BEMA Episode Link: 86: Luke — Ordered
Episode Length: 22:12
Published Date: Thu, 27 Sep 2018 01:00:00 -0700
Session 3
About this episode:

Marty Solomon and Brent Billings look at the gospel of Luke and wrestle with the many perspectives regarding his audience and his agenda.

Discussion Video for BEMA 86

The Evangelists’ Calendar by M. D. Goulder

Poet & Peasant and Through Peasant Eyes by Kenneth E. Bailey

Transcript for BEMA 86

Notes

*Note: The following notes are handwritten by me, Adam, and I reserve the right to be wrong.

• Review
  • Matthew: Mumzer Jew to Jews
  • Mark: Roman Gospel Jew to Romans
  • The predominant view is that Mark was written first and Matthew expands on Mark’s gospel when Matthew writes his.
• Luke
  • It is also a popular opinion that Luke wrote down a more orderly, detailed gospel and it’s written to Gentiles. Some argue that Luke was a gentile. Marty, however, argues that Luke was a proselyte that converted to Judaism and once someone converts to Judaism, they are considered to be as Jewish as someone who was born Jewish. As a doctor, he was likely an Ascelapian priest.
  • A reason we think he wrote to gentiles is because he wrote to Theophilus. Theophilus means “friend of God”. This could be a proselyte, moreover, it could be a euphemism for anyone reading Luke’s account who considers themself to be a friend of God.
• An Ordered Gospel
  • To Marty, it made sense to step away from the idea that Luke was a gentile writing a more detailed account of Jesus to other gentiles until stepping back and harmonizing with the other synoptic gospels. Luke ends up NOT being the most chronological or orderly.
  • There is another, less widespread, theory put out by M.D. Goulder from Harvard that Marty finds himself really liking his theory on Luke.
  • Goulder argues that Luke traveled to meet with all of the chazzanim, who were responsible for knowing the Text even if it wasn’t in front of them, and as a result, decided to write an ORDERED account, according to the Greek, not orderly, which he believes was intended to follow the weekly torah portion to be read each week in synagogue.
  • Marty doesn’t always think that Goulder got every section to line up perfectly but he has found that it mostly lines up brilliantly.
• Jewish Themes
  • Luke has very Jewish themes.
  • Luke argues that Jesus was a second Moses.
  • Luke is full of chiasms and parallelisms and other jewish literary devices.
  • Luke’s ability to align his gospel with the pre-existing parsha reading schedule AND work in all of the literary devices that Kenneth Bailey writes about in his two books Poet & Peasant and Through Peasant Eyes is remarkable and creates an incredible amount of depth.
  • Both ideas gives credence to the theory that Luke is writing to a Jewish audience rather than a gentile one.
• Timing
  • Marty believes Luke would have been written last.
  • Mark, Matthew, John, and finally Luke.
  • With Luke being written last, Marty wonders about its authorship but nonetheless.

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