I don't know of any solid evidence for the first century. There have,
however, been theories (a book by Dan Via?) on comic and tragic themes in
presentation of the KERYGMA. It's often seemed to me that the gospel of
Mark especially narrates the Passion with a sort of Greek-tragic sense of
overriding doom--of divine inevitability--of all the actors behaving with
what they conceive as perfect freedom but Jesus alone authentically free
and acting in accordance with his own will. I think this sort of theory may
have some value in terms of literary criticism of the NT but not so much in
terms of demonstrable cultural influence.
What IS remarkable is the readiness with which the Passion narratives lend
themselves to dramatic presentation; I don't know when such dramatic
representation was first done, but there's a 4th (I think) century
scissors-and-paste piece called _Christus Patiens_ that uses fragments from
Greek tragedies to tell the passion story.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics/Washington University
One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018
Summer: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(704) 675-4243
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cconrad@yancey.main.nc.us
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/