Does the New Testament Imitate Homer?: Four Cases from the Acts of the Apostlesdiv In this provocative challenge to prevailing views of New Testament sources, Dennis R. MacDonald argues that the origins of passages in the book of Acts are to be found not in early Christian legends but in the epics of Homer. MacDonald focuses on four passages in the book of Acts, examines their potential parallels in the Iliad, and concludes that the author of Acts composed them using famous scenes in Homer’s work as a model. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 67
... first two criteria assess the cultural significance of the proposed model . Accessibility , criterion one , pertains to the dating of the proposed model relative to the imitation and its physical distribution and popularity in education ...
... first century C.E. imitated the epics thus would satisfy the first criterion , accessibility . My critics concede the point , though with a caveat . The qualification usually goes like this . Even though the Homeric epics were ...
... first two books of the Iliad clearly were the most popular , but most other books are attested as well.14 The writings of rhetoricians , literary critics , and historians refer to imitations , but the most important witnesses are the ...
... first author to do so , he linked the creation of the Roman people to Aeneas and other Trojans who had fled the city . Furthermore , by composing an epic transparently modeled after Homer's Odyssey for the first six books and the Iliad ...
... first century , especially the decadence and ineptitude of the Julio - Claudians . Lucan distanced the rule of Augustus from the divine will in Bellum civile ; Statius's Thebaid more pointedly opposed Vergil's enthusiasm for Augustus ...
Contents
1 | |
17 | |
Pauls Farewell at Miletus and Iliad | 67 |
The Selection of Matthias and Iliad | 103 |
Peters Escape from Prison and Iliad | 121 |
Conclusion | 146 |
Greek and Latin Parallels | 153 |
List of Abbreviations | 167 |
Notes | 171 |
Bibliography | 209 |
Index | 221 |