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A Physical Description of Paul

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 June 2011

Abraham J. Malherbe
Abraham J. Malherbe
Affiliation:
Yale Divinity School
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Extract

When Paul is placed in his Greek context, it is generally his thought, vocabulary, and literary style that receive attention. This is to a degree at least also true when attention is given to the early church's interpretation of his letters. Greek influence can also be perceived in early Christian reflections on the physical appearance of Paul. Less well known to most students of early Christianity than the literary evidence are the artistic representations of Paul, but the curious literary portrait of Paul in the Acts of Paul and Thecla, which in some respects agrees with early Christian paintings, is well known. There, Onesiphorus sees Paul as “a man small of stature, with a bald head and crooked legs, in a good state of body, with eyebrows meeting and nose somewhat hooked, full of friendliness; for now he appeared like a man, and now he had the face of an angel.”

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 79 , Issue 1-3: Christians Among Jews and Gentiles: Essays in Honor of Krister Stendahl on His Sixty-fifth Birthday , July 1986 , pp. 170 - 175
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1986

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References

1 The material is conveniently gathered by von Dobschütz, E., Der Apostel Paulus: II. Seine Stellung in der Kunst (Halle: Buchhandlung des Waisenhauses, 1928)Google Scholar; Ricciotti, Giuseppe, Paul the Apostle (trans. Alba I. Zizzamia; Milwaukee: Bruce, 1953) 151–59.Google Scholar

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23 Cf. Philostratus Heroicus 33.39 (46,16–17 de Lannou), and on the handbooks see Fürst, “Untersuchungen,” 386–88.

24 Cf. Plato Rep. 5.474D; Pollux Onom. 2.73 ( = Foerster, R., ed., Scriptores Physiognomici graeci et latini [Leipzig: Teubner, 1893] 2.Google Scholar 281,26–27).

25 Cf. Ps.-Aristotle Physiog. 811a36–38; Anon. De physiog. 51 ( = André, Jacques, ed., Anonyme Latin, Traité de physiognomie [Budé; Paris: Belles Lettres, 1981] 91).Google Scholar

26 Cf. Ps.-Aristotle Physiog. 813b.

27 See Evans, “Physiognomies,” 10, 53.

28 Translation by G. W. Butterworth, Clement of Alexandria (LCL 63. See Misener, Geneva, “Iconistic Portraits,” CP 19 (1924) 108.Google Scholar

29 E.g., Pindar Isthm 3.53; cf. Fürst, “Untersuchungen,” 409 n. 82; Evans, “Physiognomics,” 44–45, 51.

30 E.g., Plutarch Antonius 4.1: “A shapely beard, a broad forehead, and an aquiline nose were thought to show the virile qualities peculiar to the portraits and statues of Heracles.”

31 E.g., Philostratus Im. 2.15.5.

32 See Kindstrand, J. F., “Sostratus-Hercules-Agathion—The Rise of a Legend” Kungl. Humanistika Vetenskaps-Samfundet i Uppsala. Annales Societatis Litterarum Humaniorum Regiae Upsaliensis (Årsbok, 1979–1980) 50–79.Google Scholar

33 See A. J. Malherbe, “Herakles,” RAC (forthcoming).

34 See also Ps.-Lucian Philopatris 12, which describes Paul as having receding hair; cf. Fürst, “Untersuchungen,” 381, 407ff.

35 Cf. Conybeare, F. C., The Apology and Acts of Apollonius and Other Monuments of Early Christianity (New York: Macmillan, 1894) 62.Google Scholar

36 Cf. Wright, W., Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles (London: Williams & Norgate, 1871) 2. 117.Google Scholar

37 See the textual variants in Vouaux, Les Actes, 150 n. 6.

38 Ps.-Aristotle Physiog. 805a; cf. Cicero De fato 10; Evans, “Physiognomics,” 5–6; Cox, Biography in Late Antiquity, 13–14.