Kata Markon

["Dennis MacDonald" <dmacdon AT cst.edu>]

Steve, I agree, of course, that Mark uses the OT extensively, but I'll need 
to think more about using that as a criterion. My main reason is that I 
suspect that nearly all ancient narrative is mimetic to some degree, so 
that saying that Mark imitates the OT may not help much with Homer. On the 
other hand, you may be onto something.

Concerning the development of my criteria, the discussion of Latin poetic 
imitation I mentioned is well treated in a book by Stephen Hinds on 
Allusion and Intertext. It is true that the criteria he uses-similar to 
mine-were to identify more subtle allusions, but they certainly work on all 
forms of imitation, even blatant ones. His criteria are useful to correct 
what he calls "philological fundamentalism" by which he means the 
insistence that one demonstrate distinctive linguistic connects before 
being willing to speak of imitation. Such rigorous criteria preclude most 
ancient imitations. What do we do with Vergil's imitations of Greek authors 
like Homer and Euripides?  Vergil is but one of many examples one could 
cite.

Dennis M.

-----Original Message-----
From:   Steve Black [SMTP:sblack AT axionet.com]
Sent:   Thursday, April 25, 2002 12:16 PM
To:     Kata Markon
Subject:        [gmark] Re: Mark 4:12