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Arius Didymus and Luke-Acts

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Arius Didymus and Luke-Acts ARIUS DIDYMUS AND LUKE-ACTS by CHRISTOPH HEIL Bamberg For James M. Robinson* 1. Intioduction1 In Acts 1:1-2, Luke summarizes the contents of his first book (τον μεν πρώτον λόγον), but in the following, he fails to give a description of his second book, which is unusual according to ancient conven­ tions.2 E Norden conjectured the following description of the book of Acts which originally would have followed Acts 1:2, * J M Robinson, "the doyen oí modern Q studies" (G Stanton, Gospel Truth·* New light on Jesus and the Gospels [ Valley Forge, ΡΛ 1995] 75), has continuously emphasized the împoi tance of Religion sge schuhte, Formgeschichte and Redaktionsgeschichte regarding "the quest for QJ Ci J M Robinson, 'Theological Autobiogiaphy," in The Craft of Religious Studies ed JR Stone ^London-New York 1998) 117-150, 140-141 It is the recon- stiuction of Qm which Jim has invested most of his energy in recent years Cf ibid, 158-149 and especially Documenta Q_ Reconstructions of Q Through Two Centuries of Gospel Resemeli Exieipted, Soiled and Evaluated, eds J M Robinson et al (Leuven 1996 ff, more than 30 volumes aie planned) J M Robinson and C Heil, "Zeugnisse eines schriftlichen, griechischen voi kanonischen textes Mt 6,28b Ν*, Ρ Oxy 655 1,1-17 (Evlh 36) und Q, 12,27," £\ll 89 α998) 30-44, The Critical Edition of Q A Synopsis Including the Gospels of Mattheit and Luke, Alaik and Thomas with English, German and French Translations of Q and Thomas, eds J M Robinson et al ^Hermeneia Supplements, Minneapolis, MN-Leuven 2000] I hus, trying to shed some new light on Luke, the following essay compares Luke-Vets with a nearly contemporary historian of philosophy 1 \ summary of this paper was read in the Luke-Acts Group at the SBL Annual Meeting 1998 in Oliando, PL 1 thank Prof Κ Döring (Bamberg) and Prof A Fürst Munster) for many helpful suggestions and corrections "W-H" stands for Ioannis Stobaei Anthologium leeensuerunt C Wachsmuth et O Hense Volumina I-IV Lditio altera ex cditione anni 188 4/1912 lucís ope expressa, reprint Berlin, 1958 Gf L Norden, Agnostos Tìieos Untersuchungen zw Eormengeschichte religiöser Rede (Stuttgart- Leipzig 1996) 311-3H, WG van Unmk, "Ihe 'Book of Acts' The Confirmation of the Gospel," m Id, Spaisa Colletta Collected Essays I Evangelia, Paulina, Acta (NFS 29, Leiden 1973) 340-373, 344 ("A clear objective statement is not given here nor any- vvheie else, henceforth the chase foi the great Unknown is open ") (c Konmkhjke Bull NV, Leiden, 2000 Nov urn 1 estamentum XLII, 4 ARIUS DIDYMUS AND LUKE"ACTS 359 νυνι δε τα συνεχή τούτοις, α τε αυτός πάρων ειδον α τε παρ άλλων αξιόπιστων όντων επυθομην συγγραψαι πειρασομαι μέχρι της επι της Ρώμης επιδημίας τοΰ Παύλου * Now I will attempt to write down the events immediately following, that is, both which 1 have seen while being present and which I have learned from others who are trustworthy as far as to Paul's arrival m Rome Of course such a conjecture is hypothetical, but it illustrates Norden's view of Luke's second volume as a histonographical work While most scholars would agree with this generic classification,4 there is a lively debate about exactly what kind of history Luke was writing 5 In a * Norden ignostos Theos 315-316 J RolofT considers a similar addition to Acts 1 2, but finally accepts the text as we have it today (Die Apostelgeschichte [ΝTD 5, Gottmgen 19881 20) 4 Note howevei the lecent caveat by LG A Alexander who has argued that edu­ cated Greek readeis would hardly have seen Acts as "history", cf her "The preface to A.cts and the historians," m History, Literature, and Society in the Book oj Acts, ed Β Witherington III (Gambndge 1996) 73-103, 102, Ladern, "Marathon or Jerichop Reading Acts in Dialogue with Biblical and Greek Historiography,' m Auguries The Jubilee I o lume of the Sheffield Department of Biblical Studies, eds DJ A Cime s and SD Moore ( JSOISup 269, Sheffield 1998) 92-125, Ladern, "Pact, Fiction and the Genre of Acts," NTS 44 v1998) 380-399, 397-398 "for readers educated in the Greek classics, much of the narrative content of Acts would place it in the danger-area of 'fiction'—though with a disturbing undercurrent which suggests that it might after all be fact " ' lor example, DI Balch describes Acts as "political history", GL Sterling as apologetic historv Cf D L Balch, " 1 he Genre of Luke-Acts Individual Biography, Adventure Novel, or Political History^, ' Southwestern Journal of Theology 33 (1990) 5-19, Id "Comments on the Genre and a Political I heme of Luke-Acts A Preliminary Comparison of I wo Hellenistic Historians,' SBISP28 (1989) 343-361, G E Sterling, Luke-\cts and Apologetic Historiography, SBISP 28 (1989) 326-342, Id Historiography and Self Definition Josephos Iuke Acts and Apologetic Histonography (NI S 64, Leiden 1992) 19 320 n 47 Among others G L Sterling (Historiography and Self Definition, 352-369) and LCA Alexander ('Marathon orJenchop, ' 119-123) have emphasized that Luke is indebted particularly to Jeuish historiography On the other hand, Luke employs many foims and elements "which are unambiguous indicators of the movement of Christian traditions into the larger Greco-Roman world" (Sterling, Historiography and Self Definition, 369, cf ibid, 369-374) Γο be sure, some have rejected the definition of Acts genre as historiography, but their own suggestions focus only on (secondary) fea­ tures of Acts without being able to explain the whole document Lor C H Talbert's proposal that I uke-Acts belongs to the ancient biographical Διαδοχαί genre cf below n 11 R I Pervo's attempt of looking at Acts as an example of the ancient historical novels if not a \ery first example of that genre is not comincine; (cf his Profit with Delight Ehe literary Geme of the 4cts of the Apostles [Philadelphia 1987J) For recent crit­ icisms cf D L Balch "Apostelgeschichte," RGCf 1 (1998) 642-648, 643, BWR Pearson and SL Porter, ' I he Genres of the New lestament," in Handbook of Exegesis of the New Testament, ed S L Porter (NITS 25, Leiden 1997) 131-165, 144-146 However, Pervo is right that Luke s two volumes do not share the same genre (cf M C Parsons and RI Pervo, Rethinking the I nity of I uke and Acts [Minneapolis, MN 1993J), while Luke's two treatises form a unity, the gospel is an ancient biogiaphy and Acts is an 360 CHRISTOPH HEIL recent contribution to that debate H. Cancik argued that Acts con­ veys some features which are similar to the ancient historiography of institutions6. According to Cancik, the "heuristic" title of Luke's sec­ ond λόγος could be περί αρχής και αυξήσεως τής των Χριστιανών εκκλησίας,7 "About origin and growth of the church of the Christians." One theme of Luke's history is the origin and spread of an institution, the ekklesia or hairesis of the Christians The comparison with the texts of Greek and Roman historiography of philosophy and religion confirms, it appears to me, the designation of this particular theme as "institutional history" The compari­ son also shows some concrete connections to the historiography of culture among Gieeks and Romans and, at the same time, makes the exceptional position of Luke's history clear H However, the comparison of Luke-Acts with "the historiography of philosophy" shows a typical dilemma of Form Criticism. If the net is cast widely and if a broad basis of texts is chosen, the number of par­ allels with Luke-Acts grows. If only one ancient text is compared with Luke-Acts, the formal parallels will be few (but possibly instructive never­ theless), and the discrepancies receive more attention. Both ways are certainly legitimate, if only they enhance our understanding of Luke- Acts' literary profile. In antiquity, there were three subspecies of the genre "history of philosophy", namely Άρέσκοντα {placito), Περί αιρέσεων and Διαδοχαί.9 The first two are exclusively interested in philosophical, not in bio­ graphical issues.10 The third subspecies, on the other hand, is indeed ancient histonographical monograph For this not unusual μετάβασις εις άλλο γένος cf 13 I rickenschmidt, Evangelium als Biographie Die vier Evangelien im Rahmen antiker Erzahlkunst (1ANZ 22, Tubingen-Basel 1997) 498-500 ( H Cancik, "The History oí Culture, Religion, and Institutions in Ancient His­ toriography Philological Observations Concerning Luke's History," JBL 116 (1997) 673-695 The topic of this essay is anticipated in H Cancik, "Die Funktion der judi­ schen Bibel fur die Geschichtsschreibung der Christen in der Antike," in Bibel und Literatur, eds J Fbach and R Faber (München 1995) 19-29, 22 Already here Cancik asks, " ist die Apostelgeschichte eine 'Kirchengeschichte', eine Art Institution­ engt schichte^" As examples of institutions which are presented in Greek historiogra­ phy he mentions "Verfassungsgeschichte bei Aiistoteles, Polybios, Cicero, Livius, Geschichte der Philosophenschulen bei Diogenes Laertius, Geschichte von Religion bei Varrò und Livius" (ibid) 1 Cancik, "History," 680 8 Cancik, "History," 694 () Ci D F Ruma, "Doxographie," in Der Neue Pauly Enzyklopädie der Antike Altertum Vol 3, eds H Cancik and H Schneider (Stuttgart-Weimar 1997) 803-806, 804-805 10 Ci Κ Döring, Historia Philosopha Grundzuge dei antiken Philosophiegeschichtsschreibung Freiburg ι Br-Wur/burg 1987) 6-16 ARU S DIDYMUS AND LUKF"ACTS 361 a biographical form " For example, anecdotes are told only in the Διαδοχαι Cancik wants to prove that Luke-Acts is similar to histories of philosophy and therefore it must be proven that it is similar to works of the Αρεσκοντα or Περί αιρέσεων literature How­ ever the examples
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