Comparing: Classical / New Testament
- Aratus Phaenomena
- Aratus Phaenomena 5 / Acts 17:28
- Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics
- Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics 4.8 / Romans 2:14
- Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics 8:9 / Acts 4:32
- Callimachus Hymns to Zeus
- Callimachus Hymns to Zeus 1 / Titus 1:12
- Dio Chrysostom Discourse
- Dio Chrysostom Discourse 7 / 2 Corinthians 8:12
- Dio Chrysostom Discourse 7 / Mark 12:41
- Dioscorides Materia Medica
- Dioscorides Materia Medica 1 / Luke 1:1
- Epimenides Cretica
- Epimenides Cretica 1 / Acts 17:28
- Epimenides Cretica 1 / Titus 1:12
- Iamblichus Life of Pythagoras
- Iamblichus Life of Pythagoras 30 / Acts 4:32
- Josephus Antiquities of the Jews
- Josephus Antiquities of the Jews 1.3.1 / 2 Peter 2:5
- Livy The History of Rome
- Livy The History of Rome 2.23 / 1 Corinthians 12:14
- Lucian Voyage to the Lower World
- Lucian Voyage to the Lower World 1 / Luke 16:19
- Menander Thais
- Menander Thais 218 / 1 Corinthians 15:33
- Philo Allegorical Interpretation
- Philo Allegorical Interpretation 3 / John 6:27
- Philo Allegorical Interpretation 1:12 / 1 Corinthians 15:44
- Philo Who is the Heir of Divine Things
- Philo Who is the Heir of Divine Things 205 / 1 Timothy 2:5
- Pliny Letter to Sabinianus
- Pliny Letter to Sabinianus 9 / Philemon 1:8
- Plutarch Moralia
- Plutarch Moralia 489 / Colossians 3:12
- Plutarch Moralia 17 / Ephesians 4:26
- Polybius Histories
- Polybius Histories 4.1 / Acts 1:1
- Pseudo Philo Biblical Antiquities
- Pseudo Philo Biblical Antiquities 3:10 / Revelation 20:12
- Pseudo Philo Biblical Antiquities 13:8 / 1 Timothy 2:14
- Seneca Letters from a Stoic
- Seneca Letters from a Stoic 38 / Matthew 13:8
- Seneca Moral Epistles
- Seneca Moral Epistles 9:3 / Matthew 7:12
- Seneca Moral Epistles 9:5 / Matthew 25:39
- Suetonius The Twelve Caesars
- Suetonius The Twelve Caesars 7 / Mark 8:23
- Josephus Antiquities of the Jews
- Josephus Antiquities of the Jews 4.8 / 1 Timothy 5:18
- Josephus Antiquities of the Jews 4.320 / Acts 1:9
- Josephus Antiquities of the Jews Book
- Josephus Antiquities of the Jews Book 18.5 / Mark 1:4
- Josephus Antiquities of the Jews
- Josephus Antiquities of the Jews 19.5 / Luke 3:1
- Lucian The Death of Peregrine
- Lucian The Death of Peregrine 13 / Acts 2:45
- Pliny Natural History
- Pliny Natural History 30.2 / 2 Timothy 3:8
- Philo On Dreams
- Philo On Dreams 1.232 / 1 Corinthians 11:10
- Virgil Eclogues
- Virgil Eclogues 3 / Galatians 3:1
- Hymn to a Universal God / Revelation 22:13
- Philo The Special Laws
- Philo The Special Laws 1:13 / Philippians 3:20
- Philo The Special Laws 2.5 / Matthew 5:37
- Philo The Decalogue
- Philo The Decalogue 84 / Matthew 5:34
- Philo The Decalogue 1:46 / Acts 2:3
- Tacitus Annals
- Tacitus Annals 15.44 / Luke 23:24
- Euripides Hecuba
- Euripides Hecuba 154 / Romans 7:24
- Seneca On the Happy Life
- Seneca On the Happy Life 27 / Matthew 7:3
- Philo On the Birth of Abel
- Philo On the Birth of Abel 1:22 / Matthew 6:20
- Philo On the Birth of Abel 1:57 / James 1:17
- Philo On the Unchangeableness of God
- Philo On the Unchangeableness of God 1:91 / Matthew 13:44
- Philo On the Confusion of Tongues
- Philo On the Confusion of Tongues 146 / John 1:3
- Philo On Abraham
- Philo On Abraham 1:150 / Matthew 6:22
- Philo Every Good Man is Free
- Philo Every Good Man is Free 85 / Acts 4:32
- Cicero De Oratore
- Cicero De Oratore 3.211 / Matthew 6:22
Greco-Roman Literature and the New Testament
What has Troy to do with Jerusalem? How can the venerable Greek traditions of epic poetry, drama, and mythology help us understand early Christians and their literary products? ... although Jesus and his closest followers are all understood to be Jews, their home ground had long been politically and culturally separate from Judea, a fact reflected in its majority-Gentile population. This has profound implications for our understanding of Jesus’s message and the earliest stages of his movement. As the twenty-first century comes into its own, the growing field of Greco-Roman backgrounds to early Christianity owes, if not its existence, certainly its increasing prominence in large part to MacDonald.
In the tug-of-war between moral instruction and entertainment, thinkers like Plato, Plutarch, and Strabo attempt to discern which texts are worthy not only of imitation, but of reading at all (and why), and in the process invent critical exegesis. Pervo turns the attention of this argument to fictive/historiographical texts such as the Acts of the Apostles and 2 Maccabees to show that pleasure can act in the service of instruction, as a lure and a hook.