Luke to Theo: Understanding Luke’s Gospel in the World of the First Century

By Clifford Samuel

Luke’s remarkable work has moved beyond its original audience. Over time it has become a means of nourishing countless individuals on their spiritual and religious journeys. Luke’s gospel is valuable not only in its religious context, for it offers a captivating window into the intricacies of the first century world, its history, literature, its sacred as well as its secular beliefs. This book will be useful not only for those with a religious worldview but for undergraduate students as well as the general reader.

Luke to Theo considers many thought-provoking questions. Who is this enigmatic figure we call Luke? What does he have to say about Jesus? What role does Theo play in this narrative? And just how does the author manage to engage diverse audiences from the first century right up to the present day?

For both believer and sceptic alike, this book provides a framework to understand the nuances of many a biblical text.

Drawing upon the latest scholarly research, the author enables readers to embark on a thought-provoking journey as literary forms and historical context enrich Luke’s remarkable work.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Jan 5, 2024
• ISBN: 9781398452664

Clifford Samuel

Clifford Samuel has taught literature, English, ancient and modern history, as well as Biblical and religion studies to senior secondary students for over forty years. He lives in cosmopolitan Melbourne, the cultural and sporting capital of Australia. Here he is able to indulge hobbies to do with theatre, opera and music together with eclectic reading, gardening as well as swimming.

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About the Author

Clifford Samuel has taught literature, English, ancient and modern history, as well as Biblical and religion studies to senior secondary students for over forty years. He lives in cosmopolitan Melbourne, the cultural and sporting capital of Australia. Here he is able to indulge hobbies to do with theatre, opera and music together with eclectic reading, gardening as well as swimming.

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The scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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Introduction To Luke

This book grew out of many years of teaching in senior secondary education. Both English literature and the academic study of religion including the comparative study of religions and biblical studies, especially the Gospel of Luke, were areas in which I was able to specialise. I am by no means an expert or Biblical scholar but after drawing on those who are scholars and Biblical experts, together with my own reflection on the text, I feel able to present a way into Luke’s beautifully composed piece of Gospel literature.

This book is thus meant to be a general guide for the ordinary reader, especially those interested in literature, history and religion, particularly in the first century of the Common Era (CE). Final year secondary students and university undergraduates may also find this guide of use.

Exploring Luke:

Luke’s text is a wonderful introduction to the Graeco-Roman (Hellenistic) world.

It is also a good introduction or refresher into the Jewish-Hebrew world, not only of the first century but of the traditions that takes us back centuries to the Exile of 587BCE and beyond to the Exodus from Egypt.

It will give the reader an introduction to textual criticism, particularly the skills of exegesis.

Reading first century Luke enables one to understand that texts can and are interpreted according to the values, beliefs and cultures of the day. Thus, both the time of the text itself and the time of the reader need to be taken into account.

Conversely, the text can be interpreted to challenge a value, belief or cultural norm of the day especially the day of the reader.

Luke is a truly magnificent text which combines history, legend, myth, poetry and many other literary forms into a work of such scholarship and breadth, of such insight into the human condition, that it can take its place alongside any of the great works of the Western canon.

Put simply, Luke can be life changing. It certainly is life-affirming. It introduces us into the world of scholarship, allowing even the beginner a way to promote both curiosity and the developing of intellectual skills. It allows insight into the realm of the human spirit, its longings and the search for the spiritual in life. Whether one has religious faith of whatever flavour or none, a study of Luke may well confirm one’s original starting point. For others like myself, it may open ways of thinking about previously held beliefs and practices.

Ultimately, critically reading Luke will mean coming to grips with that first century Man who has impacted the world ever since his followers proclaimed him as the answer to humanity’s problems.

While I have endeavoured to provide a commentary on all of Luke’s text, I have explored aspects of the text which I found of interest or importance. Hopefully, the reader may have their appetite whetted and so go on to explore more expert Biblical scholarship for themselves.

The Commentary is organised by reference to distinct pericopes. A pericope comes from the Greek: literally a piece cut out and is used to indicate an extract or passage which may well be an identifiable unit in a text. The biblical text used is the NRSV. It may be helpful to have the NRSV at hand as the following of many Hebrew scriptural references help illuminate Luke’s work.

Every writer and indeed, every reader, brings to the world of the text at hand their own biases and their own point of view. One of the problems in reading any text and especially the first century text that is Luke, is that believer or no, twenty-first century minds have been influenced by nearly two thousand years of Christianity. As such, the reflection and meanings, the theology, read into the text over the course of time are not necessarily the ones that the author of a text had in mind when writing their work. Hence, the need to be open to the world of the text.

Biblical criticism over the course of the last few centuries has alerted us to many tools that can help us discover what is a likely understanding of what an author intended their audience to understand. The need is for modern readers to be open to the understandings of scholars and scholarship in navigating their way through a text.

It may be helpful to state my own assumptions and biases (in so far as I can detect them) in my own writing about Luke.

The first point to make is that Luke is writing from the point of view of a follower of Jesus. He is writing in the firm belief of Jesus as the resurrected Lord. Hence, all his understanding about who Jesus is and the meaning of his life and work is seen through this prism. This really does mean that the Jesus who lived as man in the first quarter or so of the first century is not as fully developed as we might wish. It seems to me that the statement, the Jesus of history gives rise to the Christ of faith, is particularly appropriate here.

A second understanding we need to be aware of is that Luke often has his own end of first century audience in mind when describing or purporting to describe Jesus’ words and actions. Very often, the concerns and problems of Luke’s own day will be read back into the earlier period of Jesus’ day. Luke, after all, is writing for his particular audience and writing to help them live as followers of Jesus. The fact that his audience is largely non-Jewish will have an impact on the events Luke is describing and the way he describes them.

Thus, we have to be aware that there are multiple audiences for Luke’s material. There is the original audience Jesus speaks to from the 30s; and this audience will be made up of both positive and negative persons. The material Luke will source his work from will often be shaped, even crafted, by a post-resurrection audience or series of audiences. Sometimes it will be hard to determine if the words attributed to Jesus are his own or those of very early followers or indeed of Luke himself.

Then there is the audience Luke is speaking to and shaping his material for so as to address their needs and concerns. As noted, they are mainly non-Jewish and will need the material to be shaped in a language and a way they can understand. Finally, there is the modern audience who needs to pare back the layers of time since Luke wrote his work so that they can understand what he has written in the context of his time.

It may be helpful to remind ourselves that in this text, persons and their actions will be portrayed and understood in the overall context of a world where spirits moved for good or ill and the miraculous was not only possible but expected.

In my reading of Luke, I accept the view that Jesus’ movement is an extension of John the Baptist’s. Jesus takes over from John the leadership and mission John had. Their message is generally the same. As to when Jesus became not only the Messenger, but the Message is outside the scope of this commentary; however, it is an intriguing question. Suffice it to say, Luke accepts that Jesus is integral to the Message and that in a very real way he enables his followers to connect with God. I would also note that the Jesus Movement is a well organised one and that Jesus has made provision for it to continue after his death.

From the outset, it needs to be stated that I do not accept Luke regarded Jesus as Son of God in any ontological¹ sense. For Luke, Jesus is not the Second Person of the Trinity. That he is Messiah and eschatological Judge and that his name is to be proclaimed throughout the world is sufficient. For Luke, Son of God fully explains the intimacy between Jesus and his Father and his God.

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¹ For explanation of ontological/ontology and other terms, see Dictionary of Terms and People below.↩︎

Commentary on The Gospel of Luke

The Man Who Was Luke

Modern historians are relatively certain that both the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles are a two-volume work written by the same person—for "their style and language are identical¹. As to who that author actually is, traditions range from the somewhat fanciful eighth century belief that he was an icon painter responsible for icons of Mary and even Peter and Paul² to his being the physician who accompanied Paul on some of his missionary journeys³. Paul’s letter to Colossians (Col.4:10-14) mentions a Luke as a possibly gentile co-worker with Paul. It describes him as the beloved physician". Since the second century, this physician has been equated with the author of Luke-Acts.

It would seem that this tradition rests upon a genuine memory given the very obscurity of Luke in the Christian scriptures⁴. Hence, it reasonable to accept Luke was the man who accompanied Paul as doctor and co-worker⁵.

While the tradition that the writer of the Gospel was the Luke who was a co-worker with Paul seems to be generally accepted it is quite possible, he was a Hellenistic Jew. The problem occurs in Paul’s Letter to the Colossians when Paul mentions Luke but refers to three other men as being the only ones of the circumcision among my co-workers. Ellis⁶ argues that the phrase of the circumcision is a doubtful phrase to describe all Jewish Christians. He considers that the phrase probably refers to those Christians who observe all the rituals of Judaism, particularly circumcision.

The author of Luke has an intimate knowledge of the Hebrew Bible in its Septuagint or Greek translation. He is concerned to see Jesus as conforming with Jewish Law and teaching and reaches out to include Gentiles into the people of God. On balance then, it is very likely that Luke was a Jewish Hellenistic Christian who was very familiar with Greek thought and culture.

Tradition has Luke a Syrian and a native of Antioch, living for a time in Philippi, moving with Paul through various cities of Asia Minor and eventually dying in Boeotia. His familiarity with the world of Asia Minor makes it very likely that his audience were Hellenistic members of the Eastern Mediterranean. It seems to be the case that Luke was writing in the last quarter of the First Century. If Mark’s Gospel can be dated to the decade 60-70 Luke has to be later because of the fact he had Mark’s work beside him when he wrote his own Gospel. That Luke refers to the destruction of Jerusalem means Luke could not be writing before 70CE. He refers to the growing animosity with official Judaism and the expulsion of Jewish Christians from synagogues all of which indicates a date in the decade 80-90⁷.

But it is only in examining the two writings Luke produced that we can draw some understanding of the man. While this book concentrates mostly on Luke’s first work, a few brief words about The Acts of the Apostles may also help us come to grips with the person of Luke. Acts can be dated to roughly the same period of the last quarter of the First Century as the Gospel, i.e., circa 85CE⁸.

Which came first is still a matter for debate. However, both works evidence a very polished use of koine Greek⁹ thus indicating we are dealing with an educated man familiar with Hellenistic literature as well as with the Hebrew scriptures—at least in their Greek form (i.e., what is termed the Septuagint).

In Acts, Luke writes a history of the early Christian movement, but it is a history that is selective. Luke narrates a story drawing attention to those people and movements which he believed to be especially significant. So, it is not a comprehensive history of early Christianity in the same way that his Gospel is not a comprehensive life of Jesus but one which draws on aspects of Jesus’ life and teaching that could illustrate Luke’s purposes. In Acts, Luke is concerned to show how Christianity spread from Jerusalem to Rome, the centre of the world at the time. Hence, in Chapters 1-12, he draws on events in Jerusalem with Peter as the leading character, whereas in Chapters 13-28 Paul’s remarkable story is presented. The book ends with Paul’s bold and open teaching in Rome (28:30-31). Rather than detailing Paul’s death, or other people and aspects of the story, Luke wants to end Acts emphasising the triumphant proclamation of the Kingdom of God to Gentiles and his theme of universal salvation for all.

The book of Acts gives another insight to Luke. It shows a man familiar with the life and experience of the early church. He draws on an earlier pre-Pauline and less sophisticated Christology. While Jesus is Lord, he is Messiah, Servant of God and Son of Man¹⁰. While he stands at the right hand of God (Acts 7:56) and is eschatological judge (10:42), Luke does not go as far as later Christians in claiming a divine status for Jesus.

Luke is a man not only of education but of worldly familiarity. His description of the Graeco-Roman world and its officials is accurate¹¹ even to the point that archaeological discoveries have vindicated his accurate use of detail.

So, we can conclude that Luke, in writing his work had a painstaking attention to detail and attempted to present authentic, accurate information¹².

Nonetheless, Luke is more at home in the Hellenistic world of Asia Minor. When drawing on Mark, Luke drops many Aramaic expressions and place names giving Hellenistic and Greek terms that would be more intelligible to his audience. He uses the term Saviour to explain the title Messiah/ Christ which would have been obscure to his audience. He also avoids the Greek term metamorphosis for Transfiguration because of the pagan association whereby some gods metamorphosised. While he may be an historian, he is not so familiar with Palestinian geography, housing or climate. His chronology can be quite vague, and he relies on vague connecting phrases such as once, while he was in one of the cities (5:12); in a certain place (11:1); one day (8:22)¹³. Brown notes¹⁴ that the emphasis Luke places on Paul in the second half of Acts could indicate he was writing for Gentile Christians who had emerged as a result of the Pauline missionary effort.

Hence, we can conclude that Luke, as a Hellenistic man, was writing to a mainly Hellenistic audience that could read or understand koine Greek. While this audience would include Jewish followers, the milieu in which it was written, as well as the emphasis on inclusion would have meant a largely Gentile audience for his writing.

In sum¹⁵, Luke was:

Either a Gentile follower of Jesus or else he was a Hellenised Jewish Christian. If a Gentile, he initially may have been a God-Fearer.

Luke was certainly familiar with the Hebrew scriptures in their Septuagint form.

He was well-educated, able to use classical literary forms and wrote Greek with a degree of elegance¹⁶.

He was able to live, move and breathe in both the Judaic and Hellenistic worlds of his day.

He is thus ideally placed to help his non-Jewish readers understand the Jewish Jesus and the environment in which Jesus lived and moved.

As a Christian, he belonged to the second or third generation of Jesus’ followers.

He wrote Luke-Acts c85CE to an audience of both Hellenistic Jewish Christians but mainly Gentile followers of Jesus, largely in the Eastern Mediterranean of the Roman Empire.

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Drane. Introducing The New Testament. p236↩︎

The Black Madonna of Czestochowa and Our Lady of Vladimir are two well-known icons attributed to Luke. see Grigg, Robert (1987) Byzantine Credulity as an Impediment to Antiquarianism. Gesta 26 (1):3-9 cited in Wikipedia accessed 29 July, 2020↩︎

According to parts of Acts written in the first person, these journeys took Luke from Troas to Philippi where he may have lived from 50-58 CE. He re-joined Paul at Miletus moving to Caesarea and then Rome by c62CE. See Charpentier. E, How to Read the New Testament p 81.↩︎

In the Second Century, i.e., the 100sCE, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, Origen accept this tradition.↩︎

In Acts, there are a number of we passages (AA16:10-17; 20:5-15; 21:1-18; 27:1-28:16). Because the narrative changes from they and he to the pronoun we the implication is that the writer was present and thus was a companion of Paul.↩︎

Ellis. St Luke the Evangelist in britannica.com/biography/Saint-Luke↩︎

McKenzie in Dictionary of the Bible points out that there is very little probability in the opinion that it was written after 90. p524↩︎

McKenzie ibid. p12 and Drane op.cit. pp236-237↩︎

Koine Greek is the Greek which became commonly spoken throughout the Roman Empire in the first century.↩︎

Messiah (Acts 2:36; 3:20; 4:26-27); Servant (3:13, 26: 4:27) Son of Man (7:56)↩︎

Such as correct designation of proconsuls; accurate description of Philippi as a Roman colony ruled by Praetors or Strategoi, use of politarchs a uniquely Thessalonians term for their rulers. see Drane op.cit. p240↩︎

For much of the above information on Acts see Drane ibid. pp236-242↩︎

Charpentier ibid pp81-83↩︎

Brown. op.cit. p235↩︎

For Luke’s key themes and overall theology, see Afterword.↩︎

Charpentier op.cit. p83↩︎

His Audience: Luke to Theo

Both Luke and Acts begin with a Prologue addressed to Theophilus. This Greek name means Friend or Beloved of God and so includes all who have been instructed as followers of Jesus. But the grammatically vocative case seems to indicate a specific person of high social standing¹. Thus, this particular person in view, Theophilus, would be someone well-disposed and influential. Theophilus could well be a wealthy patron and benefactor of the church who would have contributed to the cost of writing and publication. Such a wealthy man would have given an authority and stamp of respectability to the work² and this is supported by the formality of the Prologues.

Theophilus could also be a personification for all followers of Jesus, both those starting out having just been instructed (1:4) in the faith, as well as more established disciples. Indeed, that would be the reading many moderns would apply to the name.

However, there is no reason why it could not include both. As well as a significant personage, a patron of Luke, the writer is addressing any well-disposed reader or listener. The term Friend of God was used of religious people in both Biblical and Graeco-Roman literature. The whole tenor of Luke’s work is that it reaches a wide audience particularly an audience composed of both Jewish and Gentile followers. As already noted, Luke’s culturally Hellenistic audience would initially come from the Eastern Mediterranean area of the Roman Empire.

So, Luke writing for Theophilus, uses the literary form of a Prologue which provides a respectability drawing on the influence of a Patron, enabling the work to launch into a wider audience.

Theo then, is a man of some importance lost to antiquity.

He is a beginning follower of Jesus and indeed he is also one of longer standing. He embraces all disciples both male and female.

In Luke’s day, women as disciples would be startling enough—remember that in Judaism of that day, women were forbidden to study Torah and the synagogue was mainly a male preserve although women could be present in suitably separated areas. Unfortunately, it will not be long before Christians succumb to a patriarchal culture which relegates them³. Even in our own day the struggle for women to reclaim an equal discipleship role has barely begun.

Luke’s audience are mainly Gentiles, that is, converts to Christianity. However, there would be Jewish Christians in the community. While Luke does not write from a Palestinian viewpoint seeming remarkably ignorant of the Palestinian context, he shows a marked affinity with Judaism at least as it is lived in the Hellenistic diaspora. If Luke was a companion of Paul on any of his missionary journeys, he would have had first-hand experience of the somewhat painful transition from the Jewish synagogues to break-away Christian synagogues and house-churches. The approaches and rules associated with missionary work and the formation of Christian communities would alert him to the requirements of new followers and their need to have assurance and know the truth concerning the things about which [they] have been instructed⁴.

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Bock. Luke p63↩︎

Mullins. Michael, The Gospel of Luke. p100↩︎

1Corinthians betrays the discord and conflict and then silencing that existed concerning women’s role in the church. See 1Corinthians 11:4 & 14:34f↩︎

Luke 1:4. see Hellenistic Culture and Luke’s Community in More Detailed Background Information.↩︎

How Gospels Were Formed

One may speak of the Gospels as developing backwards for the oldest Christian proclamation and preaching concerned Jesus’ death and resurrection.²² The preaching was then shaped into an account of the Passion which became the oldest consecutive narrative about Jesus. Christian preachers also referred to the teaching and actions of Jesus during his ministry. This oral tradition grew into collections of sayings, parables and miracles.

Thus, the Gospel writers drew on the oral tradition of proclamation, Passion narratives and collections based on Jesus’ ministry from the oral tradition. They prefixed ministry material to passion accounts. Mark being the oldest Gospel has the encounter of Jesus and John the Baptist as the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ. It ends with the angels announcing Jesus’ resurrection. So, too, John’s Gospel. After an introductory hymn and prologue, it follows the John the Baptist link to Jesus and ends with the resurrection. These two gospels have nothing of Jesus’ birth or early life, not even the name of his parents. In this type of gospel formation, the emphasis is on preaching a message of salvation, biography was not important.

However, two Gospels—Matthew and Luke—written roughly around the same period but unbeknown to each other have quite detailed Infancy Narratives.

The Infancy Narratives were composed for several reasons.

One possible reason was curiosity about Jesus himself. On the principle that the chid is father to the man marvellous aspects of his public life were incorporated into his origins.

A second reason to do with Luke is his linking Jesus to John the Baptist with the intention to show that Jesus was even greater than John.

Both Gospels have Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem and so the possibility is that the narratives were partly intended to account for a Davidic Messiah who came from Nazareth. Then too, the virginal conception of Jesus aims to dispel any claim that Jesus was illegitimate. It allows for an irregular birth but defends the purity of the mother and the sanctity of the child.

Luke’s narrative serves as a counter-apologetic against Jewish rejection by situating Jesus within the mainstream of Judaism in the very heart of the Temple.

In Luke’s case, the Infancy Narrative becomes a mini-Gospel. It introduces the main themes he will cover. Luke especially presents a Christology of Jesus as being Messiah, Saviour and Lord.

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²² Brown. 1979. The Birth of the Messiah. p26 see Acts 2:22-36; 3:12-26; 4:10-12; 10:34-44; 1Cor. 15:3-4↩︎

The Structure of Luke’s Gospel

Luke’s Main Concerns; His Key Themes

In Luke’s text, there are a number of key concerns.

Luke is concerned to explain just who Jesus is. Hence, his text is a study in Christology.

Jesus is:

a teacher

a prophet but more than a prophet

Son of Man

Son of God

Messiah, Saviour, Lord

Luke explores the Kingdom of God.

Luke’s basic theology is that the Kingdom of God is both in the now-and-not-yet.

While Luke’s work is Proclamation of what God has done in Jesus, the basic Proclamation or kerygma can be summarised in 24:46-47

it is also Paraenesis, that is, how a follower of Jesus should live.

For Luke, Disciple and Follower are interchangeable terms:

disciples include both men and women

women have a central role in proclaiming Jesus’ message.

followers have a mission to actively live out the message of God in their own lives.

Luke sees salvation as universal, and this includes the Gentiles in the People of God.

Luke is concerned for the poor and the marginalised in society

he believes the rich and the well-off have a duty to help the poor

he offers a counter-cultural approach, rejecting the pursuit of honour and privilege.

Preface to Commentary

A note on Darrell L. Bock

Darrell Bock’s impressive two-volume work simply entitled Luke has been the key source I have used in writing this work. If I have made any unacknowledged references apart from my own thoughts, then the reader is instructed to look to this seminal work by Bock for the point that may be unwittingly unreferenced. Thus, assume Bock unless otherwise noted!

Bock is a scholar of great breadth and wisdom. While a practising Christian who comes from an unashamed evangelical world view, he respectfully draws on a whole range of scholars and scholarship with which, even if he does not agree, he nonetheless, clearly presents and thus allows the reader some scope with which to judge.

While I do not necessarily agree with Bock’s opinions coming from his particular worldview, I know that his biblical scholarship certainly shines a light of understanding and clarity that simply cannot be ignored.

As to my own worldview, suffice it to say that over the course of time I have been privileged to be part of both an Evangelical and a Catholic understanding and expression of Christianity. My present worldview is one of a benign approach to religion without a need to identify with any.

The Prologue

(Luke Chapter 1:1-4)

Theophilus, and indeed all Christians in the last quarter of the first century were living in uncertain times. The Temple had been destroyed sending shockwaves throughout the Jewish diaspora and affecting even well-disposed Gentiles. Has God turned His back just like a reorganised Judaism was turning its back on the Jesus movement? If God’s people are rejecting Jesus, how can one be sure that Jesus is the fulfilment of God’s promises? Decades have passed and the Kingdom of God is not manifest. Why is this? Where and how do Gentiles, perhaps the bulk now of Jesus’ followers, fit in with God’s people? In effect, how can Jesus be the ultimate Anointed One of God? Is he really the Messiah of God, the eschatological Judge and Ruler of all?

These would be just some of the questions about which people considering their place in the Jesus movement would be concerned.

Luke’s Gospel begins with a Prologue that is very much a statement of intent. The prologue adheres closely to prologues by such cultured writers as Josephus and Philo. This indicates that Luke signals he wants his work to be taken seriously²³. Luke’s work is written to Theophilus and all followers of Jesus, so that you may know the truth concerning the things about which you have been instructed. (v 4) Literally it reads that you may have surety/ have confidence. Luke’s work is written to provide assurance that followers really have been instructed in the truth that comes from God.

Luke does this, as he states (v3), by careful investigation in order to write an orderly account. The long sentence that is verses 1-4 is finely crafted and written in a cultured form of koine Greek. As an educated writer, Luke indicates his rhetorical training by referring to his diêgêsis that is, his narrative, or as it is translated in the NRSV, his orderly account. We need to be aware that this diêgêsis, this narrative, is a literary form with a particular meaning in the Greek world of Luke’s day. It is more than a simple historical chronicle. The second century rhetorician, Theon, defined diêgêsis as an expository account of things which happened or might have happened²⁴

So, while Luke is concerned with truth, he will use his sources in such a way to show the truth about Jesus as he understands it to be. This is what Luke means when he refers to the events that have been fulfilled among us (v1) By fulfilment, Luke, in his two volumes of journey narratives, sees the history of salvation, the promises and prophecies of God in the scriptures, as being perfected in the life, teaching, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus. It continues in the remarkable spread of the Kingdom by the word of Jesus’ Spirit-filled apostles and representatives from Jerusalem, throughout Judea, Samaria and to Imperial Rome which represents the ends of the earth.

In order to write his story narrative (diêgêsis), Luke will refer to many sources which precede him. Many refers to both oral and literary material. While both Q (quelle/source) and Mark would be sources on which Luke drew, other material, no longer extant, referred to generically as L are also sources on which he was able to draw. Luke refers to material handed on to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word (v2).

Luke is thus emphasising the reliability of his sources. The eyewitnesses would have been the apostles as well as others present for at least some of Jesus’ ministry and who have actually witnessed events. The second group, the servants of the word, were those who recorded the witnesses’ tradition and the reflections made on this tradition. This is because the term handed on is a technical term which refers to those who, while not teachers, interpreters or initiators of tradition, were the guardians and transmitters of the teachings made by official interpreters and teachers. These may well have been Levites as is the case with Barnabas (Acts 4:36). They seem to have been official custodians of the oral traditions and may well have been scribes who would have written down this material.

Interestingly then, this indicates that Luke was not an eyewitness himself. He belongs to a later generation of Christians. It is possible, given that he is drawing on a second wave of the recording of tradition by servants of the word, that Luke belongs to a third generation of Christians. Luke has, like Theophilus and those for whom he is writing, had the events of fulfilment handed on to him. He, too, has been instructed in these things, and so, it is possible that Luke, if not a Jew, was a God-Fearer before committing himself to the Jesus movement.

Yet, whether he is a second or third generation believer, Luke sees himself as a careful investigator concerned with pursuing the truth. Some scholars²⁵ have noted that there is the distinct sense in his prologue that Luke wants to improve upon the efforts of his predecessors. As a well-educated scholar in Graeco-Roman literature, he may well have wanted to develop narratives that were more polished and rhetorically more complete than the sources on which he drew²⁶.

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²³ Byrne. The Hospitality of God. p23 and Bock. op.cit. p52f↩︎

²⁴ So, too, Cicero: Narrative is a setting forth of things as done or as might have been done; Quintilian notes: Narrative is an exposition, useful for persuasion, of that which has been done or is supposed to have been done. Mullins op. cit. pp104-105↩︎

²⁵ Such as Byrne. op.cit p24 and Mullins op.cit p102f↩︎

²⁶ This is the case with the Q source which both Luke and Matthew used—it seems to be simply a collection of loosely organised sayings (logia) of Jesus.↩︎

Chapters 1 and 2

The Infancy Narrative

General Outline

In considering the Infancy Narrative as a whole, it is important to remember that Luke was (as Brown ¹points out) developing his Christology backwards and recognising that Jesus was Messiah not at the point of the resurrection, nor at the point of his baptism with the descent of the Holy Spirit, as earlier Christians may have seen it, but from the moment of his conception. The whole Infancy Narrative thus becomes a mini-Gospel and Luke’s overall message, his themes and key to understanding Jesus are foreshadowed in it.

Luke sourced his material from Mark, the Hebrew scriptures and material scholars have designated as L material. It seems this L material² in the Infancy Narrative could be the result of a number of factors.

Luke may well have shaped or even created scenarios based on oral traditions.

There may well have been pre-Lukan documents in either Hebrew or Aramaic on which he drew.

Material may derive from circles associated with John the Baptist or even the family of Jesus.

Commentary

Luke begins his text (v5) in the time of Herod the Great. Herod reigned from 37-4BCE. and the events that follow are more likely at the end of this rule around the 6BCE. mark. The territory of Judea over which he ruled was much larger than that bequeathed to his sons. It stretched from Judea proper, all of Galilee, much of Pereia and into Syria. As he will do later with the birth of Jesus, Luke is at pains to paint an historical backdrop for his setting.

The events in this first pericope centre around the Temple in Jerusalem and concern the priest Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth. The names of both Zechariah and Elizabeth dovetail neatly into the events Luke is relating. Zechariah’s name with its reference to prophets past means YHWH has remembered again, while Elizabeth’s name means my God is the One by whom I swear or my God is my Fortune. Both come from a priestly line. To have a Jewish priest with a wife of the same background made for a highly regarded status. The fact that Zechariah and Elizabeth were righteous before God and blameless as observant Jews (v6) only serves to add to the pedigree of John the Baptist. Interestingly, the phrase before God indicates the sense that God accepts them both as faithful, thus setting the stage for a wonderful blessing to follow.

The Temple will be an important motif in Luke’s Infancy Narrative and indeed will bookend the entire Gospel. Events will begin in the Temple, achieve their climax in and around the Temple and be concluded (in Chapter 24:53) with the disciples being continually in the Temple blessing God.

Zechariah being a priest, belongs to one of the 24 divisions of the priesthood, that of Abijah. (v5) There were about 18,000 priests in all, and a priest being divided into smaller subgroups could expect to serve in the Temple for two one week periods each year as well as during Festival periods. However, for a priest to serve in the inner sanctuary he had to literally win a lottery. (v9) So rare was this privilege that if it happened at all it was a once-in-a-lifetime event. For a priest so chosen, as part of the sacrificial burnt offering rituals, he would enter the Holy Place. The Holy Place was curtained off from the rest of the Court of Priests. It stood before the Holy of Holies, the very place where God’s Presence or Shekinah was enshrined and which only the High Priest on the one annual Day of Atonement could enter. So, Zechariah stood on the very threshold of the Presence. It was his duty to offer a sacrifice of incense while the assembly of people offered their sacrifice of prayer. He would then return to conclude with a priestly blessing on all those assembled.

Luke parallels Zechariah and Elizabeth with Abraham and Sarah. These are people who walk with God. And yet, childlessness was generally regarded as indicating a lack of favour in God’s sight. As Elizabeth notes (in v25) it was a disgrace. As with Abraham and his wife though, Zechariah and his wife are to be blessed by God with a child. The child will be a blessing to many and the means by which God will accomplish His purpose. (vv16-17) Here we have a classic case (and indeed, a key Lukan theme) of God reversing suffering and sadness and bringing joy to those who are in right relationship with Him.

It seems that the events Luke unfolds occur at the time of the evening offering about dusk. It is in the context of prayer—both of Zechariah the priest but also the people assembled—that God acts. In fact, prayer will be another central component in Luke’s Gospel.

The angelophany in the Holy Place occurs with a typically Lukan phrase there appeared (v11) The standard reaction to an incursion of the supernatural into ordinary life is one of terror and fear. Such terror and fear should not be seen in the sense we may use it of horror or some overwhelming and horrible catastrophe. One should see it as being overwhelmed in the presence of an amazing, all-consuming force. This sense of the numinous may well be something about which one would be afraid; perhaps it is a feeling of being absolutely shocked, a feeling that one is consumed or about to be. The sense that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hand of the living God would be a fearful experience. But note how in the presence of the angel there is an immediate reassurance. And this will be the pattern for subsequent Lukan angelophanies³.

The angel, who reveals his name as Gabriel (v19), immediately states that Zechariah is to have a son. Again, names have significance. John means Yahweh has been gracious and Gabriel means man of God or God is my hero / one who has shown Himself strong. It is Gabriel who has direct access to the Presence of God. Zechariah stands before the Place of the Presence; Gabriel is in the very heart of that Presence and so as pre-eminent Messenger his Message is most powerful. The point Luke is making is that God is at last fulfilling His promises. For this