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Document Details : Title: Das Verhältnis der Apostelgeschichte zu Epos und 'Roman' aus der Perspektive der antiken Literaturtheorie Author(s): BAUM, Armin D. Journal: Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses Volume: 91 Issue: 4 Date: 2015 Pages: 601-626 DOI: 10.2143/ETL.91.4.3129670 Abstract : The Book of Acts has recently been classified both as an ancient epic (by M. Palmer Bonz e.a.) and as an historical novel (by R.I. Pervo e.a.). However, these genre descriptions are not in accordance with the definitions of epic and ‘novel’ offered by ancient literary theorists like Aristotle, Quintilian, Julian Apostata and Macrobius. Their genre definitions must not be ignored. From the perspective of ancient literary theory, the Book of Acts could only be regarded as historiography. Ancient readers who thought that the book’s content was largely invented would have considered it bad historiography but neither an epic nor an historical ‘novel’. |
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