| Most scholars believe that many of the acta martyrum originated as copies of (upsilon)(pi)(omicron)(mu)(nu)(eta)(mu)(alpha)(tau)(iota)(sigma)(mu)(omicron)(iota) (Latin: commentarii), the legal term for records of trials taken down by official scribes. This study is devoted to the establishment of methodological controls for determining authenticity in acta martyrum whose dramatic date occurs during the first or second centuries. The study is principally concerned with those acta that purport to be, resemble, or indeed are, copies of commentarii.;Chapters Three through Seven are form-critical studies of acta martyrum. These chapters are not intended to be definitive studies, but rather are studies in methodology. These chapters show how a thorough acquaintance with the commentarius-form and then the application of Form- and Redaktionsgeschichte to the acta paganorum and acta Christianorum help us to answer such ques- tions as: (1) Is such and such account or portion of an account an authentic commentarius? (2) Is such and such account an edited version of a commentarius? (3) If it is an edited version, in what ways has it been edited? (4) If it has been edited, why has it been so edited? The analysis of the acta martyrum with questions such as these in mind provides fresh insights into (1) the origin and development of the general genre acta martyrum; (2) the origin and development of the Christian concepts and theologies of martyrdom; (3) the uses to which the pagans and Christians put these accounts; and (4) the confrontation between provinces and the Empire and between the Empire and Christianity.;If it is to be proven that some acta martyrum originated as copies of commentarii (which most scholars assume without proving), then those acta must be form-critically analyzed over against commentarii and not over against other acta martyrum that have been assumed to derive from commentarii. As a necessary preliminary to such form criticism, the study first analyzes the forms of all extant commentarii from the first to fourth centuries. The first two chapters, along with the appendices and texts, are thus intended to be a beginning source book for form critics. |
