The Iliad & The Israelites

Homeric insights into understanding the Biblical narrative.

Saint Basil the Great once spoke of the benefits believers could gleam from reading non-Christian literature. While I am no Saint Basil, I believe that a closer examination of Homer and the interplay between man and the immortals can deepen our understanding of what is happening in the Old Testament, why Israel wanted to be like the other nations and worshiped their gods, and how this impacts our understanding of the saving work of Christ.

Homer’s Epics as a Model of Pagan Worship

In terms of the study of an ancient text by academics the Iliad is second only to the Bible, its contents are even numbered in a similar, standardized fashion. Between the Iliad and Odyssey, we learn a great deal about how the Ancient Greeks related to their gods. Many practices Homer describes are mirrored in the Biblical accounts of the Canaanites and Israelites who worship Baal. 

This shouldn’t surprise us as there was a lot of dialogue between the Greeks and Phoenicians, and the Epic of Gilgamesh was popula…