Jesus the Epic Hero

Karl Olav Sandnes is New Testament professor at MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion, and Society since 1993.

• PrefaceAbbreviationsIntroductionChapter 1: A Homeric GospelChapter 2: A Divine Plan is ConceivedChapter 3: A Readers Guide: Chaps. 19–22Chapter 4: A Ministry that Is a Sign: Introducing the Sign-Miracle CycleChapter 5: Homeric Banquets and Feasting in the Sign-Miracle CycleChapter 6: Homeward Bound in the Sign-Miracle CycleChapter 7: Recognizing the Divine and Finding a Groom in the Sign-Miracle CycleChapter 8: Taking on Death/Hades in the Sign-Miracle CycleChapter 9: Feast and Eucharist in the Passion StoryChapter 10: The Battle: Overthrowing Hades in the Passion StoryChapter 11: “The Man Who Wrought Much Evil, Beyond the Others Together”: JudasConclusionBibliographyIndexAbout the Author

Over 1,000 years before Milton put classical epic to work to ‘assert eternal Providence and justify the ways of God to Man’ in Paradise Lost, there was Eudocia, who in retelling the Christian story of salvation with lines from Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey composed a theological poem of unusual communicative power. This is a woman—an empress, no less—who, as Karl Olav Sandnes puts it, insists on being heard, at a time of charged theological debate dominated by men. Sandnes presents Eudocia’s poem as an original, even idiosyncratic, interpretation of the Gospels that weaves together Christian and pre-Christian strands of tradition into one rich tapestry.