Abstract
This issue centers on the interpretation of the Gospel of Luke, which is the focus of vigorous research and debate in contemporary biblical scholarship. So the journal revisits a NT book last featured in 1994. As the recently organized section on the Gospel of Luke for the Society of Biblical Literature puts it, “[t]he Gospel of Luke garners continued interest because of its distinctive narrative construction and its rhetorical, theological, and ethical emphases.” Each of these emphases finds a prominent place in the essays in this issue of the journal.
John Carroll provides a roadmap to several of the most hotly contested issues in recent Lukan studies, with particular attention to Luke’s reconfiguring of space and cultural borders within the Roman Empire; status inversions; Luke’s presentation of the roles of women, men, and children; and the theme of poverty and wealth.
Richard Vinson’s contribution, employing close narrative reading of Luke and Acts, probes the character of God. God has a plan that can be discovered in the Scriptures, through angelic visits and visions, and especially in the words of characters who are inspired by the Holy Spirit. Because these speakers characterize God in various ways, Luke’s narrative provides readers differing perspectives on God and God’s purpose. On balance, though, Luke portrays Christian faith as consistent with the best traditions of Israel and with the will of Israel’s God.
One of the much debated topics in Lukan studies of the last generation is the perspective on Jewish religion and people in Luke’s narrative. Amy-Jill Levine offers a provocative approach to this topic. Luke’s opening scenes highlight Jewish piety, but as the reader reads on, the good news of Jesus becomes bad news for Jewish religion. Luke’s Gospel rejects both Jewish religion and the Jews who subscribe to this tradition. Scripture still has value, but only as Jesus interprets it; Torah continues to be practiced, but only Jesus’ followers do so rightly. Luke’s negative view of Jewish religion, however, should not keep Luke’s readers from finding enduring value in Judaism.
Matthew Rindge orients readers to the parables of Luke, which number more than thirty—roughly half of them unique to this Gospel. Fresh insight comes when we pay attention to the ways in which Luke’s parables use such rhetorical strategies as character identification and premature closure to shape and transform the lives of Luke’s audience. The parables in Luke are narratives of disorientation that subvert conventional wisdom about many issues, prominent among them the use of wealth. Rindge commends to today’s church rediscovery of the art of parable as fundamental to both its discourse and its practice.
Bridging literary study of Luke, especially 14:1–35 and 16:19–31, and contemporary ethical concerns, Amanda Miller points readers to the challenging Lukan vision relating to wealth and poverty. Reading the narrative against the social hierarchy and imperial culture of Luke’s earliest reading communities enables Luke’s audience to hear in Jesus’ teachings a sharp challenge to the socioeconomic status quo in both first and twenty-first centuries.