The Book of Acts in Its Ancient Literary Setting: 1 (The Book of Acts in Its First Century Setting) by Winter & Clark

Author:Winter & Clark
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
Published: 1993-11-17T16:00:00+00:00

b. The narratio, confirmatio and peroratio. According to the rhetorical handbooks, agitation or sedition, στάσις, was the right charge to bring against an opponent in criminal proceedings.55 Happily for the prosecution it was ‘precisely the one to bring against a Jew during the Principate of Claudius and the early years of Nero’.56 The essence of the charge is spelled out in the narratio. It was that Paul was ‘an agitator among all the Jews throughout the world’ (v. 5a) and a ring-leader of the Nazarenes αἵρεσις who were apparently known to Felix. The linking of the two together implied that membership of it constituted a known breach of the law (v. 5b).

The confirmatio would appear to be reflected in v. 6ff., being stated by means of three relative pronouns presenting the proof—ὃς καί, ὃ καί, παρʼ οὗ. As with the narratio, the writer of Acts is summarising. The proof of the charge against Paul is supported by the fact that he profaned the temple. What he had been doing ‘throughout the world’ as a ringleader of the Nazarenes, he has done in Jerusalem. If proved, it invited serious punishment, viz the summary execution which the Jews had attempted, cf. Acts 23:27 and 24:7, as well as imperial wrath with which Claudius had threatened the Alexandrian Jews. The peroratio calls on Felix to examine Paul in order that he may learn the truth about the charge brought against him (v. 8). Tertullus’ case, which was backed up by his clients’ own testimony, was a formidable one to answer (v. 9).

The question arises as to why the exordium, which is comparable in length to those found in the forensic petitions examined above, is presented in such detail and the remainder of the case in what has rightly been seen as a highly summarised form.57 The significant role of the captatio benevolentiae in forensic speeches examined in the non-literary sources helps us to see how Felix and any first-century reader would have been alerted to the seriousness of the charges brought against Paul. The inclusion of the captatio benevolentiae in some detail was, therefore, highly apposite to Luke’s purpose. It is misleading to conclude that Tertullus engaged in ‘irrelevant flattery’ which made for ‘an ineffectual exordium’.58 Its prominence cannot be explained, as Hemer does, in terms of ‘Luke’s artistry’ with his ‘richly entertaining irony’.59 Dibelius was incorrect when he concluded that ‘the orator’s courtly phrases [i.e. the Latin and Greek official language parallels acknowledged from Lösch’s important essay] in vv. 2 and 3 … are of no importance as far as the subject matter is concerned’.60 The use of form criticism has enabled us to understand the function of the exordium in non-literary forensic cases and in particular, the reason for including it in the edited version of the speech in Acts.

Tertullus has been declared an orator of fairly insignificant ability when contrasted with that of ancient authors.61 He is also judged to have produced a clever piece of oratory.62 and his work

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