Gripla - 20.12.2005, Qupperneq 20

GRIPLA18
(benign/despotic rulers, conversion and the strengthening of the Church/
failure to convert and martyrdom), and thus the overall structural scheme may
in fact be a reflection of the original Gnostic tendency to conceptualize in
terms of universal ‘syzygies’.19
This tendency may also explain the dualism reflected in the presentation of
the narratives’ thematic concerns: most often the apostles’ lessons are ex-
pounded upon using a characteristic circular reasoning, in which ideas are ex-
plained almost ‘typologically,’ that is, as parts of a reflective whole: Christ is
the son of the virgin who overcomes the one who overcame the son of the first
virgin, the ‘new Adam’ who repairs on the cross the sin that was committed
by the first man upon the tree of desire; rulers are told to reflect that since they
think earthly torments are terrible, they should consider how terrible eternal
torments are, especially when earthly torments are gone in the blink of an eye,
etc. The AM 645 4to and AM 652/630 4to narratives do not modify their
originals’ dualistic tendencies, and in fact occasionally enhance parallels and
contrasts through the employment of various rhetorical techniques (as dis-
cussed below).
In order to illustrate the main characteristics of the sagas in this particular
group, the following is a discussion of the saga of the apostle Bartholomew,
with special attention given in the discussion to the interweaving of narrative
action and thematic concerns that marks these particular narratives and that
their Icelandic translators seem to have been so skilled at reproducing and
even accentuating in order to sustain and highlight themes.20 The Icelandic
translation in AM 645 4to follows the Pseudo-Abdian Passio Sancti Barto-
lomaei Apostoli (Book VIII) very closely, and is thus taken here as repre-
sentative of a typical Pseudo-Abdian text.21 The AM 652/630 4to version is a
nearly verbatim copy of the saga as found in AM 645 4to (although there is a
19 See Hennecke 1992:485.
20 Collings 1969:182 notes the „unity superimposed by the continuity and interdependence of
the episodes“ in these narratives, and comments on the difficulties inherent in breaking them
down into structural divisions for analysis and discussion. She also notes how the translators’
highlighting of the narratives’ thematic unity allowed the „mode of expression and the con-
tent [to] function as closely interrelated units, the style reflecting and thereby enhancing the
thought“ (1969:171).
21 According to Lipsius (DAAA I:147), the Pseudo-Abdian text exists in one recension. The
Latin passio can be found reproduced, with little variation, in the standard editions of Pseudo-
Abdias, as well as in the Acta Sanctorum (Aug. V:34-38), Mombritius I:140-144, and A A A
II,1:128-50. The Icelandic version under discussion here is found in AM 645 4to, 33r-35v
(defective), Post.:757-762; Larsson 1885:99-108; AM 652 4to, 6r-7v (defective), Post.:754-
757; AM 630 4to:16v-20v, Post.:743-754.