Using a narrative-critical approach, this thesis argues that ‘Herod’ may be construed as a composite character in Luke-Acts. Composite characters appear in literary works as a conflation of two or more historic individuals into a single character in a narrative. Scholars have often noted that Luke-Acts evidences a more extensive interest in the Herodian rulers than do the gospels of Mark and Matthew and that each of these rulers are depicted similarly to the others in his work. However, no one has argued that those rulers named ‘Herod’ may be understood as a composite character. In Luke-Acts, three Herodian rulers stand behind the composite ‘Herod’. The thesis will show that when compared/contrasted with what is known about the Herodian rulers from historical evidence, two unique features of the depiction of the Herodian rulers named Herod in Luke-Acts emerge. First, at Luke 1:5 the author uses the title ‘King of Judaea’ which is unattested elsewhere for any Herodian ruler. Second, at Acts 12 the author uses the name ‘Herod’ for Agrippa I, a name that finds no external corroboration for this particular King. While other occurrences of the name ‘Herod’ refer to Herod Antipas (Luke 3—Acts 4), these two distinct features of the narrative may be understood as conflation of the other ‘Herods’ with Antipas. Following an interpretation of all the passages in which ‘Herod’ appears, it will be evident that ‘Herod’ is portrayed consistently and as a single character not only through repeated use of the name ‘Herod’, but as a recurring antagonist to the key protagonists of the narrative (John the Baptist, Jesus, and the apostles/early church). Finally, the thesis will consider as explanation of the depiction of ‘Herod’ how this composite character embodies Satanic opposition from the political realm toward those who proclaim the gospel in the Lukan narrative.

<p>This work examines the antecedents of the Vicious Tyrants of the Mystery Cycles as they appear in earlier dramatic works.</p> <p>The first chapter describes the bragging soldier of Roman comedy, defining him in his formative dramatic environment. Perception and reality are at odds in important elements of his character: he appears as a menacing and powerful rival to the young lover and as a threat to the courtesan. In reality he is never successful in carrying out his threats. The ways in which Plautus and Terence create and use the bragging soldier are explored.</p> <p>The bragging soldier, his character and behaviour having been defined, is then followed into Christian drama, specifically into the spoken or acted works of Hrotsvitha ofGandersheim. Because Hrotsvitha says she is using Terence as her pattern, she provides a clear instance of what effects Christian sources and theology, whether or not they are shaped by the traditions of five hundred years of folk practice, have on the bragging soldier and his dramatic interactions.</p> <p>The figure is then followed into the Mystery Cycles to see how consistent the changes observed in Hrotsvitha's works are with the behaviour of bragging soldiers in a body of work which hovers in the wings behind later English drama.</p> <p>Hrotsvitha' s dramatic works have not been used in this way before. While Hrotsvitha' s work has been extensively studied as an artifact, as a tenth century manuscript, it has not been seen as evidence of what happened when one tradition met another.</p> <p>The resulting exploration reveals the Vice Figures and Vicious Tyrants of Medieval Drama in embryo. The study, thus, contributes to an understanding of how Christian attitudes shaped the characters of Roman Drama and provided the basis for dramatic stereotypes which still exist.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The concept of the unknown captivated medieval theologians, mystics, lovers, and travelers for centuries, and yet literary scholars too readily reduce this topos to a romance trope. "Unknowing the Middle Ages" reconsiders the grounds of late-medieval literary discourse by showing how canonical Middle English literary texts eschew the historical knowledges that informed them and, instead, affirm impossibility as a productive site for a literary poetics. My dissertation identifies what I call a "poetics of unknowing" as an important component of a budding late-medieval literary discourse that offers a way to discuss not only what can be known, but also that which exceeds exegetical, geographic, historical, and sensory comprehension. "Unknowing the Middle Ages" makes its argument through four chapters, each of which focuses on a narrative tradition extending at least five hundred years. Each chapter follows a figure---Herod the Great, Prester John, the Pearl, and Criseyde---from the texts that established their axiological significance to their appearances in Middle English texts, which attempt to unknow these figures. In their Middle English narratives these figures negotiate between an inherited religious ethics and an intellectual context compelled increasingly by that which eludes comprehension. In each case, material concerns regarding the unknowable infiltrate the formal composition of the text itself, and resonate at the level of a literary ethics. The "poetics of unknowing" that inhabit these texts reveal an epistemology less encumbered by the practical demands of clarity to which other modes of medieval writing are beholden, and also---perhaps of interest to scholars of modern literature and contemporary theory---refute the critical tendency to view the epistemological valorization of the unknown as a distinctly modern phenomenon. / text

L’impôt joue un rôle important dans les relations de pouvoir en Judée aux époques hellénistiques et romaines, non seulement par son poids économique, mais aussi et surtout par ses aspects idéologiques. Car imposer une population revient à s’en prétendre maître. Or, en Judée, une première lecture des sources laisse croire que beaucoup voyaient d’un mauvais œil le tribut étranger, alors que le temple de Jérusalem prélevait déjà des impôts censés revenir à Dieu, seul véritable maître d’Israël. Un examen plus attentif montre l’aspect polémique de cette déclaration : cette opposition dialectique entre les prélèvements du temple et ceux revenant aux étrangers est une construction idéologique, dont le but est de fournir une légitimation de l’opposition politique. Apparue à l’époque des Maccabées et participant à l’argumentation théologique de leur soulèvement, cette rhétorique se repère, avec quelques variations, dans chaque mouvement contestataire jusqu’à Bar Kokhba. Mais les sources dissimulent quelques indications qui montrent que tous ne partagent pas cette vue, et que dans les faits, l’offrande n’est pas plus joyeusement payée que le tribut. L’objet de cette thèse est de mettre en avant cette construction représentationnelle en la confrontant aux données brutes, et d’en souligner les implications sociales, économiques, financières et politiques, depuis la conquête de la Judée par Antiochos III jusqu’à la disparition de la province de Judée en 135 apr. J. C. / Taxes are important matters for understanding relations of power in Hellenistic and Roman Judaea, not only because of its economic burden, but above all because of its ideological sides: to tax a population means to pretend being its master. In Judaea, a first look to the sources let believe that many saw with a bad eye the foreign tribute, while the temple of Jerusalem exacted some revenues supposed to return to God, the sole proper master of Israel. However, a close examination proves the polemical sides of such a declaration: this dialectical opposition between the revenues of the shrine and the ones returning to foreigners is an ideological construction, whose purpose is to furnish a legitimation to the political opposition. Appeared at the time of the Maccabean uprising and used for theologically founding the war, this rhetorical instrument is visible, with some variations, in each protest movement until Bar Kokhba. But the sources hide some indications that let see that not everyone shared this view, and that, in the facts, the “offering” is not more cheerfully paid that the “tribute”. The purpose of the present dissertation is to underline the social, economical, financial and political implications of this representational construction, since the conquest of Judaea by Antiochos III, until the disappearance of the Judaea in 135 C.E.