The Great Promise: Luke 1

By Karl Barth

'The Great Promise' gives a powerful exegesis of the first chapter of the Gospel of Luke which tells the story of the Advent - the birth of John the Baptist, preparing for the birth of Christ. It consists of four stenographically recorded biblical lectures which Karl Barth gave to his theology students during Advent in 1934, after his lectures at the University of Bonn had been suspended by the Nazi regime.

Uncovering what he calls the spiritual birth story of John the Baptist, Barth proclaims it to be the spiritual birth story of anyone who knows himself to be standing under God. His biblical account is thus interwoven with a continuous reference to the way in which God acts upon the world today no less than in the past and how humans may or may not submit to such acting.

Translated from the German by E. Hans Freund.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Release date: Apr 9, 2004
• ISBN: 9781498270779

Karl Barth

Karl Barth (1886-1968) was a pastor, an outspoken critic of the rise of the Nazi Party, and Professor of Theology at the University of Basel, Switzerland.

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The Great Promise

Luke 1

KARL BARTH

Translated by Hans Freund from the German original Die Verheissung; by arrangement with Chr. Kaiser Verlag.

Wipf and Stock Publishers

199 West 8th Avenue, Suite 3

Eugene, Oregon 97401

The Great Promise

By Barth, Karl

Copyright©1963 Theologischer Verlag Zurich

ISBN: 1-59244-650-7

EISBN: 978-1-4982-7077-9

Publication date 4/9/2004

Previously published by Philosophical Library, 1963

This book is a translation from the German edition of Karl Barth, Vier Bibelstunden über Luk. 1, published by Theologischer Verlag Zurich

PREFACE

The Bible lectures which form the content of this little book were given during Advent in 1934 to my former student audience after my formal lectures and seminars had been forcibly terminated. They were stenographically recorded, and I have gone through them. Because I personally like to recall this pleasant epilogue to my teaching activity at the University of Bonn, I am glad to place them also before a wider circle. And I may perhaps use this opportunity to return the greetings of so many people who expressed to me during all these weeks their real and personal sympathy—grateful as I am that the course I took has been so largely understood. In view of the existing problems, many things had to remain unspoken which I would have liked to say publicly so as to explain what had happened. Likewise with regard to future decisions, I must ask those who place some confidence in me to continue believing that any steps I take will be responsibly weighed to the best of my ability, even if I am not in a position to give an account—as I should like—to all who may be concerned.

Karl Barth

Bonn, January 7, 1935

CONTENTS

Lecture 1—Luke 1, Verses 5–25

Lecture 2—Luke 1, Verses 26–38

Lecture 3—Luke 1, Verses 39–56

Lecture 4—Luke 1, Verses 57–80

THE GREAT PROMISE

LUKE 1

LECTURE 1

Luke 1, Verses 5 to 25*

We have before us the story of John the Baptist, the messenger, the forerunner, who is to prepare the way of the Lord; we are concerned with Advent which precedes Christmas. John the Baptist is no independent figure. He belongs entirely to Christ. There are no independent figures at all in the Bible—figures who have any significance of their own apart from Christ. And what is true for Biblical figures in general is most emphatically true for John the Baptist: he is only there to collect and give back the light that falls upon him from the figure of the one and only Christ. Thus standing there, being totally dependent, being totally man and sinner, totally serving, he is at the same time the sum of the fulfillment of all of God’s promises in the Old Testament and the sum of the fulfillment of all coming after him in the figures of the apostles and evangelists preaching the revelation in Jesus Christ. The Baptist is both prophet and apostle, and just as prophet and apostle he belongs to Christ. The beginning of the Gospel of Luke must not be divided into two parts, a first which has to do with John and a second which has to do with Jesus, but both sections are totally concerned with the same: the birth of Jesus Christ. And the birth of John the Baptist belongs to the birth of Jesus Christ.

Let us for a moment dwell on the fact that here is told the beginning of a life, the pre-history of a man, the story of the childhood of John which then is followed by the story of the childhood of Jesus. What is the meaning of this? We know of various childhood stories in Holy Scripture. We have such a story about Moses, about Samson, and Samuel, and some allusion to it in Jeremiah. We hear Paul in the New Testament in the Epistle to the Galatians speak of his existence before he was born. All this appears to point out in principle from the very outset that we do not have before us here human personalities who have become what they are by means of certain creative forces, certain abilities or qualities or efforts of their own, or through some historic constellations. Everything else one can possibly become. A man of God one cannot become. Either one is or one is not. To be a man of God is not the result of human energy or skill or profundity, but to be a man of God happens through grace imparted to a particular man. The Bible by relating childhood stories tells us this: the men of whom we hear are what they are totally through the grace of God.

Verse 5. In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zech-a-ri’ah, of the division of A-bi’jah; and he had a wife of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth.

In this verse we have a statement about the descent of John’s parents. Both father and mother belong to the priesthood of Israel. Their whole life stands within the context of this people’s divine service which dates back to Israel’s being elected and called through the inscrutable will of God who willed then and there to reveal Himself to this people and to be their God. The basic occurrence here referred to is Israel’s election—God’s having revealed Himself to Israel. Revelation ties in with revelation. The fulfillment which is spoken of in the story of John’s birth and of Jesus’ birth takes place within the framework of a past promise bestowed through grace.

Verse 6. And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.

These parents, we are told, were righteous before God. Apart from the more objective context described, that is a statement about the parents themselves who now become the special bearers of a promise which has reached here the threshold of fulfillment, and to that extent is already fulfillment. They were both righteous before God. In Israel, the