Commission Narratives: A Comparative Study of the Canonical and Apocryphal Acts

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Commission Narratives is based on the author's doctoral dissertation in Groningen (2002). The monograph offers the first overarching, comparative treatment of commission narratives in the canonical and apocryphal Acts of the Apostles, analysing them in their ancient literary setting. Following a survey of this widespread narrative theme in the cultural environment of early Christianity, Czachesz establishes a threefold social typology of divine commission (institutional, prophetic and philosophical) and explores the occurences of the three types in the canonical and apocryphal Acts. The central chapters of the book provide a close reading of the textual evidence, investigating intertextual relations, the function of commission in the narrative structure, and the biographical models of self-definition that commission stories offered to the ancient readers in their changing social and ecclesiastical environments. Based on this textual analysis, Czachesz makes new proposals about the reconstruction, Sitz im Leben and dating of several apocryphal Acts. Finally, he examines the synchronic structure of commission, showing that the variety of commission narratives emerges from a constant set of motifs that are generated by interactions among the characters.