Genre
Understanding the genre of a piece of writing allows us to read it cooperatively and intelligently. How we read a letter is different from a newspaper editorial or, for that matter, a tabloid we pick up while waiting in a supermarket check-out line. At first glance, the Gospel of Luke is a narrative, within which specific portions are given to other genres such as prologue, poetry, genealogy, and parable, just to name a few. Narrative, however, is still too broad a genre. Fable and fiction are narrative in form, but neither fits what we read in Luke. “Gospel” is not in and of itself a genre, at least not among secular Greco-Roman writings of the time. The word “gospel,” which means “good news” in the Greek (euangelion), describes the content of the narrative rather than its literary form. The good news is about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.8 Subsequently, this particular message of salvation comes to be known as “the gospel,” lending a more technical meaning to the word euangelion in Christian parlance.9
How, then, do we classify the genre of the third Gospel? Comparing Luke to other ancient writings in form and content, the most relevant correspondence is that of ancient historiography.10 Since the focus of the narrative is on the life of Jesus, it may be more fitting to call it biography than historiography.
Some characteristics of ancient biographies, such as Plutarch’s Lives or Suetonius’s The Twelve Caesars, may be found in the Gospel of Luke. For example, ancient biographies tend to be less concerned about chronological exactitude, something to which modern biographies are held accountable. In Luke’s Gospel, the general chronology of Jesus’ life is rather non-negotiable: for example, the infancy narrative must come before Jesus’ adult baptism and temptations, followed by his Galilean ministry. At some point Jesus heads for Jerusalem where he is crucified, buried, raised, and then he ascends into heaven. This overall framework of Jesus’ chronology, including major milestones of Jesus’ life, is fixed. But in between key events, the author has some freedom in the detailed ordering of the accounts of Jesus’ teachings and healings. Given how the traditions of Jesus were passed down in bits and pieces in oral and written forms through multiple channels over a span of decades, it would be unrealistic to expect Luke to present the sequence of events in exact chronological order. Using the order of Mark’s story as a point of departure,11 Luke sometimes steps out of Mark’s ordering, rearranges it for a better narrative flow and inserts materials from other sources. This redactional freedom does not make Luke a more credible or less credible historian than Mark. Furthermore, this editorial necessity was not unique to Luke, as Matthew, Mark, and John faced similar challenges.
Another similarity between ancient biography and the Gospel of Luke is a heavy focus on the subject’s ideas, words, deeds, and the way in which the person dies, especially in the case of a heroic death. Much of Luke’s story contains Jesus’ teachings, miracles, healings, and exorcisms. Through Jesus’ encounters with the crowd, his disciples, his family, and his enemies, the storytelling discloses the identity and mission of Jesus. In particular, the death of Jesus and its significance receive much emphasis. The passion narrative, from Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem to his resurrection and ascension, covers twenty percent of the entire book.
Aside from Luke being a historian qua biographer, the interpretive lens through which he filters his historical account about Jesus is first and foremost theological. As stated in the prologue, Luke writes in order that Theophilus might “know the truth concerning the things about which [he had] been instructed” (1:4), a truth embedded in “the events that had been fulfilled among [them]” (1:1). This truth is about God and God’s actions in human history, which leads us to the following section on several prominent themes found in the Gospel that reflect the author’s purpose and agenda.
Purpose and Themes
In the opening prologue of his long narrative, Luke does not denigrate the contributions of his predecessors as inadequate or inaccurate. His goal is not to improve on others’ stories about Jesus, nor to generate new converts, but to bring edification and spiritual nurture to his readers who are already Christians. Even though anyone may be led to faith in Jesus from reading the Gospel of Luke, this work is not an evangelistic tract but a means to strengthen the faith of Theophilus and his community.
Without knowing with precision the date and place of writing of the Gospel of Luke, we could only take an educated guess at the challenges faced by Christians living in urban areas across the Roman Empire in the first century, and how Luke-Acts would be an encouragement to them. At that time, Jewish and gentile Christians alike would feel pressure coming externally from unbelieving Jews and unbelieving gentiles, as well as internally from fellow Christians as they struggled to cross racial-ethnic barriers to live peaceably with one another in their shared reality as equal members of God’s household. In light of these points of tension, Luke’s presentation of Jesus’ salvific mission as the fulfillment of God’s promises to Israel would connect the Christian movement to its Jewish roots. His universal outlook, noticeable already in the Gospel but further developed in Acts, would maintain that God’s plan of salvation is ultimately for the whole world even if it came first to the Jews. Luke thus uses his narrative to assure Theophilus and his community, wherever they might be, that what they have learned about Jesus is true and trustworthy, and that they must stay firm in their bold witness and faithful discipleship in spite of persecution and rejection.
What then is characteristic of Luke’s Gospel, given that it shares quite a bit of common traditions with at least two of the three other Gospels?12 We find materials that are peculiar to Luke but not found in Matthew and Mark especially helpful in identifying a Lukan distinctiveness. While space does not permit an exhaustive treatment of Luke’s emphases in this short introduction, it is helpful to consider the following themes that can be traced from the Gospel of Luke all the way into the Acts of the Apostles.
First, the story of Jesus is the centerpiece of the plan of salvation ordained by the sovereign God, a plan that began with Israel but is intended for the nations. The Gospel opens with Gabriel’s appearance to Zechariah at the temple in Jerusalem and concludes with the disciples worshiping at the same temple. Between these bookends, Jesus carries out his mission among the Jewish people with occasional forays into gentile territory. Yet hints of the universality of this divine plan may be detected early in Luke’s narrative. Holding Jesus in his arms, Simeon refers to the infant as God’s salvation, “a light for revelation to the gentiles and for glory to [God’s] people Israel” (2:32). Citing from Isaiah, the author then identifies John the Baptist as the voice crying out in the wilderness to prepare the way of the Lord, so that “all flesh shall see the salvation of God” (3:4–6). While Acts also opens with the disciples waiting in Jerusalem for the outpouring of Holy Spirit, by the end of Acts, we find Paul under house arrest in Rome. Throughout the book, the apostles bear witness to the gospel, according to Jesus’ charge, “from Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Because everything that happened to Jesus, even his suffering and death, is part of God’s sovereign plan (Acts 2:23; 4:38), Theophilus and his community, as well as later generations of Christians, can read the Gospel of Luke with hope.
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