Understanding the Sources Used and Structure of Luke’s Gospel
The Gospel according to Luke is the first part of a two-volume work
that continues the biblical history of God's dealings with humanity
found in the Old Testament, showing how God's promises to Israel have
been fulfilled in Jesus and how the salvation promised to Israel and
accomplished by Jesus has been extended to the Gentiles. In the
prologue Luke states that his purpose of the two volumes is to provide
Theophilus and others like him with certainty and assurance about
earlier instruction they have received.
Among the sources which were used by Luke were at least two written
documents, one of them the gospel of Mark in substantially its present
form, and the other a collection in Greek of sayings of Jesus,
incorporating some narrative details; known as ‘Q’; from the German
Quelle meaning source. The use by Luke of these sources can be
demonstrated because, in the case of Mark, the source itself is
available, and a comparison of the texts of the three gospels leaves
no reasonable doubt as to its employment in the two Gospels as Matthew
and Luke independently copied Mark for its narrative framework.
In the case of ‘Q’; a quarter of Luke is very similar to one third of
Matthew therefore it is suggested that there was a common source used
between them, although the original document has not survived, the
occasional verbal agreement in ‘non-Marcan’ passages of Matthew and
Luke is such as to show that a document existed, although its extent
can only partially be established and the possibility always remains
that more than one document was used. The date of Q’s composition
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... inaccurate to the extent that he makes up stories
to fit his theological purpose. However Luke’s interest in history is
so only that he can enhance, clarify or strengthen his theology
It was believed that something had to be chronological in order to be
historical; however Hellenistic recognises that just because something
isn’t chronological doesn’t mean it isn’t historical. The Rabbis went
even further and said that scripture doesn’t need to be chronological
in order to be historical.
In conclusion Luke is a theological historian. History and theology
are linked. But at times Luke teaches theology at expense of
chronology and this means symbolic alteration therefore, times dates
and places are changed but as the events aren’t changed this is
acceptable and the Gospel isn’t any less historical or any more wrong.
This work is also said to be anonymous, and believed to have been produced in Syria within a large Jewish and Jewish-Christian community. It is apparent from a number of shared accounts, and overlapping stories of Jesus that the author of Matthew’s Gospel used Mark as a source. Although many of the stories are expanded upon, and carry different connotations, the same basic stories are found in all of the synoptic gospels, and because Mark was the first written, scholars assume it was a source used by both Matthew and Luke. It should also be noted that many of Jesus’ teachings in Matthew were not found in Mark. This led scholars to search for a second source, which resulted in the Q document. Although not available as a feasible document, Q designates a compilation of Jesus’ parables and sayings from about 50 to 70 CE, which are present in Matthew (Harris p.156). Throughout the gospel, Matthew uses formula quotations, meaning he quotes from the Old Testament. This strong relationship with the Hebrew Bible helps scholars determine that Matthew wanted to emphasize his Jewish position. This is important because his interpretations of Jesus throughout the gospel are not agreed upon by all Jews, in fact only a small fraction. Although it is obvious to the readers than John and Matthew carry very different stories of Jesus’ life, it is interesting to
The Gospel of John, the last of the four gospels in the Bible, is a radical departure from the simple style of the synoptic gospels. It is the only one that does not use parables as a way of showing how Jesus taught, and is the only account of several events, including the raising of Lazarus and Jesus turning water into wine. While essentially the gospel is written anonymously, many scholars believe that it was written by the apostle John sometime between the years 85 and 95 CE in Ephesus. The basic story is that of a testimonial of one of the Apostles and his version of Jesus' ministry. It begins by telling of the divine origins of the birth of Jesus, then goes on to prove that He is the Son of God because of the miracles he performs and finally describes Jesus' death and resurrection.
Luke was a Roman catholic before he converted over to Christianity. Luke was an eyewitness of the ministry, teaching, and life of Jesus. He made it his mission to teach the knowledge of Jesus and spread the religion Christianity. He wanted to reach the people in his communities and beyond. The Evangelist Luke wanted to tell the goods news that Jesus would return for his people. Luke’s concern was whether or not Christians could be good citizens of the Roman Empire, seeing that Jesus their founder had been killed for being a “political criminal”. Many people would have preceded them as revolutionaries (“From Jesus to Christ”). Christianity became a dominant way of life and worship in Europe many years after Luke wrote his gospel. In Medieval Europe, Luke’s gospel had greatly influenced the creators of many arts and dramas such as the Everyman play. Luke’s gospel opened many doors to help spread Christianity in Medieval Europe.
will compare the sin of gluttony in the third circle and divining in the fourth
In the parables and teachings of Jesus in the book of Matthew, when Jesus is faced with describing how one should judge others he states, “Do not judge so that you will not be judged. For in the way that you judge, you will be judged…” (Matthew, pg. 179). To Jesus withholding judgement was crucial to stemming hypocrisy and empowering his followers to self-reflect. When thinking of the philosophical implications of Jesus’ teachings it is important to ask what the principles upon which he defines goodness are. How might his teachings differ from the works of Aristotle when it comes to defining relationships and defining what makes people good or bad?
N.T Wright (2008) stated that “When we read the scriptures as Christians, we read it precisely as people of the new covenant and of the new creation” (p.281). In this statement, the author reveals a paradigm of scriptural interpretation that exists for him as a Christian, theologian, and profession and Bishop. When one surveys the entirety of modern Christendom, one finds a variety of methods and perspectives on biblical interpretation, and indeed on the how one defines the meaning in the parables of Jesus. Capon (2002) and Snodgrass (2008) offer differing perspectives on how one should approach the scriptures and how the true sense of meaning should be extracted. This paper will serve as a brief examination of the methodologies presented by these two authors. Let us begin, with an
Luke 4:34; 5:37; 6:9; 8:24; 9:24-25; 11:51; 13:3,5,33; 15:4,6,8,9,17,24,32; 17:27,29,33; 19:10,47; 20:16; 21:18 Additionally, it occurs twice in Acts, 17 times in the Gospel of Matthew, 9 times in the Gospel of Mark, and 10 times in the Gospel of John.
Luke Timothy Johnson uses Prophetic Jesus, Prophetic Church in order to make a strong point that when studying both Luke and Acts as a unit, rather than reading the canonical order in the Bible, gives us one of our best prophetic looks at the Church for all ages. By presenting this point Johnson hopes to light a fire in our churches of today by using the prophetic works of Luke, so that we as Christians will attend to the ways that Christ intended the church to be. In Johnson’s introduction he states that it is not wrong to study Luke and Acts separately as there are many ways to study the scripture, nevertheless it is wrong to look at Luke and see the prophetic ways of Jesus, and then looking at Acts as non-prophetic. Through seeing Luke’s
The Gospel of Matthew is an eyewitness story written for an audience of believers, under great stress, and persecution. Matthew develops a theological plot incorporating genealogy, speeches, parables, inter and intra textual references, common vocabulary, and fulfillment quotations, with a tension that builds as we are invited into the story. The crucifixion and resurrection bring us to a Christological climax that symbolically points beyond its conclusion to God’s Kingdom, bringing atonement, salvation and the ushering in the Eschaton. The extraordinary events surrounding the crucifixion act as commentary, adding important details concerning the death of Jesus.1
Among the many aspects I noticed, I will focus on your manifestation of this phrase, “A parallelogram whose top and bottom sides are two and a half times as long as its left and right sides”, as stick figures. In this, you had to choose how “a half” would be rendered, and you
But maybe it wasn’t terribly sinful.” (Grisham 152) By giving into desires unfit for a seven year old boy, such as viewing a naked girl, Luke’s cravings to see more of Tally’s body ultimately strips him of his innocence, entering him into the world of adulthood, a world full of secrets and untruthfulness. Luke’s slow and deliberate loss of his blissfully ignorant childhood is easily seen after his first exposure to Tally in the nude, musing “having seen most of her privates, I now wanted to see everything” (Grisham 152). Rather than just accepting his “good” fortune in sighting a naked woman, Luke decides to see
Since Matthew and Luke are not modern day biographies, they do not follow the standard that we imagine. I think the explanation for the combination of similarities and differences comes from the fact that the Matthew and Luke are styled differently and also have different audiences. Since Matthew and Luke are interpreting history for a specific audience, this would explain why Matthew and Luke contains differing details. For example, Matthew tells of the Wise Men that came to visit Jesus in Matt.2:1-12 while Luke tells of shepherds that came to visit Jesus in Luke 2:8-20. Since Matthew is styled for a Jewish audience, perhaps it is considered more impactful and stunning that wise philosophers came to worship a child. On the other hand,
God’s written law is something that is and should be continuously turned, to not only when Christians find themselves in need, but also throughout in one’s daily life. The four gospels tell to story of Jesus’ life and his teachings he gave while on the earth making it possible for there to be a true example of Christ-like faith. The proposition that there are differences in the story of Jesus and in his teachings seems to question the basis upon which the Christian faith is found upon. Rather than proclaiming the gospels as falsehoods because on the differences they possess, by analyzing the differences in the context of the particular gospel it can be understood that the differences are not made by mistake, rather as a literary device. While the four gospels have differences and similarities, they cannot be regarded as an argument against the faith because their differences are what point to the many aspects of Christ.
Then in Euclid II, 7, it goes farther to explain that “if a straight line be cut at random, the square on the whole and that on one of the segments both together, are equal to twice the rectangle contained by the whole and said segm...
how to get in to the Kingdom of God, what it is, and what it means to