powers. In apocalyptic, God or one or more of God's emissaries must enter this world to end this order and create a new one. In the apocryphal Acts, internalization of the death (destruction) of earthly sex, marriage, and other practices became a way of renewing the self and the world without the actual destruction and recreation of the present created order. By adopting a mode of life that invited God to offer "outside direction and support" to the self, humans could accept death and destruction for themselves in the place of death and destruction for the world in which humans live and move and have their being. Central to this is a direct reversal of the traditional approach to human "self" focused on self-control and self-mastery. A central requirement of this new world view is that people search within themselves for the external divine power that can nurture and support them through all of life's vicissitudes, including death.

F. Stanley Jones has contributed an informative essay by displaying in parallel columns twenty-nine instances in which the Syriac and Latin versions of the Pseudo-Clementine Recognitions 1.27-71 may have an oral-scribal intertextual relation to canonical Acts. He considers three of his examples to be secure, three more examples to be probable, and twenty-three more to be possible. After making very brief interpretive remarks in the context of his displays of parallel texts, he proposes that Recognitions is a very early commentary on canonical Acts. It is an unusual commentary among early Christian writings, he proposes, because it is highly critical of canonical Acts. In contrast, he suggests, most early Christian commentary is basically uncritical and accepting of its predecessor text. He calls attention to the use of Hegesippus and Jubilees, especially, as additional sources and suggests that the author perceived himself to be writing a new history.

While Jones's essay establishes a good foundation for future study, it is limited by a focus only on oral-scribal intertexture between canonical Acts and the Syriac and Latin versions of Recognitions 1.27-71. Analysis of rhetorical, literary, linguistic, or cultural intertexture could advance the discussion to a point where it might be used to address Pervo's proposal that many early Christian writings show a desire by their authors to rival and displace earlier works. In addition, it might be especially helpful in a future study to introduce the Western text of canonical Acts into this analysis. Is there any substantive intertextuality between the Codex Bezae Cantabrigiensis version of canonical Acts and the Syriac and Latin versions of Recognitions 1.27-71? Careful intertextual interpretation of the variations among canonical Acts, the Cantabrigiensis text, and the Syriac and Latin versions of Recognitions 1.27-71 could contribute to a discussion in which interpreters are trying to decide if a subsequent text should be viewed as "rewritten Bible" or "highly critical commentary" designed to rival or displace the predecessor text. In addition, the absence of attribution of miracles to apostles in Recognitions 1.27-71 is an important insight, since canonical Acts, like the Gospel of Luke, has a vibrant