Share

Luke and Vergil

2014-11-05 Religion
Download Luke and Vergil PDF Online Free

Author :
Release : 2014-11-05
Genre : Religion
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 55X/5 ( reviews)

GET EBOOK


Book Synopsis Luke and Vergil by : Dennis R. MacDonald

Download or read book Luke and Vergil written by Dennis R. MacDonald. This book was released on 2014-11-05. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Luke and the Politics of Homeric Imitation

2018-10-25 Religion
Download Luke and the Politics of Homeric Imitation PDF Online Free

Author :
Release : 2018-10-25
Genre : Religion
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 39X/5 ( reviews)

GET EBOOK


Book Synopsis Luke and the Politics of Homeric Imitation by : Dennis R. MacDonald

Download or read book Luke and the Politics of Homeric Imitation written by Dennis R. MacDonald. This book was released on 2018-10-25. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Luke and the Politics of Homeric Imitation: Luke–Acts as Rival to the Aeneid argues that the author of Luke–Acts composed not a history but a foundation mythology to rival Vergil’s Aeneid by adopting and ethically emulating the cultural capital of classical Greek poetry, especially Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey and Euripides's Bacchae. For example, Vergil and, more than a century later, Luke both imitated Homer’s account of Zeus’s lying dream to Agamemnon, Priam’s escape from Achilles, and Odysseus’s shipwreck and visit to the netherworld. Both Vergil and Luke, as well as many other intellectuals in the Roman Empire, engaged the great poetry of the Greeks to root new social or political realities in the soil of ancient Hellas, but they also rivaled Homer’s gods and heroes to create new ones that were more moral, powerful, or compassionate. One might say that the genre of Luke–Acts is an oxymoron: a prose epic. If this assessment is correct, it holds enormous importance for understanding Christian origins, in part because one may no longer appeal to the Acts of the Apostles for reliable historical information. Luke was not a historian any more than Vergil was, and, as the Latin bard had done for the Augustine age, he wrote a fictional portrayal of the kingdom of God and its heroes, especially Jesus and Paul, who were more powerful, more ethical, and more compassionate than the gods and heroes of Homer and Euripides or those of Vergil’s Aeneid.

The Gospels and Homer

2014-11-05 Religion
Download The Gospels and Homer PDF Online Free

Author :
Release : 2014-11-05
Genre : Religion
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 533/5 ( reviews)

GET EBOOK


Book Synopsis The Gospels and Homer by : Dennis R. MacDonald

Download or read book The Gospels and Homer written by Dennis R. MacDonald. This book was released on 2014-11-05. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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 The Gospels and Homer MacDonald leads readers through Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, highlighting models that the authors of the Gospel of Mark and Luke-Acts may have imitated for their portrayals of Jesus and his earliest followers such as Paul. The book applies mimesis criticism to show the popularity of the targets being imitated, the distinctiveness in the Gospels, and evidence that ancient readers recognized these similarities. Using side-by-side comparisons, the book provides English translations of Byzantine poetry that shows how Christian writers used lines from Homer to retell the life of Jesus. The potential imitations include adventures and shipwrecks, savages living in cages, meals for thousands, transfigurations, visits from the dead, blind seers, and more. MacDonald makes a compelling case that the Gospel writers successfully imitated the epics to provide their readers with heroes and an authoritative foundation for Christianity.

Does the New Testament Imitate Homer?

2008-10-01 Religion
Download Does the New Testament Imitate Homer? PDF Online Free

Author :
Release : 2008-10-01
Genre : Religion
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 890/5 ( reviews)

GET EBOOK


Book Synopsis Does the New Testament Imitate Homer? by : Dennis R. MacDonald

Download or read book Does the New Testament Imitate Homer? written by Dennis R. MacDonald. This book was released on 2008-10-01. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: div 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. Tracing the influence of passages from the Iliad on subsequent ancient literature, MacDonald shows how the story generated a vibrant, mimetic literary tradition long before Luke composed the Acts. Luke could have expected educated readers to recognize his transformation of these tales and to see that the Christian God and heroes were superior to Homeric gods and heroes. Building upon and extending the analytic methods of his earlier book, The Homeric Epics and the Gospel of Mark, MacDonald opens an original and promising appreciation not only of Acts but also of the composition of early Christian narrative in general. /DIV

The Formal Education of the Author of Luke-Acts

2022-06-16 Religion
Download The Formal Education of the Author of Luke-Acts PDF Online Free

Author :
Release : 2022-06-16
Genre : Religion
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 897/5 ( reviews)

GET EBOOK


Book Synopsis The Formal Education of the Author of Luke-Acts by : Steve Reece

Download or read book The Formal Education of the Author of Luke-Acts written by Steve Reece. This book was released on 2022-06-16. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Steve Reece proposes that the author of Luke-Acts was trained as a youth in the primary and secondary Greek educational curriculum typical of the Eastern Mediterranean during the Roman Imperial period, where he gained familiarity with the Classical and Hellenistic authors whose works were the focus of study. He makes a case for Luke's knowledge of these authors internally by spotlighting the density of allusions to them in the narrative of Luke-Acts, and externally by illustrating from contemporary literary, papyrological, and artistic evidence that the works of these authors were indeed widely known in the Eastern Mediterranean at the time of the composition of Luke-Acts, not only in the schools but also among the general public. Reece begins with a thorough examination of the Greek educational system during the Hellenistic and Roman Imperial periods, emphasizing that the educational curriculum was very homogeneous, at least at the primary and secondary levels, and that children growing up anywhere in the Eastern Mediterranean could expect to receive quite similar educations. His close examination of the Greek text of Luke-Acts has turned up echoes, allusions, and quotations of several of the very authors that were most prominently featured in the school curriculum: Homer, Aesop, Euripides, Plato, and Aratus. This reinforces the view that Luke, along with other writers of the New Testament, lived in a cultural milieu that was influenced by Classical and Hellenistic Greek literature and that he was not averse to invoking that literature when it served his theological and literary purposes.

You may also like...