Nautical Fiction of Late Antiquity: Jews and Christians Traveling by Sea
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Reuven Kiperwasser
Abstract
The storms threatening ancient sea-travelers were traditionally supposed to be a sign of divine displeasure. The marine voyage with its tempests, famously featuring in the Jonah story, also became a well-known topos in Greco-Roman storytelling. This essay investigates how some Jewish and Christian narrators reworked that topos in light of their particular religious agendas. Their tales thus turn out to be hybrid creatures composed of both biblical and mythological patterns of narration. Several such mythological patterns can be discerned in late antique sea travelogues, including divine intervention calming a stormy tempest; wondrous birds coming to sailors’ rescue; and treasure hidden in the depth of the sea, guarded by a monstrous creature. Our study focuses on the final motif, with the texts under discussion mostly originating in the Syro-Mesopotamian Aramaic-speaking cultural sphere-Jewish rabbinic and Syriac Christian milieus. For all our narrators, the sea maintained its perilous appeal and the voyages provided a meaningful liminal experience that challenged their religious outlook. We outline a variety of strategies in dealing with the tension inherent in the sea adventure, some of them tailored to temper the mythic tenor of the background tradition.
Abstract
The storms threatening ancient sea-travelers were traditionally supposed to be a sign of divine displeasure. The marine voyage with its tempests, famously featuring in the Jonah story, also became a well-known topos in Greco-Roman storytelling. This essay investigates how some Jewish and Christian narrators reworked that topos in light of their particular religious agendas. Their tales thus turn out to be hybrid creatures composed of both biblical and mythological patterns of narration. Several such mythological patterns can be discerned in late antique sea travelogues, including divine intervention calming a stormy tempest; wondrous birds coming to sailors’ rescue; and treasure hidden in the depth of the sea, guarded by a monstrous creature. Our study focuses on the final motif, with the texts under discussion mostly originating in the Syro-Mesopotamian Aramaic-speaking cultural sphere-Jewish rabbinic and Syriac Christian milieus. For all our narrators, the sea maintained its perilous appeal and the voyages provided a meaningful liminal experience that challenged their religious outlook. We outline a variety of strategies in dealing with the tension inherent in the sea adventure, some of them tailored to temper the mythic tenor of the background tradition.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- List of Contributors VII
- Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Travel Experiences 1
- “And as They Travelled Eastward” (Gen 11:2): Travel in the Book of Genesis and the Anonymous Travelers in the Tower of Babel Account 11
- The Consolations of Travel: Reading Seneca’s Ad Marciam vis-à-vis Paul of Tarsus 33
- The (Missing) Motif of “Returning Home” from an Otherworldly Journey in Menippean Literature and the New Testament 55
- The Educational Aspect of the Lukan Travel Narrative: Jesus as a Πεπαιδευμένος 73
- Acts of the Apostles—A Celebration of Uncertainty? Constructing a Dialogical Self for the Early Jesus Movement 97
- “Today or Tomorrow We Will Go to Such and Such a City” (Jas 4:13): The Experience of Interconnectivity and the Mobility of Norms in the Ancient Globalized World 113
- Heavenly Journey and Divine Epistemology in the Fourth Gospel 145
- Following Vespasian in His Footsteps: Movement and (E)motion Management in Josephus’ Judean War 161
- Religion on the Road—Nehalennia Revisited: Voyagers Addressing a North Sea Deity in the Second Century CE 181
- Mapping Cosmological Space in the Apocalypse of Paul and the Visio Pauli: The Actualization of Virtual Spatiality in Two Pauline Apocalyptical Journeys based on 2 Cor 12:2–4 189
- The Travels of Barnabas: From the Acts of the Apostles to Late Antique Hagiographic Literature 229
- Rabbinic Geography: Between the Imaginary and Real 251
- The Journey of Zayd Ibn ʿAmr: In Search of True Worship 269
- Nautical Fiction of Late Antiquity: Jews and Christians Traveling by Sea 295
- Monasteries as Travel Loci for Muslims and Christians (500–1000 CE) 313
- Sachregister 337
- Stellenregister 341
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- List of Contributors VII
- Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Travel Experiences 1
- “And as They Travelled Eastward” (Gen 11:2): Travel in the Book of Genesis and the Anonymous Travelers in the Tower of Babel Account 11
- The Consolations of Travel: Reading Seneca’s Ad Marciam vis-à-vis Paul of Tarsus 33
- The (Missing) Motif of “Returning Home” from an Otherworldly Journey in Menippean Literature and the New Testament 55
- The Educational Aspect of the Lukan Travel Narrative: Jesus as a Πεπαιδευμένος 73
- Acts of the Apostles—A Celebration of Uncertainty? Constructing a Dialogical Self for the Early Jesus Movement 97
- “Today or Tomorrow We Will Go to Such and Such a City” (Jas 4:13): The Experience of Interconnectivity and the Mobility of Norms in the Ancient Globalized World 113
- Heavenly Journey and Divine Epistemology in the Fourth Gospel 145
- Following Vespasian in His Footsteps: Movement and (E)motion Management in Josephus’ Judean War 161
- Religion on the Road—Nehalennia Revisited: Voyagers Addressing a North Sea Deity in the Second Century CE 181
- Mapping Cosmological Space in the Apocalypse of Paul and the Visio Pauli: The Actualization of Virtual Spatiality in Two Pauline Apocalyptical Journeys based on 2 Cor 12:2–4 189
- The Travels of Barnabas: From the Acts of the Apostles to Late Antique Hagiographic Literature 229
- Rabbinic Geography: Between the Imaginary and Real 251
- The Journey of Zayd Ibn ʿAmr: In Search of True Worship 269
- Nautical Fiction of Late Antiquity: Jews and Christians Traveling by Sea 295
- Monasteries as Travel Loci for Muslims and Christians (500–1000 CE) 313
- Sachregister 337
- Stellenregister 341
