Lydia as a Rhetorical Construct in Acts by Alexandra Gruca-Macaulay

Reviewed by: Lydia as a Rhetorical Construct in Acts by Alexandra Gruca-Macaulay Linda M. Maloney alexandra gruca-macaulay, Lydia as a Rhetorical Construct in Acts (Emory Studies in Early Christianity 18; Atlanta: SBL Press, 2016). Pp. xiv + 321. $45.95. This intense work of scholarship originated as the author's doctoral dissertation under the direction of L. Gregory Bloomquist at the University of Ottawa, where Gruca-Macaulay [End Page 335] received her Ph.D. in 2013. The published work follows the dissertation format closely: history of interpretation, statement of the method, detailed exposition of the method, and application, with a summary conclusion. The method is that of sociorhetorical analysis, pioneered by Vernon K. Robbins and practiced also by this dissertation's director, Bloomquist. Gruca-Macaulay explains that her choice of topic was provoked by her inability to locate a sociorhetorical function for the "traditional" figure of Lydia as hostess, well-to-do (or even not-so-well-to-do) textile merchant, and most illustrious convert of Philippi (p. 1). A suggestion from Prof. Bloomquist that she research Lydian ethnography opened the way, as she discovered the apparent clash between the (more than questionable) reputation of Lydians and purple-sellers and the traditional image. It was the former that became the key to discovering Lydia's sociorhetorical function in Acts. The review of research yields not only the usual imagery but a recurring one of "courtesan" that accords with the Lydian profile and stereotype. A chapter entitled "Inner Textual Analysis" breaks down and reexamines key topoi in Acts 16 in their rhetorical roles; Lydian physiognomy plays a major part here. Then follows the chapter entitled "Ideological Texture," showing how the author developed the rhetorical movement of the passage and how it fits within the larger composition of Luke-Acts. This chapter is the meat of the book, at least for those who are less interested in understanding and applying the sociorhetorical method than in the application to Lydia and the passage in Acts 16. A concluding chapter draws all the threads together and links to the opening: "[R]ather unexpectedly I proceeded to discover a departure from conventional patterns in which the 'harlot' figure tests the sight of those who can discern her true, authentically God-centered nature" (p. 280). G.-M.'s hope is that "Lydia the hostess in the history of interpretation can be laid to rest, and in her stead the image of Lydia the perceptive disciple can resume its rightful place as the 'rhetorical cognitive images' of the first audiences of Acts join with our own" (ibid.). Gruca-Macaulay's scholarship is prodigious. It seems impossible (to me, at least!) that she has failed to consult any ancient author (the "ancient sources" index is nearly as long as the modern bibliography). I deeply admire the depth and breadth of her research. I do question her insistence that when, in Paul's dream, "there stood a man of Macedonia … saying 'Come over to Macedonia and help us'" (Acts 16:9), this is an adequate rhetorical signal that a military topos should be seen as background to the episode. That seems like a stretch. My other and broader concern is that scholarship has moved so fast and so hard from the quest to discover women actors in the Bible to the search for figures whose significance is rhetorical that the real women may fade into the woodwork again. G.-M. is sensitive to this. She writes, "I wish to clarify that the argument that Lydia is a rhetorical figure does not [imply] that a historic figure has been relegated to the level of symbol, as has been the practice of some past commentators" (p. 276). But I fear that her work, together with the absence of Lydia from Paul's letter to the Philippians and the apparent lack of any records of Lydia in Philippi (see Shelly Matthews, First Converts: Rich Pagan Women and the Rhetoric of Mission in Early Judaism and Christianity [Contraversions; Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2001] 93) may well contribute to the reduction to symbolic status of a figure who, according to some Europeans—and I agree!—should be acclaimed the patron of Europe...

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