Luke and Vergil

Imitations of Classical Greek Literature

Luke and Vergil

Imitations of Classical Greek Literature

Dennis R. MacDonald (Author)

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Description

These two volumes of The New Testament and Greek Literature are the magnum opus of biblical scholar Dennis R. MacDonald, outlining the profound connections between the New Testament and classical Greek poetry. MacDonald argues that the Gospel writers borrowed from established literary sources to create stories about Jesus that readers of the day would find convincing.

In Luke and Vergil MacDonald proposes that the author of Luke-Acts followed Mark’s lead in imitating Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, but greatly expanded his project, especially in the Acts, but adding imitations not only of the epics but also of Euripides’ Bacchae and Plato’s Socratic dialogues. The potential imitations include spectacular miracles, official resistance, epiphanies, prison breaks, and more. The book applies mimesis criticism and uses side-by-side comparisons to show how early Christian authors portrayed the origins of Christianity as more compelling than the Augustan Golden Age.

Introduction
Part One: Euripides' Bacchae and Luke-Acts
Part Two: Plato's Socrates and Luke-Acts
Part Three: Vergil's Odyssey-Iliad and Luke-Acts
Appendix 1. Analogous Imitations of the Bacchae in Jewish and Christian Texts
Appendix 2. Analogous Imitations of Plato's Socrates in Christian Texts
Appendix 3. The Q+/Papias Hypothesis
Abbreviations
Bibliography
Index to Classical Greek Literature
Index to the Gospels and Acts

Product details

Published	Nov 05 2014
Format	Ebook (PDF)
Edition	1st
Extent	1
ISBN	9798881871697
Imprint	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Illustrations	1 b/w illustrations; 1 maps;
Series	The New Testament and Greek Literature
Publisher	Bloomsbury Publishing

Author

Dennis R. MacDonald

This second volume in MacDonald’s magnum opus carries forward the work begun in MacDonald’s first volume in the same series. In this volume, MacDonald draws comparisons between Luke-Acts and the ancient texts of Euripides’ Bacchae, Vergil’s Aeneid, and the images of Socrates in Plato and Xenophon. For readers familiar with MacDonald’s rich legacy of work on Homer and the New Testament, this volume will offer some welcome surprises…. MacDonald is clearly at the forefront of the intersection of classics and the New Testament. As with all of his work, the thinking is original, the scholarship is meticulous, and the conclusions are hotly debated. This volume is required reading for scholars of Christianity’s interaction with the Greco-Roman world and its literature.

Religious Studies Review
No one has a knack for discovering parallels between the gospels and classical Greek and Latin literature quite like that of MacDonald. After reading this, one cannot but feel tantalized by his argument that Luke sought to imitate and in the process transform such classics as Vergil's Aeneid, Euripides' Bacchae, and Plato's Socratic dialogues. This work is truly the capstone to MacDonald's lifetime of research into the rich interplay between gospel traditions and the classical heritage, which so indelibly shape Western thought and literature.

Jeff Jay, University of Chicago, author of The Tragic in Mark: A Literary-Historical Interpretation
Persuasive, magisterial, thorough in scope. Maps many points of intersection between Luke-Acts and the literature of Greece and Rome. Firmly situates Luke-Acts within a Greco-Roman literary context. Essential resource for scholars of Luke-Acts and of early Christianity in its Roman setting.

Steven Muir, Concordia University