Was Paul a Roman citizen? Barbara Bargel receives the Armin Schmitt Prize

Was the Apostle Paul a Roman citizen? At first glance, this seems to be a straightforward historical question. In the Acts of the Apostles, which recounts Paul’s life and ministry in the New Testament, the Apostle refers to Roman citizenship on several occasions – for example, to protect himself from being flogged. But can we actually infer from these accounts that Paul possessed this right? Or was it only attributed to him retrospectively in the biblical narrative?

Dr Barbara Bargel explored these questions in her doctoral thesis ‘Paul as a Roman citizen? A socio-historical and legal-historical study of the Acts of the Apostles’. She has now been awarded the Armin Schmitt Prize for her work.

Barbara Bargel studied to become a secondary school teacher in Eichstätt, specialising in English and Catholic religious education, and completed her studies with the first Staatsexamen (state examination). She subsequently went on to complete a Magister Theologiae at the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg. Since then, she has been teaching and conducting research in Würzburg and is currently employed as a "Akademische Rätin auf Zeit" (temporary academic assistant) at the Chair of New Testament Exegesis.

A biblical text in its historical context

To examine the question of citizenship, Bargel first reconstructed the significance of Roman citizenship in Paul’s time. How could it be acquired? What rights and duties were associated with it? And what advantages did it bring in everyday life or in court?

To this end, she drew on various historical sources, including inscriptions and legal documents from ancient Rome. She then examined the passages in the Acts of the Apostles in which Paul’s citizenship plays a role. This involved both the question of what historical information could be gleaned from the texts and how the narratives might have come about.

“At the outset, I was particularly fascinated by the clarity and apparent simplicity of the question: was Paul a Roman citizen or not?” says Bargel. However, the hope of perhaps being able to answer this question definitively proved to be overly optimistic as the research progressed, for – as with many historical studies of antiquity – the available sources do not allow for a conclusive answer.

Yet this is precisely where one of the work’s particular strengths lies: Bargel does not limit herself to examining the historical credibility of individual statements. She also asks why the Acts of the Apostles portrays Paul as a Roman citizen at all, and what function this attribution fulfils within the narrative as a whole.

Between history and narrative art

To this end, the theologian combines social and legal-historical research with methods of historical-critical and narratological exegesis. The latter focuses on how and by what means stories are constructed: Which characters take centre stage? How are events linked together? And how do narrative perspective and presentation influence a text’s message? In the case of Paul, this is not merely a question of what might have happened historically. Equally important is how the Acts of the Apostles constructs a particular image of the apostle from the traditions available to it. Bargel is particularly interested in how the author selects, shapes and interlinks information. “This narrative structure and the question of what it reveals about the author’s intentions have ultimately become at least as interesting to me as the original historical question,” she says.

The thesis bridges the gap between New Testament biblical studies and ancient history, particularly Roman legal and social history. Anyone wishing to understand the role that citizenship plays in the narratives about Paul must also know what social standing Roman citizens held, what rights they were entitled to, and how these were exercised in everyday life. Historical documents and inscriptions provide an insight into living conditions in antiquity, whilst exegetical analysis, using literary methods, examines how such conditions are taken up and narratively processed in a biblical text.

For Bargel, this interdisciplinary approach is fundamental. Her aim is to understand biblical texts not in isolation, but within their respective historical and social contexts of origin. This requires evidence from a variety of sources and perspectives. It is precisely at the interface between biblical studies and ancient history that she therefore sees opportunities for a fruitful interdisciplinary exchange.

New questions, new theories

Bargel’s next project demonstrates that New Testament research will remain a key focus of her work in the future, though it now seeks to adopt new perspectives. In her postdoctoral thesis, she examines the miracles recounted in the Gospel of Mark and asks what role, for example, the gender of the figures involved in a miracle plays in the course and outcome of the narrative: For example, are the accounts told differently when Jesus encounters a man in need or a sick woman? Does Jesus behave differently towards men and women? And can narrative patterns be identified that point to gender-specific attributions or distortions?

Bargel aims to systematically examine the miracle narratives, incorporating approaches from gender studies and, possibly, disability studies. She is particularly interested in whether overarching patterns can be identified that are easily overlooked when considering individual narratives.

The Armin Schmitt Prize

The Armin Schmitt Prize was established by a foundation set up by Professor Armin Schmitt, a Würzburg priest and Old Testament scholar who died in 2006. The award continues his commitment to promoting scholarly engagement with the Bible. Schmitt was born in Eußenheim and was ordained as a priest in Würzburg in 1960. After completing his doctorate and habilitation at the University of Würzburg, he initially taught there, then at the University of Osnabrück from 1980 to 1984, and at the University of Regensburg from 1984 until his retirement in 1999.

Contact

Dr Barbara Bargel, Chair of New Testament, T +49 931 31-86135, barbara.bargel@uni-wuerzburg.de