Imitatio Homeri? an Appraisal of Dennis R. Macdonald's "Mimesis Criticism"‪.‬

In volume 64 of Semeia (1993), [??]ivind Andersen and Vernon K. Robbins wrote, "Interpreters need to investigate the Gospels in the context of Homeric literature...." (1) This task has not been without predecessors, among whom Giinter Glockmann is especially important. His search for citations and overt allusions led him from the NT to Justin Martyr in the second century C.E. As for the NT, he stated that "das Neue Testament weder eine Ausserung iiber Homer noch eine bewusste oder unbewusste Benutzungen der Homerischen Dichtung enthalt." (2) In the wake of the introduction of literary studies and narrative approaches in NT exegesis, the Homeric task has gained renewed interest. The scholar who has pursued Homeric influence in NT literature most consequently is Dennis R. MacDonald. He claims that the whole composition of Mark's Gospel and parts of Acts are conscious imitations of incidents, characters, and plot patterns in the Iliad and the Odyssey. (3) In this article I will focus on his presentation of Mark's Gospel with special emphasis on method and ancient analogies. To describe his project, MacDonald has coined the term "mimesis criticism": "No targets for imitation were more popular than the Iliad and the Odyssey, even for the writing of prose. Whereas a form critic compares a narrative in the New Testament to other tales of the same genre as a collectivity, a 'mimesis critic' will compare it with earlier texts, one or more of which have served the author as a model." (4) MacDonald has opened a new area of research in the field of Homeric influence on the NT. His approach and the results he claims move far beyond drawing attention to Homeric traces and vocabulary; in fact, he raises anew questions of genre and history versus fiction in NT narratives. The texts are to be viewed "not as aspiring historical reports but as fictions crafted as alternatives to those of Homer and Vergil." (5) It is the task of the present article to assess critically some aspects of MacDonald's attempt.