Overview

Our culture is well-populated with superheroes: Superman, Wonder Woman, Spider-Man, and more. Superheroes are not a modern invention; in fact, they are prehistoric. The gods and goddesses of the Greeks, for example, walked on water, flew, visited the land of the dead, and lived forever. Ancient Christians told similar stories about Jesus, their primary superhero he possessed incredible powers of healing, walked on water, rose from the dead, and more. Dennis R. MacDonald shows how the stories told in the Gospels parallel many in Greek and Roman epics with the aim of compelling their readers into life-changing decisions to follow Jesus. MacDonald doesn t call into question the existence of Jesus but rather asks readers to examine the biblical stories about him through a new, mythological lens.

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9781442233508

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This book distills much of MacDonald s decades of scholarship on the Homeric debt of popular literature at the time of Jesus. Mark s and Luke s stock of story motifs were in many cases influenced by Homer: the storm on the sea, the mentally ill man who lived among the caves, the hero walking on the water, the message from the dead to the living, the hero turning over the tables in his house, and many others. Early Christian authors and Byzantine scholars alike noticed the similarities, and now MacDonald has laid out the case clearly and forcefully. --Lawrence M. Wills, Ethelbert Talbot Professor of Biblical Studies, Episcopal Divinity School

Author Information

Dennis R. MacDonald is professor of New Testament and Christian origins at Claremont School of Theology. He is the author of several books, including The Gospels and Homer and Luke and Vergil.

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