Does the New Testament imitate Homer? : four cases from the Acts of the Apostles

Does the New Testament Imitate Homer? Four Cases from the Acts of the Apostles, by Dennis R. MacDonald. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003, Pp. x + 224. $38.00 (hardcover). ISBN 0300097700. In this book Dennis R, MacDonald provides a detailed argument in affirmation of the question. Although he frequently addresses the real and perceived objections of his critics, it is probable that the only serious critics to his basic premise would be those who hold that the NT writings, and specifically the Lukan writings, are sui generis. His premise, that the NT writings fit within the broader literary spectrum of the Hellenistic world, is not inherently objectionable. The main issue behind MacDonald's book is the idea that many writers of the ancient world imitated the stories attributed to Homer. As he states at the beginning of his introduction, "no ancient intellectual would have doubted that the Iliad and the Odyssey informed the composition of prose" (p. 1). Furthermore, not only did the works of Homer "inform" prose composition, but the writers of the ancient world actually imitated these works (p. 2). The book is organized around four parts, with an introduction and conclusion. In his introduction, MacDonald, whose earlier work The Homeric Epics and the Gospel of Mark (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000) covers the same general theme, designates six criteria for his examination of literary imitation: accessibility, analogy, density, similar sequencing, distinctive traits, and interpretability. After addressing the objections raised by critics of his earlier efforts, MacDonald contrasts his approach with that of Marianne Palmer Bonz, The Past as Legacy: Luke-Acts and Ancient Epic (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2000), who views the Lukan material as "a prose epic modeled after not the Iliad but Vergil's Aeneid" (p. 7). By employing these criteria to study four episodes in the Acts of the Apostles, MacDonald hopes to "prove . . . that four passages in the New Testament not only imitate Homer, they notify their readers that they do so." MacDonald hopes this evidence might "prod others to keep the epics in mind when studying early Christian texts" (p. 14). The bulk of the book consists of four parts where the six criteria are applied to four episodes in Acts: the visions of Cornelius and Peter (10:1-11:18), Paul's farewell at Miletus (20:18-35), the selection of Matthias (1:15-26), and Peter's escape from prison (12:1-23). Each part consists of chapters of varying length that deal with elements of MacDonald's argument. Typically MacDonald retells the stories from the NT and the Iliad, highlighting their basic similarities and the first two criteria. The second pair of criteria are often discussed as MacDonald provides columns of text that highlight the density and similar sequencing of the stories. The last chapter discusses the fifth criterion to determine whether other sources might have been used by the author of Acts, and the final criterion is summarized at the end of that chapter. The first episode is what MacDonald considers the "most significant" passage, the visions of Cornelius and Peter told and retold in Acts 10:1-11:18. These visions are compared with the dream of Agamemnon, which is sent by Hera. The discussion of the visions and dream is given the most detailed and extensive treatment, entailing nearly one-third of the entire manuscript. It is also the most compelling of the four treatments, MacDonald should be given credit for making a complex and detailed argument so easy to follow. His consistent utilization of parallel columns and individual treatments of similar motifs are a real benefit to the reader. The English texts are MacDonald's own translation; he provides the Greek and Latin in the appendix in their own parallel columns. The five chapters of part 1 are substantiated by 212 citations in the endnotes, whose location is a definite plus in helping the reader follow the argument. …