Dennis Ronald MacDonald – författare

This study focuses on the apocryphal Acts of Andrew (c. 200 AD), which purports to tell the story of the travels, miracles, and martyrdom of the apostle Andrew. Traditional scholarship has looked for the background of such writings in Jewish and Christian scriptures. MacDonald, however, breaks with that model and looks to classic literature for the sources of this story. Specifically, he argues that the Acts represent an attempt to transform Graeco-Roman myth into Christian narrative categories by telling the story of Andrew in terms of Homeric epic, in particular the Odyssey. MacDonald presents a point-by-point comparison of the two works, finding the resemblances so strong, numerous, and tendentious that they virtually compel the reader to consider the Acts a transformative "rewriting" of the epic. This discovery not only sheds valuable light on the uses of Homer in the early church but also significantly contributes to our understanding of the reception of Homer in the empire as a whole.

The apostle Paul--antifeminist conformist, or social radical? Combining New Testament studies with folkloristic methods to search for the true identity of Paul, the author sheds new light on the apocryphal Acts of Paul and the Pastoral Epistles of the canonical New Testament.With this book, the legends surrounding the apostle have been rescued from near oblivion and properly placed in the Pauline tradition. Formulated in the days of early Christianity and handed down through the centuries, they cast new light on Paul's views about the ordination of women, the forms of Christian community, and the meaning of the gospel for politics, society, and sexuality.