Functional Redundancy in the Acts of the Apostles: a Case Study

Abstract

The threefold story of Paul's conversion/call in Acts 9, 22 and 26 constitutes a most obvious example of repetition in the NT. Earlier studies have explored these passages to reconcile differences in the accounts, to identify different sources, or to compare them with Paul's own letters. The thesis of this article is that the repetitions found in these three passages are part of a narrative strategy which can be termed 'functional redundancy'. Using the techniques of redundancy found in the OT (as described by Meir Sternberg in The Poetics of Biblical Narrative), the article applies to Acts 9, 22 and 26 the five forms of repetition and variation which function in narrative redundancy: expansion, truncation, change of order, grammatical transformation and substitution. The analysis then demonstrates how seemingly insignificant differences in the three accounts are actually essential to their meaning. With each passage, the immediacy of the christophany increases as the role of Ananias and Paul's com panions decreases, contributing to the portrait of Paul in Acts as an eloquent witness to the faith.