Foreign but Familiar Gods: Greco-Romans Read Religion in Acts

Through a close and informative reading of seven key texts in Acts, Kauppi analyses the appearances of Graeco-Roman religion, offering evidence of practices including divination and oracles, ruler cult and civic foundation myth.

Foreign But Familiar Gods then uses a combination of these scriptural texts and other contemporary evidence (including archaeological and literary material) to suggest that one of Luke's subsidiary themes is to contrast Graeco-Roman and Christian religious conceptualizations and practices.

• Table of contents
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Acts 1:15-26, 16:16-18: Greco-Roman Oracles
• 3. Acts 12:20-23: Ruler Cult Excursus: Agrippa's Qeou Fwnh
• 4. Acts 14:8-19: Graeco-Roman Sacrifice
• 5. Acts 17:16-34: Parallels And Allusions To Aeschylus' Eumenides
• 6. Acts 19:23-41: Votive Offerings And Diopeths Objects
• 7. Acts 28:1-11: Ecidna, Dikh, And The Dioskuroi
• Conclusions
• Bibliography