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University of Groningen the Apocryphal Acts of Paul and Thecla University of Groningen The Apocryphal Acts of Paul And Thecla Bremmer, Jan N. IMPORTANT NOTE: You are advised to consult the publisher's version (publisher's PDF) if you wish to cite from it. Please check the document version below. Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Publication date: 1996 Link to publication in University of Groningen/UMCG research database Citation for published version (APA): Bremmer, J. N. (1996). The Apocryphal Acts of Paul And Thecla. (2 ed.) Kok Pharos Publishers. Copyright Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). The publication may also be distributed here under the terms of Article 25fa of the Dutch Copyright Act, indicated by the “Taverne” license. More information can be found on the University of Groningen website: https://www.rug.nl/library/open-access/self-archiving-pure/taverne- amendment. Take-down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Downloaded from the University of Groningen/UMCG research database (Pure): http://www.rug.nl/research/portal. For technical reasons the number of authors shown on this cover page is limited to 10 maximum. Download date: 30-09-2021 VIII. The resurrection in the Acts of Paul PIETER J. LALLEMAN Professor W.C. van Unnik died in 1978, a few months before I started my studies of Theology in Utrecht University. It is he who called the resurrection 'almost an articulus stantis aut cadentis ecclesiae in the second century.' He also said that the doctrine of the resurrection had been part and parcel of the teaching of the Church from the very beginning and that this doctrine is expressly stated or presupposed in all the books of the NT. In the third century the dispute died down, but in the second century the resurrection was the main topic of polemics within and without the church.' It is indicative of the diversity of opinion in the study of the New Testament that Van Unnik's view is not undisputed. For example, James Robinson thinks that at least two views on the resurrection existed side by side from the very beginning of Christianity. In his view, there were already some in the first century who denied a future resurrection, as attested in 1 Cor 15.12 and 2 Tim 2.18. Robinson gives us an interesting picture of the branch of Christianity that denied a future resurrection, but his efforts to find this trajectory in and behind the NT are hardly con- vincing; his best witnesses are second-century texts which sup- posedly preserve older traditions. It is not until the second century that the debate over the resurrection comes to the fore, and it is the second century with which we deal in this paper. From this 1 W.C. van Unnik, Sparsa Collecta 111 (Leiden, 1983) 244-72 ('The newly discovered Gnostic Epistle to Rheginos on the resurrection', J. Eccl. Hist. 15, 1964, 141-67), esp. 246, 258. THE RESURRECTION 127 period stem Robinson's favourite witnesses, such as the Epistle to Rheginos (EpRh) and the Gospel of Philip.2 In this contribution we will sometimes compare the points of view of EpRh with those of the Acts of Paul (AP). The EpRh is a Valentinian text, careful not to deny ecclesiastical standpoints but to interpret them in a way that is acceptable for Gno~tics.~ The Acts of Paul The AP reflects the vividness of the debate concerning the resur- rection in the second century. It is best seen as a composite text, of which the resurrection is a theme in the most important parts, the Acts of Paul and Thecla (AThe 3), the Corinthian correspon- dence (8) and the Martyrium Pauli (MP 1 In the MP it occurs twice: initially, Paul heals Nero's servant Patroklos; later he him- self appears after death.5 There are also stories about miraculous resurrections in the papyrus fragments, but they are too fragmen- tary to be useful here.6 Had the author of the AP lived in our 2 M.J. Edwards, 'The Epistle to Rheginus: Valentinianism in fourth century', NT 37 (1995) 76-91, suggests the fourth century, but see J.N. Bremmer, 'The Resurrection between Zarathustra and Jonathan Z. Smith', Nederlands Theologisch Tijdschrift SO (1996) 89-107, esp. 102. 3 J.M. Robinson, 'Jesus from Easter to Valentinus (or to the Apostles' Creed)', J. Bibl. Lit. 101 (1983) 5-37. 4 See L. van Kampen, Apostelverhalen (Diss. Utrecht, 1990) 90-3. The original unity of the text is upheld by R.J. Bauckham, 'The Acts of Paul as a Sequel to Acts' in B.W. Winter & A.D. Clarke (eds), The Book of Acts in Its Ancient Literary Setting (Grand Rapids and Carlisle, 1993), 113 n. 20, 131-9. W. Rordorf (who prepares the CCSA edition of the text) and P.W. Dunn (in his forthcoming dissertation The Acts of Paul and the Pauline Legaq in the Second Century) think that only 3 Cor predates the composition of AP. 5 See also Bolyki, this volume, Ch. 6. 6 In the preaching of Paul in Italy (10) reference is made to the fact that Jesus raised up the dead, but this is marginal. Miracle stories: the very fragmentary episode in Antioch (2), the (lacunose) episode in Myra 128 PIETER J. LALLEMAN time, he would have sided with Van Unnik against Robinson. The AP is a typical example of the novelistic genre of the AAA, even in the way in which it deals with the resurrection, so that it can scarcely be compared with treatises which work with many arguments and counter-arguments like Justin's De resurrectione, Tertullian's De camis resurrectione, and others. The (fictional) Corinthian correspondence is qua form unique within the AAA, being the only explicit treatment of a doctrinal problem.' Its form is less ingenious than that of EpRh, which does not need a separ- ate letter from Rheginos in order to let his questions resound in the answers. The resurrection of Christ We will first look at the resurrection of Christ. In the first para- graph of the AThe we are told that Paul preached 'all the words of the Lord, of the doctrine and of the interpretation of the Gospel,' both of the birth and of the resurrection of the Bel~ved.'~The summary of Paul's preaching includes sayings (logia) of the Lord as well as narratives about the major events of his life, which for our author are his birth and resurrection. The Corinthian correspondence in its initial summary of Paul's reply states that the Lord Jesus saves 'all flesh through his own flesh' and that he will 'raise us bodily from the death after his own example' (typos, 111.6). These words imply that the Lord arose bodily and that this resurrection is influential for the believers, no doubt because of his special role as the divine where Paul cures Hermocrates and raises his son Dion (4), and the episode at Philippi where Pauls raises Frontina (8). 7 Van Karnpen, Apostelverhalen, 93. 8 The text here is uncertain in that both the clauses 'of the doctrine' and 'of the interpretation of the Gospel' are absent in manuscripts, but this is immaterial for our present question. 9 Irenaeus uses the word 'beloved' in the creed-like passage Ah. Haer. 1.10.1: 'the incarnate assumption into the heavens of the beloved (fiyaxqptvou) Christ Jesus'. THE RESURRECTION 129 example (111.16-1 7). The line of argument is clearly anti-docetic. The use of the word 'example' is interesting in that it suggests the same corporeality for the Lord and for man, both now and in the world to come. The mentioning of the Lord's body and resurrec- tion is not complemented by attention to his suffering and death. As in the other parts of the AP, this aspect of the message of the New Testament is more in the background. lo It is remarkable that it is absent in EpRh. The resurrection of Christ is mentioned explicitly in 111.25 as the first proof of the resurrection of all, and again in the con- clusion of the chain of arguments for the resurrection (III.31). In the first case a form of the verb anistemi is used, in the second a form of egeiro. We note that just the bare fact of the resurrection of Christ is mentioned, without any additions from gospels or legends. Even the terms 'after three days' and 'on the third day' are absent, though the first occurs in connection with Jonah (111.30). 111.15-18 lays great stress on the reality of the body of the incarnate Lord. The resurrection of Christ is absent from the miracle stories and also from the MP, though it is part of the background of those texts. The resurrection of the believers Now we turn to the resurrection of the believers, a theme which receives far more stress in the AThe than Christ's resurrection. Paul's message, given in the form of beatitudes, is summarized as 'the word of God concerning continence and the resurrection' (5)" We may say that the main theme of this novella is chastity, 10 It occurs in the episode of the sea voyage to Italy (10) in which the Lord says to Paul that he will be crucified again, in the preface to the Corinthian correspondence, and in the final lines of Paul's letter which mention the stigmata of Christ (111.35).
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