Spirituelle Einsicht und geistliche Blindheit. Die Stephanusvision und Test Hiob 52

Among epiphanies of the risen Christ in Acts, the appearance to Stephen has special significance as the only Christophany in which there is no audible sound and no commission to the visionary. The weight of the event rests solely upon what is seen. It is not surprising, therefore, that in its interpretation of Acts 7:54–60 exegetical research concentrates on the content of the vision: in particular, what it means that Stephen sees the Son of Man standing, as opposed to sitting, at God's right hand. The present study is not in competition with these interpretations. Rather, it attempts to complement previous research by taking up a prior question. It begins, not with the question about the standing Son of Man, but with the question of how Stephen is capable of a glimpse into the open celestial universe at all. The essay argues that this prior question is key to understanding the vision's content and that its answer lies in the report of the vision of Job's daughters in T. Job 52, an early Jewish parallel with clear consequences for our understanding of this vision in Acts. – 1Clare K. Rothschild