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 Moessners 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 Moessners work for comprehension of the wider world of Jewish, Christian, and Greco-Roman storytelling.
Abbreviations
Notes on Contributors
David P. Moessners Publications (19782023)
Introduction
Robert 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
Harold W. Attridge
2 The Beheading of John the Baptizer and the Mutilation of Masistess Wife
(Mark 6:1729, Esther, Josephus, Ant. 18.116119, and Herodotus, Hist.
9.109112)
Cilliers Breytenbach
3 Metalepsis in Narrative Charms and Miracle Stories
Robert Matthew Calhoun
4 Repetition and Narrative Progress: on the Arrangement of Doublets in the
Gospel of Luke
Wolfgang Grünstäudl
5 Hopes of Resurrection in Greek Texts of Early Judaism
Narrative Theology in the Greek Life of Adam and Eve in Light of the
Septuagint Translation of the Psalms, Sirach, and Job
Karl-Wilhelm Niebuhr
6 Messianic Interpretation of Israels Scripture and the Recognition of
Jesuss Identity in Luke 24
Lidija Novakovic
7 Corpse Care in the Lukan Corpus: the Rhetoric of Ritual
Mikeal C. Parsons
Part 2: Characterization
8 Character Studies: What Theophrastus Could Have Learned from Luke
C. Clifton Black
9 Paul the Mystic in His Letters and Acts
Predrag Dragutinovi
10 Love and the Lukan Jesus
Jan G. van der Watt
11 Imperial Characters and Imperial Language in Luke-Acts
Michael Wolter
Part 3: Genre
12 Prioritizing Process over Product: toward a Genre of Matthews Gospel
Thomas R. Hatina
13 Is Acts History? The Dog That Didnt Bark
Carl R. Holladay
14 Acts as a Construction of Social Memory
Daniel Marguerat
15 The Acts of Peter (Actus Vercellenses): a Jesus Christ Story?
Tobias Nicklas
16 The Bioi of Pythagoras as Gospels
Johan 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
Patricia A. Duncan
18 Reading the Rhetoric of Papias and Eusebius on Mark, Once More
Margaret M. Mitchell
19 The Lukan Character of Extensively Rewritten Passages in 127 and D05
Clare K. Rothschild
20 The Acts of Timothy, Lukes Prologue, and Gospel Prologues: Accounts of
the Composition of Early Christian Narratives
Janet E. Spittler
21 A Faint Echo of Acts with No Small Implication in Justin Martyrs Dialogue
with Trypho
Joseph Verheyden
Index of Ancient Sources
Index of Modern Authors
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.
