3 research outputs found
\u27Speech unhindered\u27: A study of irony in the Acts of the Apostles
This thesis explores Classical irony in the Acts of the Apostles. Recent studies of irony in Luke-Acts do not focus much on the Classical concept, developing their argument rather on more recent understandings. Although building on this literature, this thesis is grounded in a Classical understanding of irony, applies this to Acts, and reļ¬ects on its signiļ¬cance for Luke-Acts as a whole. While contemporary writers often tend to understand irony as āincongruity between expectation and reality,ā ļ¬rst century CE Greek speakers saw irony or eironeia as a personās behaviour, speciļ¬cally as āpretensionā or posturing. This behaviour, always calculated, conveys a feeling or knowledge which does not match the conveyerās ārealā feeling or knowledge. Eironeia takes two broad forms. The ļ¬rst is transparent; this is pretension which one person wishes another to recognize as such, sometimes deļ¬ned as āsaying one thing and conveying another.ā The second is opaque; this is pretension which one person does not wish another to recognize, but rather to assume is candid behaviour, and it aims to mislead. Acts rarely offers clear examples of eironeia. Opaque eironeia comes from the unreliable character Festus, who pretences respect and fairness to Paul, seeking to mislead him. Behaviour somewhat like opaque eironeia, and transparent eironeia, come ļ¬\u27om the reliable character Paul, marking his preaching to Jews and to Gentiles. Behaviours somewhat like eironeia come from God, but should not be labelled as such. Eironeia and behaviours like it hint that Luke-Acts draws on New Comic theatre to help interpret its content. Taken together, the use of eironeia-like behaviours, of agnoia (āignoranceā), peripeteia (āreversalā), and other New Comic aspects, suggests that we must pay more attention to Lukeās knowledge of New Comedy
Ancient Rhetoric and the Synoptic Problem
Only recently have studies of the synoptic problem begun to ground their assessments of literary dependence in ancient conventions. In an effort to appreciate more fully the evangelistsā modus operandi, our study examines their appeal to Greco-Roman rhetoric, the āscience of speaking well.ā Focusing on a rhetorical form called the chreia (xrei/a), we examine rhetorical techniques and reasons for chreia adaptation, particularly reasons why authors changed this form in theory and in the practice of the Hellenistic authors Plutarch and Josephus. With these reasons in mind, we assess literary dependence among the synoptic gospels, focusing on one chreia in the Triple Tradition (Matt. 9:14-17/Mark 2:18-22/Luke 5:33-39) and another in the Double Tradition (Matt. 12:22-37/Mark 3:20-35/Luke 11:14-36). Our study illustrates that hypotheses of Markan priority, like the Farrer Hypothesis and Two-Document Hypothesis, are more rhetorically plausible than hypotheses of Matthean priority. While Matthew and Lukeās adaptations of Mark reflect the rhetorical reasoning that we should expect, Markās reasoning is often problematic, for Mark repeatedly works against the fundamental rhetorical principles of clarity and propriety.Ph