Five Major apocryphal Acts survive from the early period of the Christian church, the so-called Acts of Andrew, of Paul, Peter, John, and Thomas. In the canonical New Testament, the apostle Andrew, brother of Peter is mentioned only a dozen times. In the Acts of Andrew, his post-resurrection mission and heroic martyrdom are closely detailed in a series of acts or episodes. This study edition of the Acts of Andrew present a fresh, new translation of the text with cross-references, notes, and commentary. An extensive introduction also sets out the challenge of recovering and reconstructing the...

In this groundbreaking book, Dennis R. MacDonald offers an entirely new view of the New Testament gospel of Mark. The author of the earliest gospel was not writing history, nor was he merely recording tradition, MacDonald argues. Close reading and careful analysis show that Mark borrowed extensively from the Odyssey and the Iliad and that he wanted his readers to recognize the Homeric antecedents in Mark's story of Jesus. Mark was composing a prose anti-epic, MacDonald says, presenting Jesus as a suffering hero modeled after but far superior to traditional Greek heroes. Much like Odysseus,...

"Dennis MacDonald is one of the most creative and intellectually innovative New Testament scholars of his generation. In this bold new book, MacDonald dares to re-imagine the textual landscape of early Gospel traditions. Attention is focused on reconstructing two lost Gospel texts, the Logoi of Jesus (the so-called Q source) and Papias' The Exposition of Logia about the Lord. MacDonald develops a new paradigm for reconstructing Q, and in the process generates a text nearly twice as long as traditional reconstructions. This he calls Q+. In relation to Papias' Exposition, MacDonald argues that...

These two volumes of The New Testament and Greek Literature are the magnum opus of biblical scholar Dennis R. MacDonald, outlining the profound connections between the New Testament and classical Greek poetry. MacDonald argues that the Gospel writers borrowed from established literary sources to create stories about Jesus that readers of the day would find convincing. In The Gospels and Homer MacDonald leads readers through Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, highlighting models that the authors of the Gospel of Mark and Luke-Acts may have imitated for their portrayals of Jesus and his earliest...

These two volumes of The New Testament and Greek Literature are the magnum opus of biblical scholar Dennis R. MacDonald, outlining the profound connections between the New Testament and classical Greek poetry. MacDonald argues that the Gospel writers borrowed from established literary sources to create stories about Jesus that readers of the day would find convincing. In Luke and Vergil MacDonald proposes that the author of Luke-Acts followed Mark's lead in imitating Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, but greatly expanded his project, especially in the Acts, but adding imitations not only of the...

MacDonald observes that the Fourth Gospel sounds themes proper to the Greek god Dionysos (the Roman Bacchus), not least as he was depicted in Euripides's play The Bacchae.

JESUS IN Q is about the Sabbath and the theology of Jesus. There are several books about the Sabbath with regard to the Gospel of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, but nothing regarding Q. This book is designed to address the relation to the Sabbath in Q which makes it remarkable amongst other Sabbath related books with reference to the Synoptic Gospels.
Considering the rabbinic writers and the early fathers, who have used, generally in a free way, the sayings of Jesus drawn from the Gospels and/or oral tradition, this book examines the apologists and the extracanonical writers, whose writings...