Gripla - 20.12.2005, Blaðsíða 19

STYLISTICS AND SOURCES OF THE POSTOLA SÖGUR 17
eign lands, causing scholars of Biblical apocrypha to tend to speak of the
Pseudo-Abdian accounts as comprising an ‘original cycle’ of ‘apostolic ro-
mances’.16 Although most overtly Gnostic sentiments, as well as much sensa-
tionalistic material, have been expunged (in the Passio of the apostle Thomas,
for instance, overtly Gnostic material such as the famous Hymn of the Pearl is
omitted), certain elements still reflect the accounts’ original non-Catholic pro-
venance, such as the characteristic dualistic tendencies in both the accounts’
structural and didactic schemes.
As far as narrative structure is concerned, the Pseudo-Abdian accounts
almost always employ a bipartite scheme: although each account is entitled a
Passio, the narratives can be divided into a vita section and a passio section.17
The vita section usually describes the apostles’ travels in foreign lands and
their attempts to convert native inhabitants, generally focusing on a minor
conflict involving an antagonist who is either defeated, in the case of demons
or sorcerers, or converted, in the case of kings or earls. The passio section, as
the title indicates, focuses primarily on a conflict with a belligerent and stub-
born ruler who is angered to such a degree that he orders the apostle’s death
(and the ruler’s vehemence usually incurs divine retribution).18 The anta-
gonists as well as the outcome of each section can be seen as polar opposites
16 See Hennecke 1965:78-79,428; 1992:78. William Schneemelcher (in Hennecke 1992:78-9)
gives a summary of scholarly theories on the second- and third-century apocryphal acts
(many of which were used as the basis for the acts in Pseudo-Abdias) as Christianized forms
of the hellenistic novel, citing especially the work of Rosa Söder, who delineates five main
elements present in both: the travel motif, the aretalogical element (describing marvellous
aspects of the hero’s powers), the tetralogical element (sensationalistic places and characters),
the tendentious element (in the speeches), the erotic element (love-motifs and ascetic and
encratite features). Schneemelcher suggests that the idea of a conscious Christianization of
the Gattung of the hellenistic novel is somewhat far-fetched; rather, he says, the apocryphal
acts reflect a variety of elements of ancient popular narratives, ‘now fixed in a literary form
and in a Christian spirit.’
17 It is noted in Hennecke 1992:428-429 that the bipartite structure of the Pseudo-Abdian nar-
ratives is peculiar to that collection, as well as a Coptic collection called the Certamen apos-
tolorum (what I call the vita section Hennecke calls the virtutes, the ‘deeds’ of the apostle).
He also notes ‘parallel regularities’ in the Pseudo-Abdian and Coptic narratives, as well as
the fact that these were the first collections to give each member of the apostolic college his
own narrative.
18 It is suggested in Hennecke 1992:452 that in most apocryphal acts encratite traits (that is,
emphasis on sexual continence) „provide the cause that triggers off the inevitable martyr-
dom.“ Encratism as the cause of despots’ anger is seen in the Icelandic sagas of Andrew and
Thomas (what Collings refers to as the motif of ‘intrigue’), but it is otherwise absent in the
Pseudo-Abdian lives.