The Acts of Peter

The Acts of Peter is one of the five ancient apocryphal Acts that relate the missionary activities of the apostles beyond the canonical account. The primary focus of this narrative is a wonder working contest between Peter and the magician Simon set in the city of Rome. Through a variety of miracles, including a revivified salted fish, a talking dog and baby, and a resurrection competition set in the Forum, Peter demonstrates his (and by extension early Christianity’s) legitimacy. The final chapters relate how Peter’s teaching prompted wives and concubines associated with imperial figures to reject conjugal relations, causing these men to seek fatal retaliation. Peter’s attempt to flee is abandoned upon his encounter with a vision of Jesus in the famous “Quo Vadis” scene where Jesus claims he is going to Rome to be crucified again. Upon his return Peter is arrested and sentenced to death by crucifixion. He is crucified upside down at his own request and delivers a lengthy discourse prior to his death. The text as it is typically published in translation is compiled from a handful of discrete sources, some of which are disputed as being components of an original Greek composition. This original text is commonly held to be composed in the later portion of the 2nd century. The narrative was influential on much subsequent ancient Petrine literature.

The Apocryphal Paul as Divided Martyr: The Rhetoric of Schism and Legitimacy in Early Christian North Africa

Neither the epistles of Paul (authentic or disputed) nor the Acts of the Apostles address the death of the apostle, but this is a focus in the later apocryphal acts. This article examines the importance of this image of Paul as a martyr for the development of early Christianity in North Africa. Evidence from Tertullian, from texts describing the death of Cyprian of Carthage, and from the writings of Augustine, demonstrates that Paul was the model martyr for the African church. Paul’s status as such became a major point of contention in the competing claims to authority and legitimacy during the Donatist Controversy. The article analyses rhetorical claims to the Pauline legacy from the Caecilianist side (the writings of Optatus of Milev and Augustine) and the Donatist side (a mosaic from Uppenna and the Acts of the Abitinian Martyrs). Each side claimed that their martyrs were the true successors of Paul, and therefore they were the true Christians in Africa.

The Acts of John, the Acts of Andrew and the Greek Novel

Since the 1930s, it has been observed that the Greek novel and the Christian Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles (AAA) display a series of similarities. This is not surprising, as the earlier AAA all belong to about the same period of time as the latest novels, except for Heliodorus, and derive from Asia Minor, the same area in which most of the surviving novels seem to have originated. Consequently, some of the similarities may well have been determined by the fact that the authors of the novel and the AAA lived in the same world. Yet there are clearly also scenes and motifs, which the AAA derived from the novel. In this contribution, I note the impact of the novel on the Acts of John and the Acts of Andrew and identify an influence from Chariton, Xenophon’s Ephesiaca and Achilles Tatius despite the fact that the novel ends in the reunion of the couple, who will enter now a happily married life with plenty of sex, whereas the couples in the AAA ideally end up in a chaste Platonic relationship. The surprising influence of the novel on the AAA may well be explained from a similar intended readership, that is, well educated higher-class women.

Tjenere, pryglestokke og kropslige lidenskaber

ENGLISH ABSTRACT: According to Gen 1:26–28, the human being was given rule over the animals, even though this apparently conflicts with the lived reality on earth. To judge from sources from the Early Church, this apparent dichotomy posed a serious challenge to the claim of the goodness of God, which had to be defended accordingly. The present article investigates different Early Christian views on the relationship between animals and humans. Through a series of Danish translations of extracts from eastern patristic writings from around the 4th century, it is argued that despite a certain diversity of argument, two different ‘zoologies’, or views on animals and on the human rule over especially wild animals appear. These views seem to revolve around the two Christian centres of theology and biblical exegesis of the time – Alexandria and Antioch. Insights from the readings of the patristic literature are subsequently used as a hermeneutical key in order to understand encounters between animals and holy persons found in other parts of the Early Christian literature, namely the apocryphal Acts of the Apos-tles, martyr literature and ascetic literature. The article ends with a view to the Western church. DANSK RESUME: Mennesket blev ifølge Gen 1,26–28 sat til at herske over dyrene – men stemmer dette overens med den erfarede virkelighed? At dømme ud fra oldkirkelige kilder udfordrede dette tilsyneladende modsætningsforhold den kristne forståelse af Guds godhed, som følgelig måtte forsvares. I denne artikel undersøges forskellige oldkirkelige forestillinger om forholdet mellem dyr og mennesker. Gennem en række oversættelser af uddrag fra skrifter skrevet af østlige kirkefædre omkring det 4. århundrede argumenteres der for, at der trods en vis diversitet i argumentationen grundlæggende viser sig to forskellige forestillinger om dyr, eller ‘zoologier’, og om menneskets herredømme over særligt vilde dyr. Disse forskelle synes at være mellem det alexandrinske teologisk-eksegetiske miljø og det antiokenske. Indsigter fra disse undersøgelser bruges desuden som hermeneutisk nøgle til forstå relationer mellem dyr og hellige personer i anden oldkirkelig litteratur såsom de apokryfe apostelakter, martyrlitteratur og asketisk litteratur. Slutteligt gives der et udblik til vestlige kirkefædre.

Asceticism before Monasticism

Christian asceticism began not in the desert or other monastic settings, but within the urban churches of the first three centuries. Teachings attributed to Christ and the Apostles, together with older beliefs from Judaism and Greek philosophy, variously influenced patterns of communal and individual asceticism: abstention from foods, sexual relations, and wealth. Communal fasting was practised weekly by many, and by most before the celebration of Christ’s death and resurrection. Literature, especially the apocryphal Acts, celebrated or advocated sexual abstention, but the relationship between these texts and social practices remains opaque. Widows and virgins were honoured for their sexual renunciation, which strengthened the purity of heart essential for prophecy and prayer. However, in the mid-third century Origen offered a highly persuasive account of asceticism within the individual’s struggle for holiness, and it was this struggle which was finally carried into the desert and the cloister.