In a riveting and groundbreaking collection of essays, a distinguished group of scholars examines the ways in which early Christian writers practiced mimesis-the conscious imitation of literary models from the Greco-Roman world. While the study of intertextuality has influenced deeply the study of the Synoptic Gospels and other early Christian texts, few scholars of early Christian literature have enriched their observations with studies of mimesis. The apocryphal Acts of Andrew, for instance, contains extensive imitation of Homeric and Euripidean poetry, and both Luke-Acts and Mark contain extensive imitation of the Homeric epics. These essays examine the phenomenon of mimesis and intertextuality through an in-depth examination of particular texts, ranging from the apocryphal book of Tobit to Luke-Acts and the Synoptic Gospels.

Contributors include: François Bovon (Harvard Divinity School); Thomas Louis Brodie (Dominican House of Study, Dublin, Ireland); Ellen Finkelpearl (Scripps College); Ronald F. Hock (University of Southern California); George W. E. Nickelsburg (University of Iowa); Judith Perkins (Saint Joseph College); and Gregory J. Riley (Claremont School of Theology and Claremont Graduate University).

Dennis R. MacDonald teaches at the Claremont School of Theology and Claremont Graduate University and Director of the Institute for Antiquity and Christianity. He is the author of Christianizing Homer: The "Odyssey," Plato, and the Acts of Andrew and Homeric Epics and the Gospel of Mark.

For: Graduate students; general audience; professors; literary scholars