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Media type:
E-Article
Title:
Aquila and Apollos: Acts 18 in Light of Ancient Ethnic
Stereotypes
Contributor:
den Dulk, Matthijs
Published:
Society of Biblical Literature, 2020
Published in:
Journal of Biblical Literature, 139 (2020) 1, Seite 177-189
Language:
English
DOI:
10.15699/jbl.1391.2020.9
ISSN:
0021-9231
Origination:
Footnote:
Description:
<p>Scholars frequently note Alexandria's reputation as a center of learning when
commenting on Acts 18:24, where Apollos is introduced as “a native of
Alexandria.” By contrast, the very similar formulation in Acts 18:2, where
Aquila is identified as “a native of Pontus,” is almost always regarded as
inconsequential. Against this scholarly consensus, I argue that Aquila's Pontic
identity is important to the story of Acts 18 because the gentilic
<italic>Pontic</italic> would have invited associations entirely opposite to
those of <italic>Alexandrian</italic>. While the stereotype concerning the
latter was one of learning and cultural sophistication, the common prejudice
about people from Pontus was that they were uneducated and dim-witted
barbarians. When Acts tells the story of how a man from Pontus and his wife
“took aside” the learned Alexandrian “and explained the Way [of God] to him more
accurately” (18:26), this likely would have seemed very surprising to an ancient
audience familiar with these widespread stereotypes. The unexpected scenario of
a Pontic manual laborer instructing a learned Alexandrian undercut negative
stereotypes about the people from Pontus and, more generally, called into
question the utility of such stereotypes. The plausibility of this
interpretation is strengthened by the observation that it accords with the way
ethnic identifiers function elsewhere in Acts.</p>