Was Luke well read - F.F.Bruce confirms this?
Steven Carr steven@bowness.demon.co.uk
Sun, 1 Mar 1998 21:56:50 +0000 (00888811010, ZzzZBCAimd+0EwJC@bowness.demon.co.uk)
I have updated my Gospels (2) article
http://www.bowness.demon.co.uk/gosp2.htm
to include the fact that Luke was very well read in classical Greek
literature.
Luke also seems to have based some of Acts on classical Greek
literature, especially Euripides' Bacchae. In Acts 26:12, Luke says
that Paul heard Jesus say , in Aramaic or Hebrew, 'It is hard for you to
kick against the pricks'. 'Kick against the pricks' (laktizo pros
kentron) was a well known *Greek * saying, which first seems to appear
in line 790 of Euripides' Bacchae.
In Euripides' Bacchae, line 447, we read the following 'Of their own
accord (autamato), the chains were loosed from their feet and keys
opened the doors (thura) without human hand.' In Acts 10:12, we read
how doors opened for Peter of their own accord (automatos) and in Acts
16:26, we read how an earthquake loosed the chains from everybody and
all the doors opened by themselves.
Did an earthquake really loose a chain from a prisoner, not a noted
result of seismic activity? Or did Luke base his account of Peter and
Paul's escapes on Euripides' play about the persecuted followers of a
persecuted and misunderstood deity, the son of Zeus and a young , mortal
woman?
Links to Euripides' play can be found
http://hydra.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/text?lookup=eur.+ba.+795">
and
href="http://hydra.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/text?lookup=eur.+ba.+441
Just out of curiosity, Euripides play 'Alcestis' is about a person who
dies voluntarily in the place of another and then conquers death by
being raised from the dead by a god. This is speculative, but perhaps
'Alcestis' is what first drew Euripides to Luke's attention.
Less speculative is the admission by F.F.Bruce in his book
'The New Testament documents - Are they reliable?' that Acts 14:12
'ho hegoumenon tou logou' comes from 'The Egyptian Mysteries' of
Iamblichus, where Hermes is described as 'the god who is the leader of
the speeches' (theos ho ton legon hegemon). Clearly, Luke was well
acquainted with Greek classical literature.
I'm sure that Barry Hofstetter will confirm this result of F.F.Bruce as
he has a high opinion of Bruce's scholarhsip. Of course, it is always
possible that the ignorant villagers of Lystra, speaking in Lycaonian,
remembered their classical Greek education to work out what to say when
they, in all ignorance, thought two human beings were Zeus and Hermes.
--
Steven Carr steven@bowness.demon.co.uk
Visit the UK's leading atheist Web page
http://www.bowness.demon.co.uk/