Abstract:This article explores the identity work in which Commodian engages through his acrostic Instructiones. In particular, it evaluates the content, rhetoric, and structure of the work to establish that Commodian sought to cultivate in his readers a totalized and uncompromising Christian worldview predicated on a deep-seated humility through which the Christian’s individual judgment is always and everywhere suspect, whereas God’s is paramount. Commodian argues that Christians must subordinate all other identities to their identities as Christians, and to subordinate their own judgment to the law of God as expressed in scripture. He underscores this argument by offering an acrostic scaffolding for his poetic treatise, one that signals the existence of a higher law and that resonates with contemporary expectations of divine communication and spiritual authority. This article, then, offers a new reading of Commodian’s Instructiones, expands our understanding of the possibilities of Christian identity in third-century North Africa, and presents a novel argument about the possible uses of acrostic in Late Antiquity.

中文翻译：

---

脚手架现实：Commodian 指令中的离合词与身份建构

摘要：本文探讨了 Commodian 通过他的离合指令从事的身份工作。特别是，它评估了作品的内容、修辞和结构，以确定 Commodian 试图在他的读者中培养一种全面的、不妥协的基督教世界观，这种世界观建立在一种根深蒂固的谦卑之上，通过这种谦逊，基督徒的个人判断总是在任何地方都受到怀疑，而上帝的至高无上。Commodian 认为，基督徒必须将所有其他身份从属于他们作为基督徒的身份，并将自己的判断从属于圣经中表达的上帝的律法。他通过为他的诗歌论文提供一个离合脚手架来强调这一论点，一个标志着更高法律的存在，并与当代对神圣交流和精神权威的期望产生共鸣。然后，这篇文章提供了对 Commodian's Instructiones 的新解读，扩展了我们对 3 世纪北非基督徒身份可能性的理解，并提出了关于古代晚期离合词可能用途的新论点。