The Homeric Epics and the Gospel of Mark

Eric S. Weiss eweiss at gte.net
Mon Jun 5 09:37:50 EDT 2000


I unfortunately know nothing of Homer and Odysseus, but I know several on 
this list might be interested in this new book which claims a surprising 
dependence by GMark on The Odyssey:

The Homeric Epics and the Gospel of Mark 
by Dennis R. MacDonald 
Yale University Press, May 2000

The book is available at:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0300080123/qid=960211494/sr=1-1/103-8764272-9039810

(from Amazon) "In this book, MacDonald argues that the author of Mark 
consciously emulated Homeric epic. He begins by describing the common 
Greco-Roman custom of teaching prose composition through mimesis (Greek) or 
imitatio (Latin) and by pointing out several examples of their practice in 
pagan, Jewish and later Christian texts. He then proceeds to make the 
controversial case that large portions of Mark draw either directly on the 
texts or indirectly on the topoi of Homer. The argument is compelling and 
meticulously constructed. Both of our readers agree that this is 
important,
groundbreaking work that will revolutionize the study of the gospels."

Here is the URL for a lengthy review/critique by a Mr. Richard Carrier 
[B.A. History (minor in Classical Civilization), UC Berkeley (1997) M.A. 
Ancient History, Columbia University (1998) M.Phil. Ancient History, 
Columbia University (2000)]:

http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/richard_carrier/homerandmark.html

Carrier states: "MacDonald's case is thorough, and though many of 
his points are not as conclusive as he makes them out to be, when taken as 
a cumulative whole the evidence is so abundant and clear it cannot be 
denied. And being a skeptic to the thick, I would never say this lightly. 
Several scholars who reviewed or commented on it have said this book will 
revolutionize the field of Gospel studies and profoundly affect our 
understanding of the origins of Christianity, and though I had taken this 
for hype, after reading the book I now echo that very sentiment myself. ... 
What is especially impressive is the vast quantity of cases of direct and 
indirect borrowing from Homer that can be found in Mark. One or two would 
be interesting, several would be significant. But we are presented with 
countless examples, and this is as cumulative as a case can get. In the 
end, I came away from this book with a new appreciation for Mark, whose 
Gospel tends to be derided as the work of a rather poor, simple Greek 
author. Though Mark's Greek is extremely colloquial, not at all in high 
literary style, this itself is surely a grand and ingenious transvaluation 
of Homer: whereas the great epics were archaic and difficult, only to be 
mastered by the educated elites, only to be understood completely by those 
with access to glossaries and commentaries and marked-up critical editions, 
Mark not only updated Homer's values and theology, but inverted its entire
character as an elite masterpiece, by making his own epic simple, 
thoroughly understandable by the common, the poor, the masses, and lacking 
in the overt pretension and cleverness of poetic verse, written in plain, 
ordinary language. The scope of genius evident in Mark's reconstruction of 
Homeric motifs is undeniable and has convinced me that Mark was no 
simpleton: he was a literary master, whose achievement is all the greater 
in his choice of idiom—his "poor Greek" was deliberate and artful, as was 
his story."

If any read this book, I would be interested in their opinion of the 
plausibility of the author's thesis and the validity of his proofs and 
arguments.



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