Biblical cartography and the (mis)representation of Paul’s missionary travels

HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Biblical cartography and the (mis)representation of Paul’s missionary travels
 
Creator Guijarro, Santiago
 
Subject — Biblical maps; Cognitive cartography; Early Christian mission; Images of Paul; The role of exegetical traditions
Description Biblical cartography has elaborated a master narrative of Paul’s missionary activity. This master narrative, which clearly distinguishes between three different journeys, is omnipresent and can easily be found in Bibles and atlases. Nevertheless, Paul’s letters and the book of Acts do not support such a clear distinction. The present study contends that the distinction between three missionary journeys is a modern construct and that this way of representing Paul’s missionary activity has a significant impact on how we understand it. By representing Paul’s missionary activity as an orderly sequence of three travels, the maps not only minimise the novelty of his independent mission but also minimise Paul’s confrontation with the Jerusalem church. In this representation, he is no longer the marginal leader of a minority movement within the nascent church, but ‘the’ missionary. The portrayal of the missionary activity of Paul in biblical maps is an example of the uncritical transfer of exegetical traditions, and of the role of these traditions in the creation of a master narrative of Christian origins.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2019-08-27
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Historical inquiry; Literary Analysis
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/hts.v75i3.5575
 
Source HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies; Vol 75, No 3 (2019); 6 pages 2072-8050 0259-9422
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/5575/13169 https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/5575/13168 https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/5575/13170 https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/5575/13134
 
Coverage Ancient Middle East — —
Rights Copyright (c) 2019 Santiago Guijarro https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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