This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Havelaar, H. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

Hellenistic Parallels To Acts 5.1-11 and the Problem of Conflicting Interpretations

Faculty of Theology, University of Utrecht, PO Box 80.105, 3508 TC Utrecht, The Netherlands

In the present study an interpretation is offered of Acts 5.1-11 in the light of some Hellenistic parallels to this passage. Two methods of interpretation are reconciled: the content-based examination of the religio-historical excommunication narrative and the more literary-based examination of rule miracles of punishment. It is claimed that neither approach excludes the other, but highlights completely different aspects of the text; and that both contribute to the meaning of the whole. The conclusion states that we encounter here in the Ananias and Sapphira story a highly stylized form of excommunication given shape with the help of the literary form of the rule miracle of punishment. The Hellenistic parallels show that the first-century reader may very well have been familiar with stories about severe punishment as a sanction for blasphemy or lying.

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?