Unbelievable: An Interpretation of Acts 12 That Takes Rhoda's Cassandra Curse Seriously

This article addresses two non sequiturs in Acts 12—the disbelief of Rhoda's announcement of Peter's arrival and the apparent disconnect of the death of "King Herod" to the rest of the chapter—by interpreting Rhoda as a Cassandra figure. Like Cassandra, Rhoda is unable to convinc...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Kochenash, Michael 1985- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Scholar's Press 2022
In: Journal of Biblical literature
Year: 2022, Volume: 141, Issue: 2, Pages: 337-357
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Bible. Apostelgeschichte 12 / Discrepancy / Rhode, Biblical person / Peter Apostle / Maenad / Herod I Judea, King 73 BC-4 BC / Death / Vengeance / Execution / Jakobus, der Ältere, Apostel, Heiliger
IxTheo Classification:HC New Testament
KAB Church history 30-500; early Christianity
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Summary:This article addresses two non sequiturs in Acts 12—the disbelief of Rhoda's announcement of Peter's arrival and the apparent disconnect of the death of "King Herod" to the rest of the chapter—by interpreting Rhoda as a Cassandra figure. Like Cassandra, Rhoda is unable to convince others regarding her accurate pronouncement and is then maligned as maenadic. In conjunction with reading Peter's prison escape as imitating Il. 24, this interpretation allows readers to project the vengeance-related logic of these models onto the Acts narrative's presentation of Herod's death and thereby understand it as divine vengeance for executing James and imprisoning Peter.
ISSN:1934-3876
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of Biblical literature