Luke's Favourite Play
Luke, the writer of the third gospel, was also the creator of the New Testament book of Acts. He was apparently a man educated in medicine, a cultured man.
It is very likely he would have seen the plays of Euripides.
In his last play "The Bacchae", Euripides wrote about Dionysus, the wild pagan god who hid his divine nature and walked, disguised, in the world of men. The bacchae were his frenzied, hysterical female admirers. With the power of a god they terrorised the countryside, tearing cows limb from limb and snatching children from their parents' houses.
In the play, there is a man of reason, King Penthus, who decides to fight against the advancing hordes of Bacchism. "This outrageous Bacchism advances upon us like a spreading fire" he cries. He is about to send his soldiers out fully armed to confront the mad women.
But Dionysus, disguised in human form, appears and tells the king that he cannot win - he is contending not against flesh and blood but against a god.
Dionysus says: "You are mortal, he is a god. If I were you, I would control my rage and sacrifice to him, rather than kick against the goads."
I wonder if you recognise that phrase. It is the exact phrase used by Luke in his third retelling of the story of Saul's conversion on the road to Damascus. This is the version in which Paul is defending himself before King Agrippa and the Roman governor Festus.
There, Paul says he saw a bright light, fell to the ground and heard a voice. The voice said: "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It hurts you to kick against the goads."
Later, the governor pronounces Paul to be mad*. "Too much learning is driving you insane," says Festus. The Greek word used here for "insane" is the same word used in the play to describe the frenzied women. Luke is suggesting here that Paul has fallen into the same kind of mania as the Bacchae - he is possessed by his god.
What is my point? I am making a very simple point here. Luke has used part of a play by Euripides in which Dionysus speaks and says exactly the same phrase in a very similar context to Saul's conversion.
Clearly, Luke has put the words of Euripides into his story - and attributed them to God speaking. Once again, we see that the story is a concocted fake; why would the risen Jesus have quoted Euripides to Saul on the road to Damascus? And why would he have quoted from the character Dionysus - a Greek god?
Luke was making up this story. Or Paul was making it up and Luke was embellishing it. Whichever is the case, doesn't matter. Saul may well have decided to convert - as many do - but I doubt his conversion involved the voice of a long-dead Jesus quoting Dionysus in a play by Euripides the Greek playwright.
Geoff Mather 2007
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