Review of Amitay, "From Alexander to Jesus"

BMCR BOOK REVIEW:

Ory Amitay, From Alexander to Jesus. Hellenistic culture and society, 52. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010. Pp. xii, 246. ISBN 9780520266360. $49.95.

Reviewed by David W. Madsen, Seattle University (dmadsen@seattleu.edu)

Preview

Great historical figures invariably attract both mythographers and biographers—none more than the two subjects of this study. Here Ory Amitay, employing meme theory, explores the mythological links between them: “…the thesis of this book is that the Jesus memeplex replicated a great many memes adopted and developed first by Alexander the living person, and after his death by the mythical memeplex which he had created” (5) In order to validate the claim, Amitay devotes the bulk of his book to an exploration of the memes and memeplex between Alexander and Herakles, the object of Alexander’s worship, emulation, and rivalry. In the process of matching and surpassing him, Alexander broke the barrier between history and myth and provided a justification for his own claim to divinity; this self- divinization then set the stage for acceptance, in a monotheistic milieu no less, of the incarnate god Jesus. Unlike Herakles, whom some have suggested as a model for Christian ‘mythography,’ Amitay believes that the flesh and blood Alexander is the better, indeed, “unique forerunner of Christ.”

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The reviewer is not convinced.