SBL : Studies in Biblical Literature : The Narrator as Narrative Character

This book explores the narrative significance of the we passages in Acts within theboundaries of acceptable ancient grammatical practice. It contends that the occasional firstpersonplural narrator represents a character whose entrance at crucial moments in Paul scareer parallels the role of Barnabas, the apostle s earlier companion. Although consistentwith the grammatical practice of ancient writers, the use of the we style in Acts nonethelessrepresents a variation of those conventions because the author of Acts wrote anonymouslyand never claimed personal participation in the events narrated. In analyzing the function ofthe narrator as narrative character, the book presents narrative literary strategy as a fruitfulapproach to these enigmatic texts whose narrative possibilities have in the past beensubordinated to their historical potential.Paperback edition is available from the Society of Biblical Literature (www.sbl-site.org)