The Transforming Word Series, Volume 5: Letters to Early Churches: From Romans to Revelation

By Mark Hamilton

The life and work of Jesus Christ must not be overlooked.

Born under Roman occupation, Jesus lived his entire life without writing anything down. His earliest followers, the Christians that were shaped by his life and teachings, carefully recorded his words as good news. They also experienced his resurrection and believed that he had entrusted them with a mission to transform the world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Abilene Christian University Press
• Release date: Oct 18, 2022
• ISBN: 9781684268979

Mark Hamilton

Mark W. Hamilton holds the Onstead Chair in the College of Biblical Studies at Abilene Christian University, where he serves as professor of Old Testament.

Book preview

Preface

The book you are holding primarily concerns another book, the Bible. The editors and authors of this book, in their fervent belief that the Bible reveals to human beings the path to God and thus to meaningful human existence, offer this commentary on the church’s central texts. In doing so, we stand in a long tradition of interpreters of Scripture going back to ancient times, as readers sought to understand the stories, prophecies, songs, prayers, and letters making up the great anthology that is the Bible. More than that, they—and we—seek to hear afresh transforming words that will quicken the life of the church as it shares in God’s redeeming work in the world.

The authors and editors of this book share a common history. They are all members of churches that emerged in the nineteenth century in North America following the direction of such great leaders as Barton Stone, Walter Scott, Alexander Campbell, and others. Their present Reformation, as they named it, began as an effort to purify the Christianity they had inherited of its divisions and corruptions. By returning to the Bible as the only rule in faith and practice, they believed they could restore primitive Christianity and thus help welcome God’s in-breaking kingdom.

For these men and women of faith, the Bible offered a picture of a healed world in which God’s will was done on earth as it was in heaven. Thus teaching the Bible was an act of redemption, not merely a technical exercise. As Thomas Campbell put it in 1809,

[A]ll that are enabled, thro’ grace, to make such a profession, and to manifest the reality of it in their tempers and conduct, should consider each other as the precious saints of God, should love each other as brethren, children of the same family and father, temples of the same spirit, members of the same body, subjects of the same grace, objects of the same divine love, bought with the same price, and joint heirs of the same inheritance. Whom God hath thus joined together, no man should dare to put asunder.

This commentary thus has a past. It is one of reform and division and now hopeful reconnections. We trust that it will also have a future as a source of healing for all who read the Bible as what Alexander Campbell called the living oracles of God. We thus offer this volume as a gift to all God’s people in the Stone-Campbell tradition and far beyond. And we pray that it will be a source of enlightenment for all who use it.

THE METHODS OF THIS WORK

Contemporary biblical scholarship offers a wide range of methods and conclusions on some points of the ancient texts, while producing broadly agreed upon understandings on others. In this commentary, the editors have imposed no method on authors, nor have we censored their interpretative conclusions, which range across the broad mainstream of current biblical interpretation. Everyone whose work appears here has received advanced training in biblical studies, which includes command of the original languages and a deep awareness of the literary shape and flow of the Bible, the relevant archaeological and textual evidence from the ancient Near East or Greco-Roman worlds, and the history of biblical interpretation, ancient, medieval, and modern. Authors drew upon such bodies of knowledge for their comments, but their works have differing emphases. In every case, however, the reader should expect to gain an understanding of the organization and arguments of each biblical book, the main historical issues bearing on its interpretation, and the theological meaning of each book and part thereof. A five-volume work cannot hope to include every relevant issue or fact, but we have written with the reader in mind, to help him or her encounter the biblical text with greater understanding and commitment.

Alongside their work as scholars, each author of this volume lives as an active Christian. Many of them teach in Christian seminaries or universities. Thus their interest in the Bible is not merely theoretical but connects to an active faith working to bear the good news of God’s redeeming work in Christ to the world.

Each author uses the best available editions of the original Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek texts of the Bible, but comments refer to several English translations—and frequently to the translations of the authors themselves.

THE LAYOUT OF THIS WORK

This volume includes a commentary on each biblical book as well as additional articles on the background of the Old and New Testaments. The commentaries include a chapter outline, a discussion of the contexts of the biblical book, a detailed commentary, a brief essay on the book’s theological implications, a list of texts for further study, and a list of works cited. The reader may dip in wherever he or she likes or read straight through. The supplementary essays at the beginning of this book are designed for continuous reading.

Each chapter may also includes maps, graphics, and sidebars. Rather than collecting this material in one place, we have sought to locate it where readers will need it most. An index of these special supplementary materials appears at the end of this volume. Most of these materials are the responsibility of the editors and may not reflect the precise point of view of the authors of the commentary in which they appear.

ABBREVIATIONS & ATTESTATION

In the interest of readability, this work avoids most abbreviations—even those common in biblical scholarship. However, a few abbreviations do appear, including:

In addition, the names of biblical books are abbreviated in parentheses accordingly:

THE LANGUAGES OF THE BIBLE

Although this volume assumes no knowledge of the Bible’s original languages on the part of readers, words in those languages occasionally appear here when the biblical author’s use of wordplay—a very prominent feature in both the Old and New Testaments—would otherwise be lost. Readers interested in a more detailed look at the original languages may consult the texts listed in the chapter’s bibliographical entries.

A brief note about the languages of the Bible and our representation of them may be in order. Most of the Bible was written in Hebrew over about a millennium. During this time, Hebrew developed (as every language does), so that the Hebrew of, say, old poems like Judges 5 or Exodus 15 differs significantly from that of a later book, such as Chronicles. The Bible contains several dialects of Hebrew and three basic stages of the language (Early, Classical, and Late). Ancient Hebrew is otherwise attested in inscriptions, letters, seals and seal impressions.

A few parts of the Old Testament survive in Aramaic (Ezra 4:8–7:26; Jer 10:11; and Dan 2:4b–7:28). Like Hebrew, Aramaic is a language in the Northwest Semitic family, a group that also included Phoenician, Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, and other languages. Hebrew and Aramaic were not mutually intelligible (though Phoenician and Hebrew probably were), but many ancient Jews probably spoke both.

This volume transliterates Hebrew and Aramaic words following an informal system. Scholars may easily recognize the original behind the transliteration, so we have made no effort at reproducing a fully scientific system. Spirantized consonants (consonants spoken with a continuous expulsion of breath) are not represented except with and (v and f respectively), following modern Israeli conventions. The correspondences are as follows:

Originally the writing systems for these languages did not include signs for vowels. Scribes added vowel signs below and above the consonants long after the biblical period. The vowels for these languages differ from those in English, and include short and long a (like the second a in garage), short and long i (like the i in machine), o (as in long), short and long e (as in bet and beta respectively), and short and long u (as in umbrella and parachute respectively). A schwa sound (like the first a in garage or barrage as Americans pronounce those words) also exists, represented here by e. When the consonants represented by ch, ts, or sh are doubled in Hebrew, we have indicated the letter only once (thus matsevot, not matstsevot) in order to avoid confusion.

While the Old Testament is written in two Semitic languages, the New Testament is written primarily (with the exception of a few Latin and Aramaic words) in one Indo-European language: Greek. During the first century CE, Greek language and culture dominated the eastern Mediterranean world. The upper classes even in Rome spoke and wrote in Greek. The Greek of the New Testament closely resembles that used by non-Christians at the same time. The authors use the language with varying degrees of sophistication, from the marketplace level of Mark to the educated language of Paul to the highly sophisticated text of Hebrews.

Again, as with Hebrew, this commentary uses Greek words only when necessary for explaining the argument of the biblical author. Readers should consult the bibliography for further references. Here we follow a transliteration system closely resembling that of the SBL Handbook of Style (Hendrickson 2014).

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The production of a book as large as this requires many hands and eyes. The editors wish to thank the following colleagues, in addition to their fellow contributors to this book: from ACU Press, to Thom Lemmons and Karen Cukrowski, who worked with us at the beginning stages of this work, and especially Leonard Allen who materially aided its completion; from friends who read earlier drafts of parts of the book, to Kris Southward, Dan Brannan, David Shaw, Gerardo Lara, Eddie Sharp, Jack Reese, Dwayne VanRheenen, and members of the Highland Church of Christ, University Church of Christ, and the Hillcrest Church of Christ; to Hannah Nielsen, Sandra Armstrong, Crystal Perry, and Diane Vanderford for their valuable proofreading, typesetting, and corrections; to Bill Rankin and Sherry Rankin, whose skills as typesetter and proofreader only begin the list of their accomplishments; to Harry Conner, Kelly Shearon, and David Skelton, Mark Hamilton’s assistants, who worked diligently on turning editorial marks into typescript; and most of all to our families, who saw us through to the end. For bringing this revised edition to fruition, we thank Jason Fikes, Duane Anderson, and Mary Hardegree. Without the help of these many colleagues, this volume would not exist at all.

AN INVITATION

Finally, we wish to invite our readers to join us in the study of the words of Scripture. As the apostle Paul put it when connecting the Old Testament to the Christian message, whatever was previously written was written for our instruction, so that through endurance and encouragement from the Scriptures we might have hope (Rom 15:4). We pray that this book may contribute in some measure to the life of hope that its readers seek. Such a result will justify our labors.

The Editors

VOLUME INTRODUCTION

Jesus and the Church

Mark W. Hamilton

All Christian thought and action take as their indispensable presupposition and goal an understanding of the life and work of Jesus Christ. Jesus of Nazareth, a Jewish craftsman and teacher of the first century CE , a subject of the Roman Empire who met death at the hands of its brutal rulers, nevertheless lives as the Lord of communities in countless cultures spanning the past two millennia. No Jesus, no Christians.

Yet who was Jesus and how did his wondrous deeds and challenging teachings both remain firmly situated in their Jewish context and yet also transform others far beyond that world? How do Christians encounter Jesus today?

The answer to both questions comes, at least in part, from the four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles, works also dating from the later first century and reflecting the Jewish commitments and experiences of Jesus and the first two generations of his followers as they navigated the urban world of the Roman Empire. What do these texts say, and how should we hear them today? This volume aims to help people listen well to these books of the New Testament.

THE FOUR GOSPELS AND ACTS

When the early Christians emerged on the scene, they lived in a world that enjoyed reading the lives of famous people—sometimes kings of centuries past, but also great philosophers or political leaders of slightly less exalted status. The lives of these figures helped readers pursue wisdom (or avoid folly) as well as often providing good entertainment. Some of these ancient biographies appealed to the most serious sides of life, such as Plato’s depiction of the death of Socrates or Plutarch’s Parallel Lives of Greeks and Romans. Others, written slightly later than the Gospels, can by turns inspire and titillate, as in Suetonius’s Lives of the Twelve Caesars from the early second century. The art of telling a good story was well known and widely appreciated. And, of course, Jews like Jesus and his disciples could also read the Old Testament and the many works inspired by it, from 1 Enoch to the Greek-language plays of Ezekiel the Tragedian.

In short, no one should be surprised at the decision to tell Jesus’s story, not simply because it was interesting but because it could shape the community of readers, the church. More surprising may be the Gospel’s content, for in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John the hero dies an agonizing, undeserved, humiliating death.

Like Socrates, Jesus suffers from the unjust decision of frightened leaders and a more frightened mob. But unlike Socrates, he does not make speeches to the bitter end as the poison slowly turns off his brain. Rather, Jesus cries out in pain from the cross, deserted by all his male companions, mocked, and almost alone. Average Greco-Roman readers encountering such works, if they did not already know the story from the preaching of the church, must have found Jesus’s biography shocking, almost incomprehensible. Only by force of long habits of domestication and willful ignoring of key details of the Gospels can we avoid the same reaction today. The Gospels confront us with a discomforting story.

Who is this Jesus of the Gospels? Given how many prejudices have arisen about Jesus over the centuries, and how prone Christians are to project onto him our own views and to use his teachings of mercy to justify our own excesses, the question has the same urgency today as it did at the beginning.

The Gospels insist that Jesus was a Jew, heir to God’s ancient promises to Israel, and the realization of their longed-for messiah. He hailed from the small town of Nazareth, within visual range of the ancient site of Megiddo and the then new city of Sepphoris, with its urbane villas and markets. He spent most of his life shuttling around Galilee, a subject of the ruthless Roman puppet king Herod Antipas. That man had slain his comrade in arms John the Baptist, whom the early Christians revered as a prophet and publicist for Jesus’s own ministry. Not that Jesus needed too much advertising, since reports of his miracles and his teachings preceded him, even when he went to Jerusalem. In that city of piety, he met his death.

But not before he had called on his disciples. Those disciples saw him alive, resurrected after his crucifixion and burial. They formed communities that bore witness to his resurrection, preserved and tried to live by his teachings, and, in short, exalted him as both teacher and lord. As one early hymn writer of the movement put it, taking a cue from Isaiah 45:23,

For this reason, God elevated him

and graced him with the name above all names,

so that at Jesus’ name

every knee, heavenly or earthly or subterraneous, bows

and every tongue acclaims Jesus Christ as Lord,

to God’s glory. (Phil 2:9–11)

The story of Jesus revealed more than events in a small corner of the Roman Empire. Rather, the very shape of all human history and the structure of the cosmos itself are at stake.

Each of the four Gospels tells this story differently. Mark presents him as a wonder worker whose teachings about the Kingdom of God confounded long-standing tradition. Matthew repairs Mark’s account by reminding readers of Jesus’s location within Judaism as a new Moses (a lawgiver atop a mountain). Luke likewise places Jesus within the long story of Israel by telling of his ties to John the Baptist in turns of phrase reminiscent of 1 Samuel, as Mary and Elizabeth sing songs like Hannah’s, all dedicating their sons to God. Yet Luke also connects Jesus to the church that emerged from the small band of his immediate followers. John goes a different way than the Synoptic Gospels, extracting from the few stories it tells a set of metaphors that readers can remember and contemplate (light and birth, shepherding and eating, among others). Readers of the Gospels should remember that they do not simply say the same thing in slightly different ways. They remix the core story of Jesus.

Luke, in fact, makes explicit what the other Gospels only imply. By writing a companion to the Gospel called the Acts of the Apostles, Luke extends the story of Jesus a further thirty years as the apostles, especially Peter and Paul, carry the good news from its origin point in Jerusalem to Rome itself. Along the way, the followers of Jesus do something he himself did not. They include Gentiles in their circles, not simply as a pragmatic matter but because of their understanding of God’s work in the world. As Peter put it to Cornelius, the first Gentile to answer the call to discipleship,

God does not play favorites. Rather, in every nation, those who honor God and do just deeds are acceptable to God. God sent to Israel’s Children the proclamation of the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. (Acts 10:34–36).

God could both keep the promises to Israel and bless the Gentiles through them without abandoning one or the other.

While reading these texts today, we can internalize the stories best when we ask where we find ourselves within them. Perhaps we resemble less the Gerasene demoniac, who requests the right to travel with Jesus, than Peter, who said, I tell you, I don’t know him. The words of Jesus, bracing and challenging, call on readers to place ourselves with the motley crew who sought healing from him but struggled to be peacemakers, were poor in spirit, and all the rest. The Gospels hold us in their grip as the indispensable texts of the Bible because they point us to our true nature as disciples of Jesus who wish to hold back but find that we cannot.

FOR FURTHER READING

Dunn, James D. Christianity in the Making. Vol. 1: Remembering Jesus. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003.

Meier, John P. A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus. 5 vols. New York: Yale University Press, 1991–2016.

INTRODUCTION TO

The Gospels & Acts

Larry Chouinard

CHAPTER CONTENTS

Matthew

Mark

Luke & Acts

John

For Further Study

Works Cited

The four Gospels and Acts are our primary sources for understanding the life of Jesus and the expansion of the early Christian community. These works communicate their message by means of story, and thus readers must consider how stories communicate and what kind of information they provide. In the past, studies in these books have been focused on what really happened or have attempted to reconstruct the process by which these documents may have emerged. However, these attempts are rarely satisfying, since elaborate attempts to uncover the processes and reconstruct the sources that each evangelist may have used often appear too speculative, and since the authors seem to have incorporated whatever oral or written sources they may have used creatively into the coherent flow of their stories.

Contemporary readers should listen carefully to the individual stories as a whole before contrasting them with the other accounts. The Gospels offer four verbal portraits of Jesus, each having a particular focus and message (Guelich). Each work tells of Jesus’ life and teachings from a particular point of view, informed by both the primary events and the theological concerns and needs of the expanding church. The following introductions look at the historical factors giving rise to these documents, the literary features used by each author to illumine the flow and meaning of his story, and the major theological themes peculiar to each account.

MATTHEW

For the first two centuries of the Christian era, Matthew’s Gospel prevailed as the most popular of the Gospel accounts. Not only was it the most frequently quoted New Testament book among second-century Christians, virtually all textual witnesses and canonical lists place Matthew first.

The anonymity of the canonical Gospels necessitates dependence on external evidence to establish authorship. The external testimony from the second century is virtually unanimous that Matthew the tax collector authored the book. While the heading according to Matthew probably did not appear in the original manuscript, the heading did appear when copies began to circulate among Christian communities (see Hengel 78–106). Early patristic evidence for Matthean authorship comes from Papias, the Bishop of Hierapolis (60–130 CE), whose comments survive in Eusebius’s Ecclesiastical History (3.39.14–16). All subsequent patristic testimony depended on Papias.

Patristics

The study of the church fathers who wrote and lived during the first through the sixth centuries CE.

There is nothing inherent in the Gospel itself that convincingly argues against Matthean authorship. Given the obscurity of the apostle Matthew, the burden of proof rests with those who think the early church got it wrong. However one solves the problem, no significant exegetical or theological concern hangs on the issue.

Efforts to recover the setting that best explains the form and content of Matthew’s Gospel have not satisfied everyone. There are two basic proposals for the book’s date. Most scholars argue that Matthew was written after Mark, around 80 to 100 CE. However, the arguments for such a dating depend on Mark coming first and on theories about the split between the church and the early rabbinic movement at the end of the first century. Others have made a strong case for a pre-70 dating for Matthew’s Gospel. The Gospel does not suppose that its readers have severed all contact with the synagogue. Furthermore, not enough is known about pre-70 Pharisaism. Fortunately understanding Matthew’s Gospel does not depend on precisely reconstructing the community from which the work emerged.

Papias on Matthew

According to Eusebius, Papias wrote that "Matthew collected [or composed or arranged] the oracles [or sayings] in the Hebrew [or Aramaic] language and each interpreted them as best he could. " The meanings of some of the quotation’s words are debatable, but the basic idea is clear enough.

While the setting and date of the book remain uncertain, its purpose deserves serious consideration. However, it is precarious to assume only one purpose. The writer obviously knows the law of Moses and the Old Testament stories. The Gospel assumes the readers believe the Jewish Scriptures. The story creates a sense of the culmination of God’s plan in Jesus and in an alternative community initially composed of twelve disciples. The story shows Jesus shaping the worldview of the disciples as they experience the kingdom of God (compare 6:10 and the five teaching blocks of chapters 5–7, 10, 13, 18, and 24–25). Jesus’ alternative vision challenges the religious establishment (and indirectly the Roman Empire) with a nonviolent, suffering Messiah and a community of those on the social margins. Ultimately, Jesus expects all his disciples to take seriously their call to embrace his story as their own. The way of discipleship is forever linked to the way of the cross.

As the commentary in this volume will show, Matthew narrates a story in which the various episodes are interrelated by causal and thematic developments. The unifying factor giving coherence to the overall sequence of events is the explicit and implicit presence of Jesus, the central character in virtually every episode. Within Matthew’s story, events of similar nature are often clustered or repeated for their cumulative impact as various themes are reinforced and developed.

MARK

In contrast to the popularity of Matthew in the early church, Mark was perhaps the most neglected of the canonical Gospels. Early assessments viewed Mark as an inferior abbreviator of Matthew. While incidental comments could be found among the church fathers about Mark, the first commentary on Mark did not appear until early in the seventh century.

However, early in the nineteenth century perceptions of Mark changed as scholarship began to explore the literary relationships of the Synoptic Gospels; a consensus emerged that Mark was the first Gospel written and was therefore the primary source for reconstructing the life of the historical Jesus. As noted by Ralph Martin (37), it was with the life of Jesus movement that Mark came into its own, after centuries of neglect. Mark’s brevity, alleged literary inferiority, and so-called primitive theology, alongside the supposition that Gospel composition proceeded from the more primitive to the more advanced, convinced many that Mark must replace Matthew as the earliest of the canonical Gospels (see Farmer 1).

Synoptic Gospels

Matthew, Mark, and Luke show a close literary relationship with one another and thus are called synoptic (from the Greek seen together).

Far from being a mere editor who pasted together random Jesus stories, Mark was a creative literary genius who crafted an engaging story with theological sophistication. Although Mark may lack the artistry of Matthew and the command of Greek prose of Luke, Mark tells his story in an engaging way, challenging the reader to rethink conventional values and to see reality through a radically different lens.

Biographies of Jesus

In the nineteenth century, European scholars wrote many so-called lives of Jesus, highly critical biographies that sought to go behind the canonical Gospels. Their contemporary successors include the "Jesus Seminar, " among others.

Mark, like Matthew, contains no explicit reference to the author. Also, like Matthew, the earliest and most important source attributing the work to Mark comes from Papias, whom Eusebius quotes: Mark having become the interpreter of Peter wrote down accurately whatever he remembered of the things said and done by the Lord, but not however in order (Ecclesiastical History 3.39.15).

While some find the statement by Papias to lack credibility, it is difficult to account for his identifying such an obscure person as Mark as the author unless he had authentic information. (However, since Mark was a common Roman name, we do not know whether Papias had in mind the John Mark of Acts 12:25; 13:4, 13.)

While the patristic tradition states that Mark wrote in close association with Peter, we do not know if the book follows or precedes Peter’s death in the mid-60s. It does appear from Papias that Mark wrote as Peter recounted events.

Since Mark has been linked to Peter, and since tradition locates Peter in Rome at the end of his life, most scholars point to Rome as the place of Mark’s writing. Obviously such conclusions depend on the reliability of patristic tradition. The Gospel hints, however, that the original readers were Gentile rather than Jewish Christians (see Bauckham): Mark’s explanation of Jewish customs (7:3–4), his defining of Aramaic phrases (5:41), his presupposition of a setting where women have a right to divorce their husbands (10:11–12), and his explanation that the widow’s two copper coins were worth a fraction of a penny (lepton, a coin not used in Syria and Galilee), all point to the original recipients as non-Jewish. Unlike the distinctive Jewish flavor of Matthew, Mark has a distinctive Gentile flavor.

Although only about 7 percent of Mark’s Gospel has no parallels in either Matthew or Luke, Mark nevertheless weaves a remarkably dramatic portrayal of Jesus. Mark describes his work as "the gospel [Greek euangelion] about Jesus Christ, Son of God" (1:1). In Greco-Roman documents the term euangelion announced a military victory or a momentous event in the life of the emperor. Mark’s Gospel, by contrast, proclaims the good news about Jesus’ victory and a subsequent exaltation that completely overshadows the claims of the Roman emperor. In Christian circles prior to Mark, the term referred to the oral proclamation of the salvation in Jesus. As far as we know, Mark was the first to use the term gospel to refer to the content rather than the form of the book (France 4–5). For Mark, the entire story of Jesus constitutes the good news, not just his death and resurrection (compare 1 Cor 15:1–4).

While all four Gospels highlight the importance of the cross as the defining moment of Jesus’ mission, Mark stands out in his emphasis on Jesus’ passion (Hooker 22). There is a reason Mark has been described as a passion narrative with an extended introduction, since almost half the book focuses on the last week of Jesus’ life. Early in the story, two themes capture the Markan portrayal of Jesus: Jesus is uniquely and supremely authoritative, and yet he remains unassuming in his service.

As observed by Best (45), it is probable that he [Mark] wrote down a story which he was already accustomed to telling in the Christian community. Mark, the consummate storyteller, stands on the boundary between oral and written literature (Best 47). His Gospel is meant to be heard, since the vast majority in the ancient world was illiterate, and the modern practice of reading texts silently was unusual for ancient readers. Mark’s breathless narration is illustrated in chapter 1, as virtually every episode begins with and (Greek kai, used to introduce eighty-eight episodes in Mark), and everything seems to happen immediately or at once (Greek euthus; vv. 10, 12, 18, 20, 21, 23, 30, 42, 43). The lightning pace continues throughout Mark with the same adverb used over forty times. These stylistic features, along with his frequent use of the historical present (150 times) to depict past action (Greek legei, he says) adds to Mark’s liveliness, particularly suited to oral narration. The effect is to draw the reader/hearer into the action of the story and heighten a sense of urgency.

To the casual reader, Mark may appear to be a random collection of episodes. But episodes in oral narratives are not grouped according to cause and effect, that is, in linear plot development, neither are they necessarily arranged in chronological order (Dewey 38). By repeating words or placing similar situations side by side, Mark uses literary techniques that provide aids to memory in an oral culture.

The Messianic Secret

Although his majestic presence stirred the crowds and brought instant recognition by the demons, Jesus sought to silence all discussion about his miracles (1:44; 5:43; 7:36; 9:9; compare 5:19) and refused the disclosure of his identity by the demons (1:25, 34; 3:11). Only in the cross does his identity become clear. His instructions to his disciples to keep his identity secret was not a rhetorical trick but a witness to his most basic nature as the one who gave up all for the sake of humanity.

LUKE & ACTS

The relationship of Luke and Acts may escape the modern reader because of their separation by John in the canon. Nevertheless, there is a scholarly consensus that the two volumes came from the same author. In addition to the similarities of prologues (Luke 1:1–4 and Acts 1:1–2), the two share common theological themes: the culmination of God’s redemptive plan in Jesus; the Spirit’s work in the ministry of Jesus and of the disciples; the concern for the least, last, and lost (Witherington 70); the universality of the gospel’s appeal; and the signs of the kingdom in the lives of both Jesus and the church.

Luke-Acts or Luke & Acts?

The author of Luke and Acts originally intended the books to go together. Therefore, modern scholars often speak of a single work, Luke-Acts. However, by the end of the second century, the books were circulating independently, probably because Luke had become part of a four-Gospel assembly, along with Matthew, Mark, and John.

Only Luke has Jesus’ petition on behalf of his executioners (23:34), while in Acts, Stephen, the first Christian martyr, utters a similar sentiment (7:60). Luke intentionally highlighted similarities between Jesus and the disciples. Jesus’ empowerment by the Spirit as he begins his public ministry (Luke 3:21–4:30) is paralleled by the disciples’ reception of the Spirit and empowerment for service (Acts 1–2). The last days of Jesus in Luke (19:28–24:53) have many parallels to Paul’s arrest, trials, and eventual arrival in Rome (Acts 20:13–28:31). It also seems apparent that Luke’s closure highlighting the ascension (24:49–53) links to the opening chapter in Acts (1:1–11). Just as Luke has Simeon praising the infant Jesus as a light for revelation to the Gentiles (Luke 2:32), Acts narrates Gentile inclusion in God’s redemptive plan. As noted by Bock (1; compare Marshall 16–17), Luke’s Gospel often lays the foundation for many of the issues whose answers come in Acts. Taken together, Luke-Acts constitutes 25 percent of the New Testament.

The nature of Luke’s literary production has stimulated a storm center of controversy (van Unnik), especially concerning Luke’s competence as a historian. Although not an eyewitness to most of the incidents he records, Luke shows a historian’s sensitivity to the sources at his disposal (Luke 1:1–4). He anchors his story in real events involving the major players dominating Palestinian and the broader Greco-Roman world of the first century. More than any other evangelist, Luke is most influenced by the conventions of Hellenistic historiography and biography. It follows that Luke’s writings must be assessed in terms of ancient historiographical conventions rather than the protocols expected of the modern historian.

Luke was not a careless historian, but he does rearrange events and summarize lengthy speeches in order to highlight their theological significance. Since he writes to believers, not skeptics, he is more concerned to interpret events than to prove their veracity. However, foundational to the Christian claim is that the story retold by the evangelist has its roots in real time-place events.

In neither the third Gospel nor Acts does the author reveal his identity. However, the tradition in the early church is virtually unanimous that the author was Luke. As noted by Fitzmyer (41), If the Gospel and Acts did not already pass under [Luke’s] name there is no obvious reason why tradition should have associated them with him [Luke]. Hence, the heading found in the earliest manuscripts (such as ms. P 75, dated to the end of the second century, according to Luke [Greek kata Loukan]), probably provides the best testimony we have.

Luke appears in the New Testament three times (Col 4:14; 2 Tim 4:11; Phlm 24). The so-called we sections in Acts (16:10–17; 20:5–15; 21:1–18; 27:1–28:16) probably limit the authorship of Acts to one of Paul’s traveling companions. While Luke does appear as the most likely candidate, it is strange that he ignores an abundance of material about Paul and his letters (see 2 Cor 11:24–35; Gal 1:17–22). While the exact ethnic background of Luke has been disputed, he was probably a Gentile who had strong connections to Judaism before becoming a Christian.

As for the date of the book, Acts ends without any reference to events detailing the outcome of Paul’s trial in Rome, suggesting a writing date preceding Paul’s trial. On the other hand, it may be argued that Luke’s purpose for closing his second volume the way he did was to end the story by portraying Paul in the heart of the empire announcing the good news of an alternative kingdom right under the nose of the emperor (28:30–31).

Luke’s relationship to Mark requires explanation. If Luke used Mark, and if Mark wrote in the mid-60s, then Luke must come later, perhaps in the 80s. Indeed, Luke’s reference to the many who have written before him (Luke 1:1) may include Mark, but exactly how long Mark circulated before Luke had access to it is anybody’s guess.

Another fixed point often used to establish a date for Luke-Acts is the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE. If Luke’s two volumes were composed after 70, it would seem odd that the books make no concrete reference to Jerusalem’s destruction. While certainty may not be possible, it is not unreasonable to date the composition of Luke-Acts sometime between the late 60s and the mid-70s.

As with date and authorship, any proposal concerning the purpose of Luke-Acts must take seriously the Gospel’s prologue (Luke 1:1–4), which introduces both Luke and Acts. Luke writes to Theophilus to provide assurance concerning the things he had been taught (1:4). Luke tries to demonstrate that the Christian community to which he now belongs is the fulfillment of God’s redemptive plan in Jesus. As noted by Tannehill (69), the phrase plan of God gives Luke-Acts a unitary story (Luke 7:30; Acts 2:23; 4:28; 5:38–39; 13:36; 20:27). Theophilus and others like him, who lived on the boundary of Jewish and Hellenistic cultures, must understand that in spite of the rejection by the synagogue, God’s plan always intended for both Jew and Gentile to find their spiritual identity united in Christ.

Theophilus

Theophilus probably was a Gentile believer, perhaps once associated with the synagogue, like other God-fearing Gentiles Paul had encountered (Acts 13:43; 14:1; 17:4, 12, 17; 18:6; 19:8–10).

Luke, therefore, defends the Christian movement by grounding his story in Israel’s past and demonstrating through Jewish Scripture that Jesus and the new community fulfill God’s promises. In spite of overwhelming odds and the fierceness of Christianity’s opponents, God seems to turn every adversity into an opportunity for witness. From every social stratum people come to faith and thus challenge the Roman Empire with an alternative reality.

JOHN

To move from the Synoptic Gospels to John seems at first to enter a different world. About 92 percent of John’s material is unique to that Gospel. Even where the four overlap, John’s distinctive style, order of events, and literary imagery differ radically from that of the other three Gospels. John invites his readers to enter a symbolic world where dimensions of Jesus’ identity and mission develop differently than they do in the Synoptics.

Although a few allusions to John come from second- and third-century Christian writers, its popularity within Gnostic circles probably brought the Gospel to the forefront of discussion in the early church. Because of Gnostic interest in the work, some suspected its orthodoxy. It was Irenæus in the second century who came to the defense of John as a reliable witness to orthodox theology. Irenæus claims to have been taught by Polycarp, who in turn was instructed by John himself, one of the original disciples. Accordingly, Irenæus affirms the integrity of the Fourth Gospel because it comes from John’s own eyewitness testimony. While not all were persuaded, by the end of the fourth century a strong consensus endorsed John’s place in the canon.

Gnosticism

Historical Gnosticism involved a cluster of religious movements emphasizing secret knowledge (the name comes from the Greek gnosis, knowledge) that allowed the enlightened to escape the corruption of the physical world. Some Gnostics claimed Christianity, while other Christians regarded them as heretics who misunderstood the nature of Christ and redemption.

John’s revered status continued until the eighteenth century, which brought a diminishing assessment concerning the value of the book for recovering reliable information about Jesus. Modern scholars saw John as a late, heavily Hellenized theological reflection on Jesus’ ministry and teachings. Such views influenced scholarly thinking until the middle of the twentieth century.

John’s Historical Value

Recent trends have seen a renewed interest in John as a valuable source for understanding the historical Jesus. The Fourth Gospel, like the Synoptic Gospels, tries to report Jesus’ story accurately and with theological richness. Furthermore, since the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, it has become clear that John’s dualistic language and the categories of his christological thought have parallels in the Jewish writings of the first century. As Matson (78) puts it, "Indeed, it could well be said that John actually represents the most Jewish of all the Gospels, as opposed to being Hellenistic in its framework."

Scholars argue for literary dependency among the Synoptic Gospels where they agree, almost word for word, in retelling an episode they share in common. John is different. Unlike the Synoptics, which focus on Jesus’ Galilean ministry, John’s story narrates Jesus’ movement back and forth between Galilee and Judea (2:13; 5:1; 7:1–10), largely within the framework of three Passovers (2:13; 6:4; 13:1; compare Mark 14:1). John’s account of the cleansing of the temple early in his story (2:13–20) seems to conflict with the synoptic portrayal of the cleansing as a climatic prophetic act that precipitated events leading to Jesus’ arrest and eventual execution (Mark 11–13). Many scholars have struggled to harmonize John’s account of the time and events surrounding Jesus’ crucifixion (John 18–19) with the synoptic portrayal (see Blomberg).

Numerous stories in the synoptic tradition are absent from John’s narrative (for example, baptism of Jesus, temptation, transfiguration, confession in Cæsarea, the Lord’s Supper, and the prayer in Gethsemane). On the other hand, John has his own distinctive collection of episodes not found in the Synoptics (for example, the wedding at Cana, the Nicodemus encounter, the Samaritan woman, raising of Lazarus, foot washing, and unique resurrection appearances). Even in those episodes where John and the Synoptics overlap, John writes with his own unique style and theological concerns.

When addressing the identity and mission of Jesus, John writes with theological flair. Jesus’ discourses in John, unlike those in the Synoptics, focus not on the kingdom but upon himself (5:1–47; 6:25–59; 9:1–10:42; 13:1–38). In John, Jesus makes some of the most extraordinary affirmations about himself and his relationship to God (for example, calling himself the bread of life, the light of the world, the good shepherd, the way and the truth and the life, and also saying I and the Father are one and before Abraham was I am). Though John reports no exorcisms, his Jesus has come to do battle with the cosmic forces of evil (6:70; 8:44; 13:2, 27) and will not succumb to the powers of darkness (1:5; 3:19; 8:12; 12:35, 46). The parables of the Synoptics are replaced by seven signs (2:11; 4:54; 9:16; 10:41; 11:47; 12:18, 37; 20:30), which also demand eyes to see and ears to hear in order to properly interpret.

Finally, John’s exalted Christology seems to take the reader into revelatory realms to which the other Gospels only hint (see Carson 57). John identifies Jesus as the incarnate Word (1:1–14) who has come to manifest, as no one else has, the character and will of God (1:18; 8:19; 14:9). While the Synoptics primarily refer to Jesus as God’s son to stress his role as an obedient son, in John, Jesus’ intimacy with the Father is based on identity and nature (see 5:24, 30; 10:36; 11:42; 12:44–45; 17:8; 20:21). John emphasizes more than anyone else that one’s relationship with God depends on faith in Jesus as God’s divine Son. While John may have access to the same wellspring of tradition (both written and oral) that informed the Synoptic Gospels, John certainly shows an independence of thought in theologically shaping his story of Jesus.

Christology

Systematic theological reflection on the nature, life, work, and significance of Jesus the Christ. Much of Christian history and theology concerns the place of Jesus in the eternal plan of redemption that God is carrying out in the world.

Like the Synoptic Gospels, John contains no explicit reference to the identity of the author. Scholars debate whether enough evidence exists to identify the author, with some insisting that available evidence implicitly points to John, the son of Zebedee, as the most likely candidate