Absent in Body, Present in Spirit: Apostolic Iconography in Greek Byzantine New Testament Manuscripts

Abstract

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. Such images facilitate encounters with “specters” of the authors, invoking their bodily presence in the absence of their physical body. They are encodings of collective memory but also participants in perpetuating and sometimes modifying the physical appearance of apostolic figures. 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. Although they are paratexts, apostolic icons can rearrange and aggregate other paratextual features including titles and even Euthaliana. 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. Images of the apostles in NT manuscripts are therefore more than decoration or pious creativity. They are loci of presence, identity, memory, and authority.