is author of more than 250 scholarly publications centering, among other topics, on Christian apocrypha, early Christian Gospels, the Book of Revelation, Jewish-Christian Dialogue, and Biblical Hermeneutics.
Janet E. Spittler, Ph.D. (2007), University of Chicago, is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia. Her research centers around early Christian apocrypha, particularly the apocryphal acts of the apostles.
Abbreviations Notes on Contributors David P. Moessnerâs Publications (1978â2023)
Introduction
âRobert Matthew Calhoun, Margaret M. Mitchell, Tobias Nicklas and Janet E. Spittler
Part 1: Narrative Hermeneutics
1 Bending Time: Time and Eternity in the Fourth Gospel
âHarold W. Attridge
2 The Beheading of John the Baptizer and the Mutilation of Masistesâs Wife (Mark 6:17â29, Esther, Josephus, Ant. 18.116â119, and Herodotus, Hist. 9.109â112)
âCilliers Breytenbach
3 Metalepsis in Narrative Charms and Miracle Stories
âRobert Matthew Calhoun
4 Repetition and Narrative Progress: on the Arrangement of Doublets in the Gospel of Luke
âWolfgang Grünstäudl
5 Hopes of Resurrection in Greek Texts of Early Judaism
âNarrative Theology in the Greek Life of Adam and Eve in Light of the Septuagint Translation of the Psalms, Sirach, and Job
âKarl-Wilhelm Niebuhr
6 Messianic Interpretation of Israelâs Scripture and the Recognition of Jesusâs Identity in Luke 24
âLidija Novakovic
7 Corpse Care in the Lukan Corpus: the Rhetoric of Ritual
âMikeal C. Parsons
Part 2: Characterization
8 Character Studies: What Theophrastus Could Have Learned from Luke
âC. Clifton Black
9 Paul the Mystic in His Letters and Acts
âPredrag DragutinoviÄ
10 Love and the Lukan Jesus
âJan G. van der Watt
11 Imperial Characters and Imperial Language in Luke-Acts
âMichael Wolter
Part 3: Genre
12 Prioritizing Process over Product: toward a Genre of Matthewâs Gospel
âThomas R. Hatina
13 Is Acts History? The Dog That Didnât Bark
âCarl R. Holladay
14 Acts as a Construction of Social Memory
âDaniel Marguerat
15 The Acts of Peter (Actus Vercellenses): a Jesus Christ Story?
âTobias Nicklas
16 The Bioi of Pythagoras as Gospels
âJohan C. Thom
Part 4: Intertextuality and Reception History
17 The Form of God and the Emotional Qualities of Piety in the Greek Pseudo-Clementine Novel
âPatricia A. Duncan
18 Reading the Rhetoric of Papias and Eusebius on Mark, Once More
âMargaret M. Mitchell
19 The Lukan Character of Extensively Rewritten Passages in 127 and D05
âClare K. Rothschild
20 The Acts of Timothy, Lukeâs Prologue, and Gospel Prologues: Accounts of the Composition of Early Christian Narratives
âJanet E. Spittler
21 A Faint Echo of Acts with No Small Implication in Justin Martyrâs Dialogue with Trypho
âJoseph Verheyden
Index of Ancient Sources Index of Modern Authors
Academic libraries and research institutes, and specialists and graduate students in the fields of New Testament, Early Christian Studies, Classics, and Ancient Literary Criticism