alkier_002_Text.pod 33 13-03-27 16:20:58 -mt- mt Epiphany Reconsidered: A parallel reading of Acts 9:1–9 and Iliad 188–224a 33 Philip Erwin Epiphany Reconsidered: A parallel reading of Acts 9:1–9 and Iliad 188–224a 1 Introduction The epiphany of Jesus to Saul on the Damascus road in Acts9:1–9 inaugurates a shift both in Saul’s character and in the overall narrative of Acts. Prior to this scene Saul had entered the narrative only briefly at the periphery of the stoning of Stephen (Acts 7:58) and as a persecutor of the ekklesia (Acts 8:3). From chapter nine forward, Saul (later to be known as Paul; Acts 13:9) emerges from a periph- eral role as persecutor to a central role as one who proclaims the message of Jesus Christ. Given these dramatic shifts, most commentators interpret this scene as Saul’s conversion or prophetic call. 1 Specifically, the categories of conversion/ call are often generated by comparing Saul’s epiphanic experience to those of prophets, e.g. Moses (Exod 3:3; 19:16–20); Isaiah (Isa 49); and Jeremiah (Jer 1); 2 gentiles/idolaters who convert to “Judaism,” e.g. Aseneth (Joseph and Aseneth 14); 3 Heliodorus (2 Macc 3:22ff.); and the epiphany of Isis to Lucius in Apuleius’ 1 Some interpreters, following Krister Stendahl, classify this scene as a prophetic “commission- ing” or “call”: Krister Stendahl, “Paul Among Jews and Gentiles,” in Paul Among Jews and Gen- tiles and Other Essays (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1976), 7–23; Ernst Haenchen, The Acts of the Apostles: A Commentary (trans. R. McL. Wilson et. al.; Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1971), 322; Luke Timothy Johnson, The Acts of the Apostles, Sacra Pagina (Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 1992), 166–69; Beverly Roberts Gaventa, The Acts of the Apostles (Nashville: Ab- ingdon Press, 2003), 146–56; Richard I. Pervo, Acts: A Commentary (Hermeneia; Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2009), 230–44, see especially 236. Others, even of more recent vintage, maintain that this scene is comparable to other religious conversions of antiquity and is thus classifiable as a conversion: Christoph Burchard, Der Dreizehnte Zeuge: Traditions- und kompositions- geschichtliche Untersuchungen zu Lukas’ Darstellung der Frühzeit des Paulus (Göttingen: Van- denhoeck & Ruprecht, 1970), 59–88; James D.G. Dunn, The Acts of the Apostles (Valley Forge, PA: Trinity Press International, 1996), 117–25; Charles H. Talbert, “Conversion in the Acts of the Apostles: Ancient Auditors’ Perceptions,” in Reading Luke-Acts in its Mediterranean Milieu (Leiden: Brill, 2003), 135–48; Ben Witherington III, The Acts of the Apostles: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary (Grand Rapids, Mi.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1998), 302–20, see especially 303–4. 2 See Stendahl, “Paul Among Jews and Gentiles,” 8–11; Johnson, The Acts of the Apostles, 163–64. 3 See Burchard, Dreizehnte Zeuge, 55–88.