Faith Works 8-7-2026
Jeff Gill
An odyssey through The Odyssey for Christians & Ohioans
___
This is not a film review.
For one thing, I don't do film reviews. You’re welcome.
I do want to invite a conversation about “The Odyssey” because Christopher Nolan’s latest cinematic epic after “Oppenheimer” is based on Homer’s over three thousand year old tale, and people interested in the Bible are in many ways naturally interested in ancient texts. Or should be!
Homer wrote in Greek, but the language of the Illiad and the Odyssey is known as Epic Greek, or unsurprisingly Homeric Greek, which is very different from the Koine Greek you learn in seminary to read the two thousand year old New Testament. The somewhat contemporary Old Testament of the Holy Bible of most Christians is in Hebrew and a bit of Aramaic (which filters into the background of the four New Testament gospels, long story), and Biblical Hebrew is to the Hebrew of today’s Israel what Homeric Greek is to Demotic Greek as spoken on the streets of Athens today, at the foot of the Acropolis… which was not even built until centuries after the Odyssey was composed.
And I say “composed” because the scholarly consensus is that the Homeric works were part of an oral tradition of bards and poets before they ever were written down. The oldest text of the Odyssey is, interestingly enough, in Manchester, England, and is dated to when the Athenian Acropolis was a century old, but centuries before the birth of Christ. There’s a number of questions of editorial transitions from the oral traditions to a “final” written form.
All of which puts in context that you can read “The Odyssey” (Homer’s, not Nolan’s) in a number of English translations. The first one I read is Murray’s 1919 version, and at least three others down to Emily Wilson’s 2017 edition. Each makes different choices about how hard to try and replicate the rhythm structure of the original Greek poetry, and how to translate unique words with key roles such as how Odysseus himself is described: is he complicated? Tricky? Many minded?
All of which shows how hard it is to take an ancient language and find a common expression for modern understanding which can be read by many to their mutual improvement. The Odyssey has been an anchor of a classical education for generations, in part because it helps teach the underpinnings of this challenge in ways that avoid the potentially more sectarian issues around Biblical translations.
What can startle, though, is when you get reminded of how the world of Homer’s Odyssey stands behind the world of scripture. In Book 10, describing an almost impossible challenge, the poet notes “but with the gods all things are possible.” Hello, Matthew 19:26, and also Ohio’s state motto since 1959. There are echoes.
Likewise, the running theme of Homer’s works is how the gods of the Greek pantheon are constantly interfering in human activities, but most often in the person of people one already knows. You are told in Nolan’s version that this is why “Zeus’s law” of hospitality exists, because you never know when you might be encountering one of the pantheon.
Which sounds suspiciously like Hebrews 13:2? "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares."
And again in Ohio terms, a reminder of how pervasive Homer’s poetry and mythology once was in education: the term in classical Greek for what’s called “Zeus’s law?” It’s a single word, one you know. Xenia. The entire code of hospitality and prudence in a world where divine presence could be anywhere, in anyone, is wrapped up in that one word: xenia.
Which early settlers in this state thought would be a nice name for a new town. It turns out there are odysseys all around us.
Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and preacher in central Ohio; he’s impressed with the movie, but interested in the poetry. Tell him what inspires you at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack on X.
Jeff Gill
An odyssey through The Odyssey for Christians & Ohioans
___
This is not a film review.
For one thing, I don't do film reviews. You’re welcome.
I do want to invite a conversation about “The Odyssey” because Christopher Nolan’s latest cinematic epic after “Oppenheimer” is based on Homer’s over three thousand year old tale, and people interested in the Bible are in many ways naturally interested in ancient texts. Or should be!
Homer wrote in Greek, but the language of the Illiad and the Odyssey is known as Epic Greek, or unsurprisingly Homeric Greek, which is very different from the Koine Greek you learn in seminary to read the two thousand year old New Testament. The somewhat contemporary Old Testament of the Holy Bible of most Christians is in Hebrew and a bit of Aramaic (which filters into the background of the four New Testament gospels, long story), and Biblical Hebrew is to the Hebrew of today’s Israel what Homeric Greek is to Demotic Greek as spoken on the streets of Athens today, at the foot of the Acropolis… which was not even built until centuries after the Odyssey was composed.
And I say “composed” because the scholarly consensus is that the Homeric works were part of an oral tradition of bards and poets before they ever were written down. The oldest text of the Odyssey is, interestingly enough, in Manchester, England, and is dated to when the Athenian Acropolis was a century old, but centuries before the birth of Christ. There’s a number of questions of editorial transitions from the oral traditions to a “final” written form.
All of which puts in context that you can read “The Odyssey” (Homer’s, not Nolan’s) in a number of English translations. The first one I read is Murray’s 1919 version, and at least three others down to Emily Wilson’s 2017 edition. Each makes different choices about how hard to try and replicate the rhythm structure of the original Greek poetry, and how to translate unique words with key roles such as how Odysseus himself is described: is he complicated? Tricky? Many minded?
All of which shows how hard it is to take an ancient language and find a common expression for modern understanding which can be read by many to their mutual improvement. The Odyssey has been an anchor of a classical education for generations, in part because it helps teach the underpinnings of this challenge in ways that avoid the potentially more sectarian issues around Biblical translations.
What can startle, though, is when you get reminded of how the world of Homer’s Odyssey stands behind the world of scripture. In Book 10, describing an almost impossible challenge, the poet notes “but with the gods all things are possible.” Hello, Matthew 19:26, and also Ohio’s state motto since 1959. There are echoes.
Likewise, the running theme of Homer’s works is how the gods of the Greek pantheon are constantly interfering in human activities, but most often in the person of people one already knows. You are told in Nolan’s version that this is why “Zeus’s law” of hospitality exists, because you never know when you might be encountering one of the pantheon.
Which sounds suspiciously like Hebrews 13:2? "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares."
And again in Ohio terms, a reminder of how pervasive Homer’s poetry and mythology once was in education: the term in classical Greek for what’s called “Zeus’s law?” It’s a single word, one you know. Xenia. The entire code of hospitality and prudence in a world where divine presence could be anywhere, in anyone, is wrapped up in that one word: xenia.
Which early settlers in this state thought would be a nice name for a new town. It turns out there are odysseys all around us.
Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and preacher in central Ohio; he’s impressed with the movie, but interested in the poetry. Tell him what inspires you at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack on X.
