Such images facilitate encounters with “specters” of the authors, invoking their bodily presence in the absence of their physical body. 6 This article analyzes the phenomena that arise when the images of New Testament authors are placed before, alongside, and within the titles and incipits of New Testament texts in ancient manuscripts. Scholarly focus on images in New Testament manuscripts is largely concerned with the description of the images and comparing similar features and artistic styles in their social, historical, and theological contexts. What the image of Mark provides that the epigram cannot is the visual presence of the evangelist for the reader. ![]() Just because the epigram takes center-place (literally) does not mean, however, that Mark’s body is superfluous. This corporeal extension allows external data unknowable from simply looking at an image of Mark-namely the apostolic origin of Mark’s gospel from Peter-to become a feature of his body itself, so that Mark’s identity and the authority of his testimony cannot be separated from Peter. 5 But by obscuring his face, the ascription becomes a part of his identity as author it is a fragmented and textualized extension of his body as represented on the page. Despite the obliteration of Mark’s face, the epigram’s ascription of his identity makes clear both his role in collecting and producing his gospel (the book in his right hand might be understood as his notes on Peter’s preaching). They are intertwined with one another hierarchically-the text’s obfuscation of the evangelist’s face overrides visual notions of his identity and even, in this case, the activity of writing the gospel itself. 4 They are not segregated into their own distinct spaces. Image and epigram are not separated from one another. On this manuscript page, image and text converge, generating new relationships between apostolic identity and textual ascription, authorship and authority, and physical embodiment and textual presence. ![]() They are loci of presence, identity, memory, and authority. Images of the apostles in NT manuscripts are therefore more than decoration or pious creativity. Images of the apostles further interact with anonymous features of NT manuscripts, such as Euthaliana, providing authorization for works without ascription in the manuscripts themselves. ![]() Although they are paratexts, apostolic icons can rearrange and aggregate other paratextual features including titles and even Euthaliana. On occasion, the blending of textual incipits with apostolic images sublimate authorial identity and textual identity the bodies of apostles become frames through which to view their written works. They are encodings of collective memory but also participants in perpetuating and sometimes modifying the physical appearance of apostolic figures. This article analyzes the phenomena that arise when the images of New Testament authors are placed before, alongside, and within the titles and incipits of New Testament texts in ancient manuscripts.
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