Luke 1:1-9:20, Volume 35A

By John Nolland

The Word Biblical Commentary delivers the best in biblical scholarship, from the leading scholars of our day who share a commitment to Scripture as divine revelation. This series emphasizes a thorough analysis of textual, linguistic, structural, and theological evidence. The result is judicious and balanced insight into the meanings of the text in the framework of biblical theology. These widely acclaimed commentaries serve as exceptional resources for the professional theologian and instructor, the seminary or university student, the working minister, and everyone concerned with building theological understanding from a solid base of biblical scholarship.

Overview of Commentary Organization

• Introduction—covers issues pertaining to the whole book, including context, date, authorship, composition, interpretive issues, purpose, and theology.
• Each section of the commentary includes:
• Pericope Bibliography—a helpful resource containing the most important works that pertain to each particular pericope.
• Translation—the author’s own translation of the biblical text, reflecting the end result of exegesis and attending to Hebrew and Greek idiomatic usage of words, phrases, and tenses, yet in reasonably good English.
• Notes—the author’s notes to the translation that address any textual variants, grammatical forms, syntactical constructions, basic meanings of words, and problems of translation.
• Form/Structure/Setting—a discussion of redaction, genre, sources, and tradition as they concern the origin of the pericope, its canonical form, and its relation to the biblical and extra-biblical contexts in order to illuminate the structure and character of the pericope. Rhetorical or compositional features important to understanding the passage are also introduced here.
• Comment—verse-by-verse interpretation of the text and dialogue with other interpreters, engaging with current opinion and scholarly research.
• Explanation—brings together all the results of the discussion in previous sections to expose the meaning and intention of the text at several levels: (1) within the context of the book itself; (2) its meaning in the OT or NT; (3) its place in the entire canon; (4) theological relevance to broader OT or NT issues.
  • General Bibliography—occurring at the end of each volume, this extensive bibliographycontains all sources used anywhere in the commentary.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Zondervan
• Release date: Apr 24, 2018
• ISBN: 9780310588559

John Nolland

John Nolland is Vice Principal and Head of Biblical Studies as well as Lecturer in New Testament Studies at Trinity Collge, Bristol, England. He holds S.Sc. (Hons.) from University of New England (Australia), the Th.L. from the Australian College of Theology, The B.D. from the University of London, the Ph.D. from Cambridge University, and the Dip.Th. from Moore Theological College. His numerous articles have been published in Revue de Qumran, The journal of Theological Studies, Vigiliae Christianae, Journal of Biblical Literature, Novum Testamentum, New Testament Studies, and The Journal for the Study of Judaism.  

Book preview

Editorial Board

Old Testament Editor: Nancy L. deClaissé-Walford (2011–)

New Testament Editor: Peter H. Davids (2013–)

Past Editors

General Editors

Ralph P. Martin (2012–2013)

Bruce M. Metzger (1997–2007)

David A. Hubbard (1977–1996)

Glenn W. Barker (1977–1984)

Old Testament Editors:

John D. W. Watts (1977–2011)

James W. Watts (1997–2011)

New Testament Editors:

Ralph P. Martin (1977–2012)

Lynn Allan Losie (1997–2013)

Volumes

*forthcoming as of 2014

**in revision as of 2014

Word Biblical Commentary

Volume 35A

Luke 1:1-9:20

John Nolland

General Editors: Bruce M. Metzger, David A. Hubbard, Glenn W. Barker

Old Testament Editors: John D. W. Watts, James W. Watts

New Testament Editors: Ralph P. Martin, Lynn Allan Losie

ZONDERVAN

Luke 1:1–9:20, Volume 35A

Copyright © 2000 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Previously published as Luke 1:1–9:20.

Formerly published by Thomas Nelson. Now published by Zondervan, a division of HarperCollinsChristian Publishing.

Requests for information should be addressed to:

Zondervan, 3900 Sparks Dr. SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546

ePub edition April 2018: ISBN 978-0-310-58855-9

The Library of Congress has cataloged the original edition as follows:

Library of Congress Control Number: 2005295211

The author’s own translation of the Scripture text appears in italic type under the heading Translation.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

To my mother

and in memory of my father

Editor’s Note

For the convenience of the reader, content headings for volumes one, two, and three of this commentary on Luke (35A, 35B, and 35C) are included below. Headings included in the volume in hand are printed in boldface type, while those for the other volumes are in lightface.

Editorial Preface

Author’s Preface

Abbreviations

INTRODUCTION

The Perspectives of Modern Gospel Scholarship

The Composition of the Lukan Gospel

Why Did Luke Write His Gospel?

Luke and Acts

Who Was Luke?

When Did Luke Write His Gospel?

How Good Is Our Surviving Text?

An Outline of Luke 1:1–9:20

Excursus: Modern Parables Research

COMMENTARYBIBLIOGRAPHY

GENERALBIBLIOGRAPHY

TEXTANDCOMMENTARY

Dedicatory Preface (1:1–4)

The Infancy Prologue (1:5–2:52)

John’s Birth Announced (1:5–25)

Jesus’ Birth Announced (1:26–38)

Mary Visits Elizabeth (1:39–56)

Birth, Circumcision, and Naming of John (1:57–66)

Zechariah’s Prophecy (1:67–80)

The Birth of Jesus (2:1–21)

Presentation and Recognition in the Temple (2:22–40)

In the House of His Father (2:41–52)

Preparation for the Ministry of Jesus (3:1–4:13)

John the Baptist (3:1–6)

The Preaching of John (3:7–18)

The Imprisonment of John (3:19–20)

Jesus: Endowed with the Spirit and Affirmed as Son (3:21–22)

The Genealogy of Jesus (3:23–38)

Temptations of the Son in the Wilderness (4:1–13)

Preaching in the Synagogues of the Jews (4:14–44)

Return to Galilee (4:14–15)

Preaching in Nazareth (4:16–30)

Preaching in Capernaum (4:31–37)

Healing Simon’s Mother-In-Law (4:38–39)

Healing Many at Sundown (4:40–41)

Leaving Capernaum for a Wider Judean Ministry (4:42–44)

Making a Response to Jesus (5:1–6:16)

Fishing Associates for Jesus (5:1–11)

The Cleansing of a Leper (5:12–16)

The Forgiveness of a Paralyzed Man (5:17–26)

The New and the Old: The Call of Levi, Eating with Sinners, and the Question of Fasting (5:27–39)

Provision for the Sabbath by the Son of Man (6:1–5)

Doing Good on the Sabbath (6:6–11)

The Call of the Twelve Apostles (6:12–16)

A Sermon for Disciples: The Status and Demands of Being the Eschatological People of God (6:17–49)

Disciples and People Come to Hear and Be Healed (6:17–19)

Beatitudes and Woes (6:20–26)

The Call to Love of Enemies and Nonjudgmental Generosity (6:27–38)

The Importance of What Jesus Teaches and the Need to Act upon It (6:39–49)

Something Greater than John Is Here (7:1–50)

The Authority of Jesus over Life and Death (7:1–10)

God Has Visited His People (7:11–17)

Are You the Coming One? (7:18–23)

What Was in the Wilderness? (7:24–28)

John and Jesus, and This Generation and the Children of Wisdom (7:29–35)

The Pharisee and the Sinful Woman (7:36–50)

Itinerant Preaching with the Twelve and the Women (8:1–9:20)

Itinerant Preaching with the Twelve and the Women (8:1–3)

Potent Seed and Varied Soils (8:4–8)

Knowing the Secrets of the Kingdom of God (8:9–10)

The Parable Explained (8:11–15)

Take Care How You Hear (8:16–18)

Jesus’ Mother and Brothers (8:19–21)

The Stilling of the Storm (8:22–25)

The Healing of the Gerasene Demoniac (8:26–39)

Jairus’ Daughter and the Woman with the Flow of Blood (8:40–56)

Sharing in Jesus’ Ministry (9:1–6)

Who Then Is This? (9:7–9)

Feeding the Multitudes (9:10–17)

[We Say You Are] the Christ of God (9:18–20)

Making Ready for the Trip to Jerusalem (9:21–50)

Tell No One, Because the Son of Man Must Suffer (9:21–22)

Excursus: Son of Man

To Follow Me, You Must Give Away Your Life to Gain It (9:23–27)

A Foretaste of Jesus’ Future Glory (9:28–36)

Jesus Heals a Possessed Boy When the Disciples Cannot (9:37–43a)

The Son of Man Is to Be Delivered Up (9:43b–45)

Who Is the Greatest? (9:46–48)

The Exorcist Who Was Not Part of the Group (9:49–50)

Excursus: The Journey to Jerusalem

Accompanying Jesus to Jerusalem (9:51–10:24)

Rejection in a Village of the Samaritans (9:51–56)

Following Jesus without Qualification (9:57–62)

Mission Charge for the Seventy Who Are Sent Ahead (10:1–16)

The Return of the Seventy(-Two) (10:17–20)

Jesus Rejoices at What God Has Now Been Pleased to Reveal (10:21–24)

Love of God and Love of Neighbor (10:25–42)

What Shall I Do to Inherit Eternal Life? (10:25–28)

Who Is My Neighbor? (10:29–37)

The One Necessary Thing (10:38–42)

Confident Prayer to the Father (11:1–13)

Praying like Jesus (11:1–4)

Help from a Friend (11:5–8)

Asking as a Son of the Father (11:9–13)

Conflict and Contrast (11:14–54)

Casting out Demons by the Finger of God (11:14–23)

The False Hope of a Temporary Benefit (11:24–26)

Who Is Blessed? (11:27–28)

No Sign but the Sign of Jonah (11:29–32)

Making Good Use of the Lamps (11:33–36)

Woes against Pharisees and Lawyers (11:37–54)

Preparing for the Coming Judgment (12:1–13:9)

The Need for a Clear-cut Acknowledgment of Jesus (12:1–12)

The Folly of Preoccupation with Possessions (12:13–21)

The Generous Provider Requires Generous Disciples (12:22–34)

Be Ready and Alert, and on the Job for the Master (12:35–48)

The Prospect of Fire, Baptism, and Division (12:49–53)

Interpreting the Present Time (12:54–56)

Under Accusation and on the Way to the Court of Justice! (12:57–59)

The Need for Timely Repentance (13:1–9)

Reversals Now and to Come (13:10–14:35)

Releasing on the Sabbath the One Bound by Satan (13:10–17)

The Kingdom of God Is like Mustard Seed (13:18–19)

The Kingdom of God Is like Leaven (13:20–21)

Is It True that Those Who Are Saved Will Be Few? (13:22–30)

Jesus’ Fate in, and the Fate of, Jerusalem (13:31–35)

Healing on the Sabbath the Man with Dropsy (14:1–6)

When You Are Invited to a Banquet . . . (14:7–11)

When You Are Going to Give a Luncheon or a Dinner . . . (14:12–14)

Who Shall Eat Bread in the Kingdom of God? (14:15–24)

The Disciple’s Fate, and the Possibility of Failed Discipleship (14:25–35)

That Which Was Lost Is Found (15:1–32)

The Joy of Finding the One Lost Sheep (15:1–7)

The Joy of Finding the Lost Coin (15:8–10)

The Father and His Two Sons: We Had to Make Merry (15:11–32)

Use and Abuse of Riches (16:1–31)

The Dishonest Steward: What Am I Going to Do? (16:1–8)

Serving God and Using Mammon (16:9–13)

Lovers of Money and Seekers of Honor (16:14–15)

The Demands of the Law and the Prophets, and Those of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God (16:16–18)

The Outcome of Life for the Rich Man and Lazarus (16:19–31)

Fitting Response to the Demand and Working of the Kingdom of God (17:1–19)

Dealing with Sin in the Disciple Community (17:1–6)

We Are Slaves to Whom No Favor Is Owed (17:7–10)

The Response of Faith to the Healing Mercy of God (17:11–19)

Who Will Be Ready When the Son of Man Comes? (17:20–18:8)

When Will the Kingdom of God Come? (17:20–21)

The Days of the Son of Man 17:22–37)

Speedy Vindication for Any Who Have Faith (18:1–8)

Entering the Kingdom like a Child (18:9–30)

The Pharisee and the Tax Collector at Prayer (18:9–14)

Entering the Kingdom of God like a Child (18:15–17)

What Must I Do to Inherit Eternal Life? (18:18–23)

How Hard It Is for Those Who Have Money to Enter the Kingdom of God! (18:24–30)

Everything Written about the Son of Man Will Be Carried Out (18:31–34)

Reaching the City of Destiny (18:35–19:46)

Jesus, Son of David Have Mercy on Me! (18:35–43)

The Son of Man Came to Seek and to Save the Lost 19:1–10

Going to a Distant Land to Receive Kingly Power (19:11–28)

Making a Royal Approach to Jerusalem (19:29–40)

Lamenting the Coming Fate of Jerusalem (19:41–44)

Symbolic Protest in the Temple (19:45–46)

Teaching Daily in the Temple (19:47–21:38)

Hostility from the Leaders, with Adulation from the People (19:47–48)

By What Authority Do You Do Things? (20:1–8)

The Fate of the Wicked Tenant Farmers (20:9–19)

Is It Lawful to Pay Tribute to Caesar? (20:20–26)

At the Resurrection, Whose Wife Will This Woman Be? (20:27–40)

How Is It That [People] Say That the Christ Is to Be a Son of David? (20:41–44)

Criticism of Scribes (20:45–47)

The Giving of the Rich and the Poor (21:1–4)

The Coming Destruction of the Temple (21:5–6)

The Buildup to the Coming Devastation (21:7–11)

Persecution Comes First of All (21:12–19)

The Devastation of Jerusalem (21:20–24)

Judgment of the Nations, and the Coming of the Son of Man (21:25–28)

New Leaves Herald the Summer (21:29–33)

The Vigilant and Prayerful Will Stand before the Son of Man (21:34–36)

Days in the Temple and Nights on the Mount of Olives (21:37–38)

The Passion Narrative (22:1–23:56)

Conspiracy to Arrest Jesus (22:1–2)

Betrayal by Judas (22:3–6)

Arrangements for the Passover Meal (22:7–13)

The Last Supper (22:14–20)

Jesus’ Awareness of His Betrayal (22:21–23)

The Great Are to Serve, While Those Who Have Shared Jesus’ Trials Will Gain Royal Stature (22:24–30)

Satanic Sifting and Denial of Jesus (22:31–34)

New Rules for a Time of Crisis (22:35–38)

Praying to Be Spared Trial (22:39–46)

The Arrest of Jesus (22:47–54a)

The Denials of Peter (22:54b–62)

Jesus Mocked in Custody (22:63–65)

Jesus Brought before the Sanhedrin (22:66–71)

Jesus Brought before Pilate (23:1–5)

Jesus Sent to Appear before Herod (23:6–12)

Pilate Declares Jesus Innocent (23:13–16)

Under Pressure, Pilate Capitulates to the Will of the Crowd (23:[17]18–25)

On the Way to Execution (23:26–32)

Jesus Crucified and Mocked (23:33–38)

Jesus and the Two Criminals (23:39–43)

The Death of Jesus (23:44–49)

The Burial of Jesus (23:50–56)

The Resurrection Narrative (24:1–53)

The Women and Peter Find an Empty Tomb (24:1–12)

Jesus Appears on the Road to Emmaus (24:13–35)

Jesus Appears to the Disciples in Jerusalem (24:36–43)

Jesus Instructs and Expounds Scripture (24:44–49)

Jesus Ascends to Heaven (24:50–53)

Bibliographical Addenda for Volume 35A

Indexes

Contents

Editorial Preface

Author’s Preface

Abbreviations

Introduction

The Perspectives of Modern Gospel Scholarship

The Composition of the Lukan Gospel

Why Did Luke Write His Gospel?

Luke and Acts

Who Was Luke?

When Did Luke Write His Gospel?

How Good Is Our Surviving Text?

An Outline of Luke 1:1–9:20

Excursus: Modern Parables Research

Commentary Bibliography

General Bibliography

Text and Commentary

Dedicatory Preface (1:1–4)

The Infancy Prologue (1:5–2:52)

John’s Birth Announced (1:5–25)

Jesus’ Birth Announced (1:26–38)

Mary Visits Elizabeth (1:39–56)

Birth, Circumcision, and Naming of John (1:57–66)

Zechariah’s Prophecy (1:67–80)

The Birth of Jesus (2:1–21)

Presentation and Recognition in the Temple (2:22–40)

In the House of His Father (2:41–52)

Preparation for the Ministry of Jesus (3:1–4:13)

John the Baptist (3:1–6)

The Preaching of John (3:7–18)

The Imprisonment of John (3:19–20)

Jesus: Endowed with the Spirit and Affirmed as Son (3:21–22)

The Genealogy of Jesus (3:23–38)

Temptations of the Son in the Wilderness (4:1–13)

Preaching in the Synagogues of the Jews (4:14–44)

Return to Galilee (4:14–15)

Preaching in Nazareth (4:16–30)

Preaching in Capernaum (4:31–37)

Healing Simon’s Mother-In-Law (4:38–39)

Healing Many at Sundown (4:40–41)

Leaving Capernaum for a Wider Judean Ministry (4:42–44)

Making a Response to Jesus (5:1–6:16)

Fishing Associates for Jesus (5:1–11)

The Cleansing of a Leper (5:12–16)

The Forgiveness of a Paralyzed Man (5:17–26)

The New and the Old: The Call of Levi, Eating with Sinners, and the Question of Fasting (5:27–39)

Provision for the Sabbath by the Son of Man (6:1–5)

Doing Good on the Sabbath (6:6–11)

The Call of the Twelve Apostles (6:12–16)

A Sermon for Disciples: The Status and Demands of Being the Eschatological People of God (6:17–49)

Disciples and People Come to Hear and Be Healed (6:17–19)

Beatitudes and Woes (6:20–26)

The Call to Love of Enemies and Nonjudgmental Generosity (6:27–38)

The Importance of What Jesus Teaches and the Need to Act upon It (6:39–49)

Something Greater than John Is Here (7:1–50)

The Authority of Jesus over Life and Death (7:1–10)

God Has Visited His People (7:11–17)

Are You the Coming One? (7:18–23)

What Was in the Wilderness? (7:24–28)

John and Jesus, and This Generation and the Children of Wisdom (7:29–35)

The Pharisee and the Sinful Woman (7:36–50)

Itinerant Preaching with the Twelve and the Women (8:1–9:20)

Itinerant Preaching with the Twelve and the Women (8:1–3)

Potent Seed and Varied Soils (8:4–8)

Knowing the Secrets of the Kingdom of God (8:9–10)

The Parable Explained (8:11–15)

Take Care How You Hear (8:16–18)

Jesus’ Mother and Brothers (8:19–21)

The Stilling of the Storm (8:22–25)

The Healing of the Gerasene Demoniac (8:26–39)

Jairus’ Daughter and the Woman with the Flow of Blood (8:40–56)

Sharing in Jesus’ Ministry (9:1–6)

Who Then Is This? (9:7–9)

Feeding the Multitudes (9:10–17)

[We Say You Are] the Christ of God (9:18–20)

Bibliographical Addenda to Volume 35A

Indexes

Editorial Preface

The launching of the Word Biblical Commentary brings to fulfillment an enterprise of several years’ planning. The publishers and the members of the editorial board met in 1977 to explore the possibility of a new commentary on the books of the Bible that would incorporate several distinctive features. Prospective readers of these volumes are entitled to know what such features were intended to be; whether the aims of the commentary have been fully achieved time alone will tell.

First, we have tried to cast a wide net to include as contributors a number of scholars from around the world who not only share our aims, but are in the main engaged in the ministry of teaching in university, college, and seminary. They represent a rich diversity of denominational allegiance. The broad stance of our contributors can rightly be called evangelical, and this term is to be understood in its positive, historic sense of a commitment to Scripture as divine revelation, and to the truth and power of the Christian gospel.

Then, the commentaries in our series are all commissioned and written for the purpose of inclusion in the Word Biblical Commentary. Unlike several of our distinguished counterparts in the field of commentary writing, there are no translated works, originally written in a non-English language. Also, our commentators were asked to prepare their own rendering of the original biblical text and to use those languages as the basis of their own comments and exegesis. What may be claimed as distinctive with this series is that it is based on the biblical languages, yet it seeks to make the technical and scholarly approach to a theological understanding of Scripture understandable by—and useful to—the fledgling student, the working minister, and colleagues in the guild of professional scholars and teachers as well.

Finally, a word must be said about the format of the series. The layout, in clearly defined sections, has been consciously devised to assist readers at different levels. Those wishing to learn about the textual witnesses on which the translation is offered are invited to consult the section headed Notes. If the readers’ concern is with the state of modern scholarship on any given portion of Scripture, they should turn to the sections on Bibliography and Form/Structure/Setting. For a clear exposition of the passage’s meaning and its relevance to the ongoing biblical revelation, the Comment and concluding Explanation are designed expressly to meet that need. There is therefore something for everyone who may pick up and use these volumes.

If these aims come anywhere near realization, the intention of the editors will have been met, and the labor of our team of contributors rewarded.

General Editors: David A. Hubbard

Glenn W. Barker†

Old Testament: John D. W. Watts

New Testament: Ralph P. Martin

Author’s Preface

In 1966 W. C. van Unnik wrote an article under the title Luke-Acts, A Storm Center in Contemporary Scholarship (In Studies in Luke-Acts, ed. L. E. Keck and J. L. Martyn). It is probably fair to say that the intensity of the storm has since considerably abated, but there has continued to be an immense devotion of scholarly labor dedicated to the elucidation of the Lukan writings. And as some issues in dispute have clarified with the emergence of a good degree of scholarly consensus, other issues have come forward to take their place as matters in hot dispute.

A commentary such as the present one is partly a digest of the present state of this ongoing debate. In this guise it seeks to synthesize the insights that are scattered through the specialist literature and to evaluate in connection with the development of a coherent understanding of the whole Lukan enterprise the competing suggestions that have been offered in the literature for the understanding of individual items. It has, however, also been my intention to offer a fresh reading of each passage of the Gospel. In this guise the perusal of the literature has been a kind of apprenticeship or an initiation, entitling me to move on beyond the place where the accumulated discussion has taken us. Here my ambition has been to improve the answers that have been given to the issues thrown up by the particular features of the individual passages and at points to add my own questions to the scholarly agenda.

I have focused my engagement with the scholarly literature on the journal literature and the specialist monographs rather than upon the existing commentaries, largely because of the greater possibility there for exploring the detailed reasoning that stands behind the particular judgments which have been made. That said, I have learned much from the commentators. Schürmann and Fitzmyer have been constant companions. Marshall and Grundmann have also been of special use, as in different ways have the earlier works of Schlatter, Godet, and Loisy. Other commentators have periodically left their mark upon the present work. D. M. Goulder’s recent work (Luke: A New Paradigm [2 vols., JSNTSS 20; Sheffield: JSOT, 1989]) did not appear before the manuscript left my hands in January 1989. I have tried to keep an eye constantly upon Luke’s second volume, and the scholarship devoted to its elucidation, but here I have necessarily been much more selective.

While I have attempted to take something like comprehensive responsibility for all the issues involved in attempting to provide a modern reading of the ancient Lukan text, inevitably my own sense of the relative importance of things, as well as of my own areas of greater strength, will be reflected in the allocation of space (and of effort). The central paradigm for my work has been provided by seeing the Gospel text as an exercise in communication, deliberately undertaken by the Gospel writer with at least some focused sense of the actual or potential needs of his audience. I use communication here in a broad sense to encompass all the ways in which the Gospel may be intended to have an impact upon the reader.

To give one example that goes beyond what we might call the theological message of the book, there is a considerable sense of literature about Luke’s work. Some of that will be due to Luke’s instincts as artist and in that sense will be an expression of his own person as artist; some of that will be due to the fact that Luke stands heir (from the Old Testament, but also from his Christian context) to a narrative method of doing theology, along with which comes an investment in the artistry of story-telling; but for part of the explanation of this literary phenomenon we need to look in a totally nonliterary direction. Luke’s ambition was not to make a name for himself in the literary world of the day (his work probably does not come up to that level). His efforts were directed towards being taken with a certain kind of seriousness in this attempt that he has made to commend and elucidate the Christian faith: Luke seeks to write at a level that would commend itself to the cultural level of his readers and implicitly make certain claims about how they as readers should orient themselves to his work. That is, Luke uses literary means to nonliterary ends. With an eye upon each of these roles for literary technique, I have sought to pay particular attention to the literary strategies of Luke at both the micro-level and the macro-level.

While the main paradigm for inquiry has been provided by a concern for the nexus of communication, the commentary also pays considerable attention to issues concerning the ultimate origin of the materials that Luke has used. Luke seems to have a concern to present his material as capable of standing up to secular scrutiny. He is the Gospel writer who is most clearly aware of a distance between his own reporting and the events that it is his concern to report (Luke 1:1–4), and he is the one Gospel writer who seems to work with a fairly clear conceptual distinction between the place for religious testimony and the role of historical evidence in commending the Christian faith. His own approach, therefore, invites our attention to the questions of origin.

The commentary may be accessed at various levels. Most readers will find the Explanation for each passage the best point of entry. Here the major results of the detailed work of the earlier sections are outlined in nontechnical language. Also important for keeping in view the overall thrust of the Lukan text are the brief summaries which begin each major section of the commentary, and which at the next level down constitute the opening paragraphs for both the Form/Structure/Setting and the Comment for each passage.

Libraries are finally what make humanistic scholarship possible, and I am deeply grateful for the library resources that have been made available to me at Regent College, Vancouver; the University of British Columbia; Tyndale House Cambridge; the University of Cambridge; and Trinity College Bristol. I am particularly grateful for the inter-library loan services which have given me access to a great many items not held by the particular libraries where I have worked from time to time. I wish to pay a particular tribute to the series of teaching assistants who in the early years of this project gathered library resources for me and to Su Brown, assistant librarian at Trinity College Bristol, who was of such assistance in the final stages of readying the manuscript for the press.

I owe a debt of gratitude to Regent College, for the year of sabbatical leave in which a considerable part of the manuscript was written.

Finally I pay tribute to my wife Lisa and son David who have borne with my having this project on my mind for many a year, and particularly to my wife who journeyed [with me to] a foreign land far away from [her] country and [her] kindred and [her] father’s house in order that I might be able to stay in the kind of employment that would allow me to continue with this work.

JOHN NOLLAND

October 1989

Trinity College, Bristol

Abbreviations

A. General Abbreviations

For abbreviations of Greek MSS used in Notes, see Nestle²⁶.

B. Abbreviations for Translations and Paraphrases

C. Abbreviations of Commonly Used Periodicals, Reference Works, and Serials

D. Abbreviations for Books of the Bible, the Apocrypha, and the Pseudepigrapha

OLD TESTAMENT

Gen

Exod

Lev

Num

Deut

Josh

Judg

Ruth

1 Sam

2 Sam

1 Kgs

2 Kgs

1 Chr

2 Chr

Ezra

Neh

Esth

Job

Ps(Pss)

Prov

Eccl

Cant

Isa

Jer

Lam

Ezek

Dan

Hos

Joel

Amos

Obad

Jonah

Mic

Nah

Hab

Zeph

Hag

Zech

Mal

NEW TESTAMENT

Matt

Mark

Luke

John

Acts

Rom

1 Cor

2 Cor

Gal

Eph

Phil

Col

1 Thess

2 Thess

1 Tim

2 Tim

Titus

Philem

Heb

Jas

1 Peter

2 Peter

1 John

2 John

3 John

Jude

Rev

APOCRYPHA

E. Abbreviations of the Names of Pseudepigraphical and Early Patristic Books

F. Abbreviations of Names of Dead Sea Scrolls and Related Texts

G. Abbreviations of Targumic Material

*optional title

H. Abbreviations of Other Rabbinic Works

I. Abbreviations of Orders and Tractates in Mishnaic and Related Literature

J. Abbreviations of Nag Hammadi Tractates

Note: The textual notes and numbers used to indicate individual manuscripts are those found in the apparatus criticus of Novum Testamentum Graecae, ed. E. Nestle and K. Aland et al. (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1979²⁶). This edition of the Greek New Testament is the basis for the Translation sections.

Introduction

I propose here to offer only a modest engagement with the questions traditionally addressed in the introductory section of a commentary, concerning matters such as authorship, occasion, and purpose of writing. Considerations of various kinds lie behind this restriction, so I begin with some explanation for this limited taking up of the tasks of introduction.

If it were possible to provide answers to such questions which could be used as a confident basis for all that is to come in the main body of the commentary, then these questions of introduction would have a logical priority and a pressing urgency which would demand that they should be rigorously pursued and that this foundational study should precede any detailed attention to and exposition of the text itself. For the most part, however, the answering of these questions is not at all a straightforward matter, and usually turns, in the end, on the same analysis of the actual text which is the task of the body of the commentary. This means, first, that the two tasks, of seeking answers to questions of introduction and of seeking to understand the actual text, are inextricably bound up in each other and, second, that the proposed answers to questions of introduction are only more or less likely suggestions whose adequacy needs to be constantly reassessed in light of each feature of each particular section of text in the Gospel. The brevity of treatment is designed in part to suggest the lightness with which the conclusions of this section should be held as one moves on to the actual examination of the text.

My own procedure has been to work on the sections of the commentary with a minimum of assumption (or at least a minimum of precision of assumption) about the answers to be given to questions of introduction. The process of the work has produced increasing confidence in some areas and has left others relatively untouched. With the issue now of volume 1 the time has not yet come for the introduction to be able to function as an overview of the whole endeavor. At this point it is still a work in progress.

For the reader who wishes to pursue these questions of introduction further, a number of excellent studies exist (among these are to be noted Kümmel, Introduction to the New Testament, 35–80, 122–51; Fitzmyer, 1:1–283; Marshall, Luke: Historian and Theologian). It would seem to me to be a pity to repeat here what others have done in greater detail than would be possible here, and what others have no doubt done better than I would because of their specific interests and the orientation of their scholarship. I would prefer to restrict myself to a minimum of orientation for the reader, and for the most part to allow the commentary work proper to generate its own perspectives.

The Perspectives of Modern Gospel Scholarship

Modern biblical study has changed the way that the synoptic Gospels are read and studied to a degree that is not paralleled in the study of the Epistles, or even of the Gospel of John. The latter have always been read as concerned with expressing theological conviction (indeed, one of the gains of modern study has been to move the focus away from a narrow concern with doctrinal systems and to recognize the need to look beyond theological expression to the faith and life and social dynamic which gives that theological expression much of its significance). The former have tended to be read as biographies of Jesus which are not of primary theological significance. They have had an importance for Christian devotion and have served supremely as an access point to the historical Jesus.

Modern study does not take away these classical functions of the synoptic Gospels (though it does require us to recognize that the way in which the Gospels are able to perform such roles is rather more complicated than has been generally recognized). Modern study does, however, add new dimensions to the reading of the Gospels which probably, at least at certain points, take us much closer to the manner in which the evangelists themselves anticipated that their works would be read. Most pointedly, modern study has demonstrated that the evangelists were in their own right theologians, that just as important to them as the task of preserving and propagating the memory of Jesus was the need to interpret him and all that his coming implied in the light