Bibliography
| Title: The death of Herod: The narrative and theological function of retribution in Luke-Acts Type: Thesis Year: 1996 Abstract: DAI: "Historical criticism has devalued the significance of Acts 12:19b-24 for understanding Luke's two-volume work. Each phase ot The Death of Herod: The Narraative and Theological Function of Retribution in Luke-Acts places Herod's retributive death in a different literary context to reevaluate its significance. First, Herod's death scene is read in light of other type-scenes found in Luke's cultural-literary environment in which tyrants are struck down by illness and death for offending Deity. Athough these scenes are influenced by convention, narrators are free to configure and contextualize their stories according to the needs of the ideological and narrative needs of the text in which it is embedded. That this is true of Luke's portrayal of Herod being struck down by God for failing to glorify God is seen by comparing it with Josephus's use of his parallel account of Agrippa's death in Antiquities 19.343-350. Second, Herod's death scene is read as an integral piece of Acts 12 as a whole. In this narrative context, the rationale for Herod's retributive death is seen to include the king's failure to recongnize God's providential role in rescuing Peter following his execution of James. This reading is supported by examining the way in which Acts 12 as a whole recalls the exodus/ Passover narrative. Third, Herod's death scene is read in the context of Luke's overarching story of Jesus and the church. Thematically it relates to passages and recognition, and divine retribution. Syntactically, herod's death scene and retribution in general are found to play a role in the plot develpment of Luke-Acts. Retribution completes Luke's pattern of characterization of the story's heroes and aids the narrative transition from one prophet to the next. The narrative role of retribution helps establish to apologetic function of Luke-Acts in that it serves as a warning to those who would persecute the church and as ecouragement to readers who suffer persecution. The validity of this claim is undergirded by similarities found between Luke's use of retribution and that of contemporary apologetic historiography". Keywords: New Testament / Early Christianity |