Doctorate Theses

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Escorting Paul and the Other Emissaries of Jesus in Acts: The Significance of the Motif of Escort, Seen through the Lens of a Late First- (Early Second-) Century Mediterranean Cultural Script for Hospitality Conventions
(2016-02) Spalding, Dean
The motif of escort features in many Lukan hospitality scenes, but, heretofore, escort has escaped scholarly attention. In the Book of Acts, Paul, an emissary of Jesus, is often the subject of escorted arrival and escorted departure. This thesis aims to study the motif of escort in Acts in the light of the motif’s appearance in Jewish and Greco-Roman literature. Retrieval of this background enables the establishment of a cultural script, particularly with respect to a shared understanding of the significance of escorted arrivals and escorted departures in the context of a wider framing of hospitality. The thesis then undertakes a narrative and syn¬chronic reading of Luke’s escort-material in the Gospel and Acts from the perspective of the implied reader who interprets the text through the lens of this cultural script. Finally, the thesis explores the significance of its findings in relation to contentious issues in contemporary Acts scholarship.