In book two of the
Aeneid while Aeneas is recounting his story to Dido, he mentions the different omens he saw, but one in particular stands out: the tongues of fire over his son. Book two lines 849-853 say:
Now as we held our son between our hands
and both our grieving faces, a tongue of fire,
watch, flares up from the crown of Iulus' head,
a subtle flame licking his downy hair, feeding
around the boy's brow, and though it never harmed him...
While reading this, I couldn't help but be reminded of the passage in Acts when the Holy Spirit descends on the people. In fact, the phrasing is identical. However, the
Aeneid was written approximately 50 years before Acts was. I can't help but think that Luke was influenced by the
Aeneid. I don't mean that in a "hey, I like this, let's steal the story", but more in a "this was phrased well and it describes what I'm trying to describe" kind of way. Plus, the audience Luke was writing to totally would have been familiar with the
Aeneid.
I commented on Daniel and Hannah's posts.
I love the similarites that are made in the Aenid. I was given a used copy and there are refrences to not only Acts but to Moses and the first few Gospels.
ReplyDeleteI can definitely see where Luke might have liked the way that this was worded. He certainly could have used this wording to help relate and explain the gospel to the gentiles.
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