No abstract

No abstract

Pour situer theologiquement le probleme qui va nous occuper ici, je debuterai par une incursion dans le domaine de l'histoire ecclesiastique. Parmi les nombreux points de divergence qui opposerent au XVIe siecle Kaspar von Schwenkfeld 1 aux lutheriens, l'un d'eux touchait a la maniere dont Dieu intervient. Schwenkfeld pretendait que 1'fieriture Sainte ne sait rien des moyens (en allemand Mittel) et parle uniquement du Christ et de sa grace qu'il distribue librement en Esprit. 2 Les lutheriens riposterent dans le deuxieme epitome de la Formule de Concorde (1580): 'Reiicimus etiam damnamusque Enthusiastarum errorem, qui fingunt Deum immediate [en allemand, ohne Mittel], absque verbi Dei auditu et sine sacramentorum usu, homines ad se trahere, illuminare, iustificare et salvare.' 3L'expose qui suit tentera de montrer que Luc, a la facon des lutheriens, insiste sur les intermediaires auxquels Dieu recourt et sur les moyens auxquels les chretiens font appel.Ma demarche s'inscrit dans le cadre des recherches inaugurees il y a une vingtaine d'annees par H. Conzelmann et resumees recemment par W. C. van Unnik, U. Wilckens et W. G. Kummel. 4 J'admets le resultat principal de la Mitte der £eit; toutefois, comme H. Flender, 5 je desire briser quelque peu le cadre trop etroit dans lequel on a enferme, depuis, la theologie de Luc. A mon avis, l'historicisation de l'eschatologie primitive n'est ni le seul, ni le dernier mot du projet theologique lucanien. Elle me parait plutot la manifestation d'une intention plus globale: celle de souligner les mediations.Certes, le terme de mediation est plus recent que l'oeuvre de Luc et celui de mediateur, qu'utilisent diverses epitres du Nouveau Testament, 6 n'appa-* Conference prononcee le 29 aout 1973 au vingt-huitieme congres de la Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas a Southampton.x 1489-1561. 2 33 Predigten, in, 49 ss., cit6 dans Die Bekenntnisschriften der evangelisch-lutherischen Kirche, herausgegeben im Gedenkjahr der Augsburgischen Konfession 1930, 3e 6d.

This paper represents a conversation between two disciplines that too rarely enter into dialogue: New Testament studies and the history of Byzantine art. Two gospel passages have been chosen for analysis here: the first is a parable, the parable of the fig tree (Luke 13:6–9); the second, which follows immediately upon the first, is a miracle story that provokes a controversy (Luke 13:10–17). Both passages appear exclusively in the Gospel of Luke. Our joint study will start with exegetical notes on the Gospel of Luke and the history of the interpretation of these particular verses and will then turn to the miniatures that illustrate them in an eleventh-century Byzantine manuscript in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Parisinus graecus 74 (figs. 1–2). François Bovon has interpreted the Gospel of Luke in a German collection, the Evangelisch-katholischer Kommentar zum Neuen Testament, a series attentive to the history of the reception (Wirkungsgeschichte) of the biblical text in the life of the Christian church. He will explain the two New Testament passages and follow the path of patristic and Byzantine interpretation during these periods.

Today, New Testament scholars interpret the book of Acts and its account of the Hellenists—Stephen's martyrdom in particularSee Acts 6–8.—while historians of Christianity study the cult of Saint Stephen and the healing power of his relicsParticularly in the eyes of Augustine; see De civitate Dei, 22.8; also p. 290, below.. In contrast to the situation in earlier scholarship, there is, alas, little dialogue between the two groups, because the first does not investigate the reception of the book of Acts,Even in the German collection Evangelisch-katholischer Kommentar zum Neuen Testament, whose intention is to respect the Wirkungsgeschichte, Rudolf Pesch's commentary on the book of Acts presents only one reference to a Christian text influenced by Luke's account of Stephen's martyrdom, the story of the martyrs of Lyon preserved by Eusebius of Caesarea, Hist. eccl. 5.2.5; see Rudolf Pesch, Die Apostelgeschichte. 1.Teilband (Apg 1–12) (2d ed.; EKK 5.1; Solothurn: Benzinger; Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener, 1995) 267. and the second does not bridge the gap between the time of the New Testament and the fourth century, when the cult of the saint begins to be well attested. My long-term intention is to establish links between the two scholarly fields and to consider Stephen's career in the New Testament and his role in the life of the church as two phases of a continuous history. This paper, an expression of my short-term intention, fulfills two preliminary tasks: to present the modern research on the hagiography of the first martyr and to collect the ancient material on Stephen. As far as I can judge, such a file or “dossier” on Stephen, the first martyr, does not exist.