New Show 6/18/08! Dennis R. MacDonald!
Offline This week, Dennis R. MacDonald will appear on the show to discuss some of his new projects and the historical Jesus, along with how the Gospel authors utilized Homeric epic as models for their construction of their narratives of Jesus. He has written many books, including my personal favorites, The Homeric Epics and the Gospel of Mark and Does the New Testament Imitate Homer?, both of which are excellent. (And you can purchase them using the link to our Amazon story to the left) 
Tune in at 8pm EST in our stickam room to hear this compelling scholar discuss these books, Jesus, and more!
Now is the time to ask any questions you have for Dennis here and the best of which will be asked on the show.
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Please help me get my resources so I can finish my book more quickly.
Et suppositio nil ponit in esse.
"You act ridiculously," said Ion, "to doubt everything. For my part, I should like to ask you what you say to those who free possessed men from their terrors by exorcising the spirits so manifestly. I need not discuss this: everyone knows about the Syrian from Palestine, the adept in it, how many he takes in hand who fall down in the light of the moon and roll their eyes and fill their mouths with foam; nevertheless, he restores them to health and sends them away normal in mind, delivering them from their straits for a large fee. When he stands beside them as they lie there and asks : 'Whence came you into his body?' the patient himself is silent, but the spirit answers in Greek or in the language of whatever foreign country he comes from, telling how and whence he entered into the man; whereupon, by adjuring the spirit and if he does not obey, threatening him, he drives him out. Indeed, I actually saw one coming out, black and smoky in color." "It is nothing much," I remarked," for you, Ion, to see that kind of sight, when even the 'forms' that the father of your school, Plato, points out are plain to you, a hazy object of vision to the rest of us, whose eyes are weak." - Lucian, Lover of Lies
What time's the taping? If it's in the morning or early afternoon, I can join you.
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
http://hambydammit.wordpress.com/
It has to be a live recording, as he lives on the west coast.
Here is an online article by Dennis on the allusion to Elpenor in the Odyssey to Eutychus in Luke-Acts: http://www.atheistalliance.org/jhc/articles/Mcdonald.htm
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Please help me get my resources so I can finish my book more quickly.
Et suppositio nil ponit in esse.
"You act ridiculously," said Ion, "to doubt everything. For my part, I should like to ask you what you say to those who free possessed men from their terrors by exorcising the spirits so manifestly. I need not discuss this: everyone knows about the Syrian from Palestine, the adept in it, how many he takes in hand who fall down in the light of the moon and roll their eyes and fill their mouths with foam; nevertheless, he restores them to health and sends them away normal in mind, delivering them from their straits for a large fee. When he stands beside them as they lie there and asks : 'Whence came you into his body?' the patient himself is silent, but the spirit answers in Greek or in the language of whatever foreign country he comes from, telling how and whence he entered into the man; whereupon, by adjuring the spirit and if he does not obey, threatening him, he drives him out. Indeed, I actually saw one coming out, black and smoky in color." "It is nothing much," I remarked," for you, Ion, to see that kind of sight, when even the 'forms' that the father of your school, Plato, points out are plain to you, a hazy object of vision to the rest of us, whose eyes are weak." - Lucian, Lover of Lies
From the article linked above: "If the story of Elpenor lies behind that of Eutychus, it would add support to those who suggest that Acts ought not be read as an historical record but as an historical novel." Is that why Dennis is interested in linking Homer and the New Testament - to show that the NT should be read as historical fiction rather than fact?
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