Is There a Structure to Luke's Travel Narrative?

By Geok Hock Tan

The fact that we have four gospels suggests that each focuses on different aspects of the life and ministry of Jesus. Bible commentators have generally been successful at providing outlines to guide us through the text and to bring out those unique emphases.

The central section of Luke's gospel is an exception. It seems more like a hotchpotch of unrelated stories than the orderly account that Luke claims to write. Different outlines have been tried but none appears to work. Scholars cannot even agree where this section should end.

This book offers a solution to the puzzle, proposing that the travel narrative be divided into three major teaching blocks and an appendix. This outline directly impacts the way we read the stories in these chapters and it also changes our understanding of the theology of Luke, the chronology of Jesus and the solution to the Synoptic Problem.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Geok Hock Tan
• Release date: Jul 13, 2012
• ISBN: 9781386789710

Book preview

IS THERE A STRUCTURE

TO

LUKE’S

TRAVEL NARRATIVE?

By Tan Geok Hock

Text Copyright © 2012 by Tan Geok Hock

Email: [e-mail]

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, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.

This book is an abridged and updated version of a thesis submitted to Seminari Theoloji Malaysia in 2009 for the degree of Master of Theology.

Contents

Ch 1—Introduction

Ch 2—Reviewing Our Options

Ch 3—Starting Afresh

Ch 4—Some Do's and Don'ts

Ch 5—Chiasm or Simply Repetition?

Ch 6—Repentance, Interrupted

Ch 7—Making Sense of It All

Ch 8—The Value of Structure

Appendix—Table of Topical Outlines

Notes

Bibliography

About the Author

Chapter One: Introduction

Back to ToC

The central section of Luke’s gospel which describes Jesus’ final journey to Jerusalem is sometimes called his travel narrative. Although Luke claims his work to be an orderly account (1:3), the travel narrative looks far from that.

In it Jesus sets out resolutely for Jerusalem in 9:51 and reaches the home of Mary and Martha by 10:38. According to John 11:1 this was in the village of Bethany on the outskirts of Jerusalem. However, here in 13:31, Jesus appears to be either back up north in Galilee or over on the eastern side of the Jordan in Perea (for these were the territories over which Herod Antipas ruled). Neither makes much sense of the route he took. Jesus continues to make little progress even by 17:11 where he is still at the border between Samaria and Galilee. Little wonder some historians think Luke was not familiar with the geography of Palestine.

Others are more generous and suggest that Luke merely uses the journey motif as a scaffold on which to hang disparate materials that do not fit conveniently elsewhere in his gospel. But if so, one would still expect Luke to organise those material in a manner discernible to readers given his claim in 1:3. Instead, scholars despair to find any organising principle. Many have attempted to solve this puzzle but without much success.

Apart from the outline of this narrative, its limits are also debated. Most commentators agree it begins at 9:51, where Luke departs from Mark’s account, but there is no consensus over where it ends. Some argue for 18:14 where Luke resumes Mark’s sequence but many prefer 19:28 where Luke narrates the triumphal entry. Yet others opt for 19:44 because it is at this point that the text says Jesus is in Jerusalem. The choice of ending seems to be governed by what is made determinative: literary source or theme.

The current state of affairs is unsatisfactory, as the way we outline these chapters can impact how we understand the purpose and meaning of its contents. Therefore we will revisit this important subject by re-examining the text in the hope of discovering clues which can lead to the development of a plausible structure.

Chapter 2 begins the process by briefly surveying the various approaches which have been utilised to outline the travel narrative. This is in order that we might appreciate the difficulties involved in trying to solve this puzzle. Armed with the information, Chapter 3 goes on to formulate an alternative outline. Then chapters 4 to 7 put the resulting model to the test by using it to try and explain the flow of thought linking the passages within each section delineated by the outline. Lastly chapter 8 draws some implications for our understanding of Luke’s gospel in particular and the life and teaching of Jesus in general.

Three working assumptions are necessary to guide our investigation. First is the literary relationship between the synoptic gospels. We assume Mark wrote first and then Luke used Mark to compose his gospel. This is a widely accepted view. (We will also give some thought to their links to Matthew’s gospel but it can come later.) And since there is little reason to believe Mark was written for private reading, we assume Luke’s original audience also had access to Mark and were familiar with it.

A second assumption is that Luke’s primary target Theophilus was a gentile believer but Luke envisaged a wider audience which was also predominantly gentile. Again, this is a common view. Third, we assume Luke wrote his gospel with oral performance in mind as low literacy rates in those days meant that some in his audience relied on hearing the gospel. This last assumption is not crucial to our study but it does help us to appreciate how the original audience would have perceived the structure of the travel narrative.

Chapter Two: Reviewing Our Options

Back to ToC

There are currently four major approaches to outlining the travel narrative: chronological, theological, literary and topical.

A CHRONOLOGICAL APPROACH

This is the traditional method