Broken Chains, Open Doors, and Mad Women: Prison Escape Narratives in Euripides’ Bacchae and Acts of the Apostles

The Acts of the Apostles is an adventure tale for the ages; it features long journeys, worthy adversaries, strong protagonists, shipwrecks, and harrowing prison escapes as it follows the apostles, and the spread of what would become Christianity across the ancient world. The similarities between these scenes and those found in more popular literature suggests that they may function at the level of entertainment value. If so, we might better understand these episodes if studied in relation to other forms of ancient “entertainment” media, especially the ancient drama. This paper will examine Peter’s prison escape in Acts 12, exploring its similarities to broader prison escape narratives in the ancient world, especially those presented in Euripides’ Bacchae 434-450 and 604-641. While much of the comparative work between these texts has focused on lexical analysis, relying heavily on individual verses’ intertextual similarities, this paper will seek to broaden this comparison, focusing more on plotline/narrative similarities rather than purely lexical comparisons. The paper will then turn to the potential thematic parallels that can be drawn between Euripides’ depiction of the maenads of Dionysian cults, and the character of Rhoda, the slave woman. The framing narrative of the prison escape allows for a reading of Rhoda that places her (and to some extent the Christian community) in parallel to the Dionysiac bacchantes. This paper will argue that the prevalence of women both within the Dionysus cult and in the early Christian communities evokes a more sympathetic reading of Acts 12’s “mad” slave girl Rhoda, and seeks to re-understand what this “mad woman” is doing in the context of Acts

Empagliflozin in Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease

Background The effects of empagliflozin in patients with chronic kidney disease who are at risk for disease progression are not well understood. The EMPA-KIDNEY trial was designed to assess the effects of treatment with empagliflozin in a broad range of such patients. Methods We enrolled patients with chronic kidney disease who had an estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) of at least 20 but less than 45 ml per minute per 1.73 m(2) of body-surface area, or who had an eGFR of at least 45 but less than 90 ml per minute per 1.73 m(2) with a urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio (with albumin measured in milligrams and creatinine measured in grams) of at least 200. Patients were randomly assigned to receive empagliflozin (10 mg once daily) or matching placebo. The primary outcome was a composite of progression of kidney disease (defined as end-stage kidney disease, a sustained decrease in eGFR to < 10 ml per minute per 1.73 m(2), a sustained decrease in eGFR of & GE;40% from baseline, or death from renal causes) or death from cardiovascular causes. Results A total of 6609 patients underwent randomization. During a median of 2.0 years of follow-up, progression of kidney disease or death from cardiovascular causes occurred in 432 of 3304 patients (13.1%) in the empagliflozin group and in 558 of 3305 patients (16.9%) in the placebo group (hazard ratio, 0.72; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.64 to 0.82; P < 0.001). Results were consistent among patients with or without diabetes and across subgroups defined according to eGFR ranges. The rate of hospitalization from any cause was lower in the empagliflozin group than in the placebo group (hazard ratio, 0.86; 95% CI, 0.78 to 0.95; P=0.003), but there were no significant between-group differences with respect to the composite outcome of hospitalization for heart failure or death from cardiovascular causes (which occurred in 4.0% in the empagliflozin group and 4.6% in the placebo group) or death from any cause (in 4.5% and 5.1%, respectively). The rates of serious adverse events were similar in the two groups. Conclusions Among a wide range of patients with chronic kidney disease who were at risk for disease progression, empagliflozin therapy led to a lower risk of progression of kidney disease or death from cardiovascular causes than placebo