Religious Studies Faculty Publications

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Summer 2016

Publication Source

Journal of Early Christian Studies

Abstract

In a Coptic fragment associated with the Acts of Peter, Peter “heals” and then “disables” his own daughter as a demonstration of God’s power at work in him. The following article will compare Peter’s speech with the ancient rhetorical form of the chreia. When placed alongside other traditions that describe the life of Peter, a consistent pattern of anti-healings emerges, in which a display of apostolic power harms another character in order to provide a lesson for those watching. Taken together, the rhetoric and themes of the pericope suggest that it was composed as a way of explaining a difficult saying that was attributed to Peter.

Inclusive pages

145-71

ISBN/ISSN

1067-6341

Document Version

Postprint

Comments

The document available for download is the author's accepted manuscript, provided in compliance with the publisher's policy on self-archiving. For the version of record, use the DOI provided. Permission documentation on file.

Publisher

Johns Hopkins University Press

Volume

24

Issue

2

Peer Reviewed

yes

Link to published version

COinS