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. |
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... battles . Agamemnon awoke from sleep , and the divine voice engulfed him.4 Zeus had told him that " now [ vûv ] you can take the wide - laned city of the Trojans " ; but the king thought " that he would take the city of Priam that very ...
... battle . The king went forth to battle and sustained the defeat which was owing him , and thus absolved the deity from blame of false- hood by not following all of his commands.25 Such clever apologetics did not impress Christian ...
... battle ; lead them against the Phrygians . . . and torch their painted ships . " 35 Allecto ends her orders to Turnus with , " The mighty power of the gods orders " the destruction of Trojans ( motif 2.5 ) .36 She vanishes when Turnus ...
... battle . To this point we have seen imitations of Agamemnon's dream in the Odyssey , Lucan , Vergil , and Statius ; the end of this chapter will examine similar imitations in Herodotus and Silius Italicus , who imitate both the dream ...
... battle against Greece ? " 67 Each of the dreams thus begins with a rebuke in the form of a ques- tion , like the rebuke issued to Agamemnon ( motifs 2.1 and 2.2 ) . The recurrent dreams invariably ordered Xerxes and Artabanus to wage ...
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 |