The Blindspot In Academia: The Gospels Are Using The Greek Epics - Dr. Dennis MacDonald

Im sorry for Dennis Macdonald but those connections between greek epics and Mark are kinda weak or far stretched in comparison of his clear imitation of the OT

Cool! Thanks!

The title of this new book is Greek to me. Not catchy, too academic, so much so, I forgot it in a twink. Yet, he is aiming at the layman, not the fluent in ancient Greek reader? And, it sounds as though it is going to be substantially pricey.

Dr.MacDonald meant to say that the Cyclops' name Polyphemus is modelled by the Gerasene demonac identifying himself as Legion rather than Odysseus using the name Outis. Also, Achilles and Jesus can be seen to have common features: unmarried men of the same age; have a divine parent; their tragic deaths fulfill a divine plan to usher in a new age, which is also associated with the destruction of a sacred city.

Hi Derek thanks for your video. Question if bible in many faces and direction borrowed from Greece myths romans and Mesopotamian mythologies . Why the written bible stuff has more impacts on the way of life of these people that descended from Greco Roman background. Why the Roman Greece mythologies failed to be dominant comparing with bible myths ? Thanks again.

Saul Paul’s schizophrenic hallucinations led him to believe in a delusional super hero (messiah) who would fix him. This masses gentle & kind superhero resonated well with a tiny group of struggling GrecoRomans. Jews generally rejected his delusions as it contradicted every stream of their teachings but his ideas were enough to be a good kernel to build Christianity from within the creative minds of GrecoRoman individuals that fell in Saul’s delusions. (Christianity)Teachings are predominantly Pauline, miracles are totally Greek myths parallels

In the book of revelation the two witnesses (probably referring to Matthew and John) witness in morning ( probably referring to them getting tampered). If the bible taught that the bible would get tampered with,why? The victor write the so called history book. To restore the cannon subtract the roman and babolonian (and any other ) "culture" from the "Jewish" "culture" to get the original bible. Did prophecy say that the next tsar will restore the cannon and purify the church and get rid of many and get brought to power by the people(see "simon the orthodox indian" and "vladyka theophan") ? What would you do if I told you that tsar nicholas had secret grandchildren and I decended from nicholas ? Help bring me to power over russia and ukraine help restore the cannon. Did constantine (or?) want to turn the "jewish"christ into the"roman" so called christ?

Good Stuff

Total nonsense .

Where was this filmed???? The trees…the birds….it all sounds like a little piece of heaven..!!!
Without details…..where was this filmed???

I’ve got a similar theory about the various parallels between Esau and Achilles, and I’m wondering if the Jesus / Achilles parallel could conjoin with the Jesus had a twin theory and that maybe Hector was the corespondent representation of The Twin of Achilles?

You know, guy….??!!?? You and your story are awesome……to think you held all your intellect hostage while bedeviled with addiction…..I am so glad you are where you are…..YOU make ME smarter..!!!!

LOL you know what's so hilarious is gnostics nowadays have really think they have it all figured out. because we have access to all this technology 2day and info, that people couldn't have have back in ancient times. But what you fail to realize is history always repeats itself, and if you thought about it some else already had. And they all been refuted if you just pick up the books and read the debates from the first century. I mean there's people literally saying wow this is such a good topic to debate on. Why haven't there been debates like this b4, Christians need to wake up they didn't even think about this before.

No its u that needs to wake up. & read some books, they had the same type of debates thousands of years ago

when are you guys going to wake up, and realize we do have a creator, something created everything we have, we did not just grow from a lump of cells, and start growing eyeballs & hands n feet wake up there is a creator 💯 and when you die you have no excuse ..

and you've been fighting it, realize that God entered into his creation so you can experience eternal life, with real love the true love, this experience is only with him. wake up read the gospels and pray to God, have faith pray and he will give you answers if you truly seek with all ur heart

Have you ever wondered why you don't believe in God, but you keep wasting your life trying to prove he doesn't exist.
when you could just go live your life, since you're going to the dirt. you do it because there is a God and it's the enemy holding you back keeping you blind from the truth. Have faith let God in ur heart. God bless who ever understands this message and receives it.

Also it's time to get dionesyian and make a bunch of wine

I believe the title of this video is misleading. It is not a 'blindspot' in academia. Scholars have reviewed MacDonald's ideas and have largely found them wanting. The title of this video surprises me given that other scholars you have interviewed (Allison, Ehrman, Walsh) would not buy into this level of transvaluation/mimesis of Greek epics in the Gospels.

ATHEIST,,,FUNDAMENTALISTS...

Regarding the mindset of Biblical scholars, Dr Avalos described reason for the reluctance to change the paradigm in his "The End of Biblical Studies"

What about blindspot regarding Flavian origin theory? Are you also guilty of same dishonesty as academia since you keep ignoring it?

Who cares about these scholars who make a living out of distorting scriptures to fit some theory they have dreamt up? None of the examples he gave have any bearing whatsoever on the life and teachings of Christ. The parallel with Hector who died in battle, with Jesus who was crucified simply nevet gets off the ground. Now this guy will be adding new nonsense to that which already exists and which gives Muslims yet another excuse to attack the Bible.

...which all makes perfect sense given the historical context. Can't wait for the new reference book to come out, I'll definitely be grabbing a copy! 👍

I like the use of the character Philemon in myth and scripture too. I don’t hear it mentioned often except by Jung.

Ovid tells the story of Philemon and Baucis in Metamorphosis in around 8ad.

The old couple live in a town that has become mean and shows no hospitality to visitors . Zeus and Hermes visit the town disguised as poor travellers and are welcomed by no one but Philemon and Baucis. The couple go to great lengths to be hospitable and share what little they have. The wine runs out and magically refills. The couple find that they are in the presence of gods.
Zeus and Hermes flood the valley to wipe out the town. They offer the couple a boon as reward for their hospitality. They choose to serve the two gods in a temple together until the end of their days. They wished to die on the same day so one would never be without the other. On their last day they turned into trees entwined together.
Paul also writes to Philemon a generation or two later about ideas of hospitality to a run away slave.

Great discussion. Such an endlessly interesting topic.

What about examining the Bible as allegory? "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Gospel of John 1:1 Talk about a "blindspot".

As for Greek mythology, that should also be treated as allegory which would help to explain why it appears to have had so much influence on the Gospels. Herodotus even opens his Histories with the accounts of four abducted women (Io, Europa, Medea, Helen) which are obviously related to Greek myths. He was clearly suggesting that myths were a form of allegorical history.

Even a superficial approach can yield quick connections. For example, allegory has an "above" and a "below" with literal meanings occupying the "heaven" where the "good" can have "eternal life", while hidden meanings are confined to the "underworld".

Very interesting information.

It doesn't matter if mainstream academic religious scholars ignore Dennis Macdonald and company if those scholars are biased by their religious upbringing. Does anyone need to listen to them and their shopworn apologies for the insane contradictions in the text?. Does anyone take them seriously? Who are they if, like notoriously mediocre Education Majors, they are relegated to the scoffed at pseudo intellectual corner of the academic world? Time to upgrade the discipline from the outside. It would be interesting to know what percentage of the mainstream scholars in this field could give you a layman's knowledge of the standard candles of cosmology used to determine the age of the Universe. Richard Carrier does have that knowledge. There are videos of him talking about Cosmology which directly effects one's religious beliefs.

good grief I have never seen someone who suck so much BS out of their thumbs to make money , you forget one thing , the entire new testament hinges on the PROPHESIES in the old testament which is OLDER than the greek myths , so you have a problem

I think the only way you'll get this mainstream is to get students interested in it so they demand their teachers address it.

its so ambiguous ~~~and lacks verification ~~a lot of guesswork ~~~~~~~~~ how can we know ???is the question whats the criteria ~~~can we change the criteria ??

Untangling the Mediterranean and Near East mash up is so fascinating. I can liken it to someone finding a new plant in their garden, not knowing were it’s from, and looking over the fence to their neighbour’s and seeing it abound.

another example that evidences doesn't matter. the "consensus" serves the official power narrative. try go against it and you are insane. sadly most people only realize that when they fall out of the authorized sanity. and this is valid today in so many levels since the mainstream narratives are often the real insanity😀 anw its pretty obvious that the bible is a political religious work created by intellectual elite to serve an agenda or power agendas. how can anyone be a scholar and believe an historical jesus? thats a useless scholarship if that is possible😎✌🍻

Coincidence!

The modern paradigm that the gospel authors drew heavily only upon a Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible (LXX) is far too narrow to explain the evidence presented by Dr. Dennis MacDonald. It is entirely evident that when the Jesus Story was being cobbled together by an as yet unknow literary school, other raw literary materials were used. Dr. Dennis MacDonald advances the argument (with compelling evidence to substantiate it) that the Homeric epics and Athenian tragedies were also part of the raw literary materials. The current paradigm for the authorship of the gospels does not want to focus too hard on the evidence that it was fabricated by a literary school (as Thomas Brodie suggests). But fabricated it was. The problem is when and by whom.

Dont know much about greek epics.
Q. Why can you connect N.T. to O.T. ? Which is 11 times easier

There's a reason that Homeric memetics aren't taken seriously in the context of the New Testament. I couldn't see clear parallels in any of the three examples provided here. I'm not saying they're not there, but I certainly couldn't see them.

When did Jesus turn soldiers into swine?

Doctrines of demons. Counterfeit is all the way many are falling away... did these other mythical writing take over the world? Nope only the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ son of Yehovah!!! Call on the only name that can save 😊

Please describe what is the similarities between bible flood stories and Hindus malsya purana stories

Thanks

What do people think of F. Gerald Downing's book titled Cynics and Christian Origins (1992. T & T Clark. Edinburgh, Scotland)?

He argues that Cynic teachings under lie Jesus' teachings about the importance of giving away all of one's wealth to pursue a virtuous life and be acceptable to God.

Astronaut meme.
Astronaut 1 (looking @ earth): Wait, it's all recycled tropes?
Astronaut 2 (behind Astronaut 1, pointing gun): Always has been.

Lol, what's with the inspirational music? It's ancient propaganda & mythology that is still poisoning minds today.

What about the parallels of Christianity to Ancient Egyptian mythology? Like in the work of Alvin Boyd Kuhn,
Who is this King of Glory? book

Please share my two brief videos with other people. Thanks much!

As ALWAYS ,you have the TRUTH,and an IMPOSTER , IF I WERE THE DEVIL,ID DO EVERYTHING IN MY POWER,TO MAKE YOU BELIEVE...THAT I DONT EXIST!!!,

Repent of your sins and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, believe in your heart that He has died for sins and rose from the tomb on the third day and let the Holy Spirit within you, and you shall be saved. Amen

If you're crafting a persuasive argument that the New Testament immitates Homer, I think it's best to start off by showing these similarities in Homer and Acts Of Andrew.. Because I feel like alot of people, especially Christians will be more receptive to accept these parallels in an apocryphal book first. Then after they accepted that memisis really happens among Christian literature, then unload the parallels from the NT.

The oldest copy of Mark doesn't have a resurrection

After his last meal he reclined against his beloved's breast, before voluntarily submitting to be executed by the state on trumped up charges



was rereading some Plato the other day