Everyone says that the Gospel of Luke was written by … Luke!  Do we know if that’s true?  Whether Luke or not, do we know when he wrote it?  And why did he want/need to do so?  Now that I’ve summarized the major themes and emphases of the Gospel we can delve into these equally interesting and important historical questions. For as long as anyone has named an author of this Gospel, it has been Luke, a gentile traveling companion of Paul thought to be a medical doctor.  I’ll continue calling him “Luke” for the sake of convenience, even though I don’t think we can know who he was. Years ago on the blog (in January 2020) I devoted a series of posts to the question:  Was Luke Luke (so to say)?  There are a lot of issues to consider, including seemingly unrelated things, such as whether Paul actually wrote Colossians (!).  The series ended with my wrap-up overview posted on January 19: So: Was Luke Luke?, in case you’re interested in digging deeper. I [...]

If you already have Matthew and Mark, why would you need Luke?  Aren't they all the same? Nope. Next question:  do you know these Gospels very well?  If not, AOK:  Keep reading!  If so – see if you can summarize the themes and emphases of Luke in one sentence (say, 50 words) in a way that both highlights what it’s about and shows what is distinctive about its portrayal of Jesus. How’d that go for you? Here’s what I would come up with as a first go (I’ve never tried this before!) The Gospel of Luke portrays Jesus both as a Greco-Roman “divine man” – shown by his supernatural birth, astounding miracles, death, and exaltation – and as the final prophet sent by God to the Jewish people, who rejected him, fulfilling God’s plan for salvation to go to all the peoples of earth. It would take volumes to fill out this brief summary (many such volumes have been written!  I’ll give suggestions for reading in a future post on Luke).  Here I will try [...]

In my previous posts I have pointed out that the Gospel of Mark  (unlike the other Gospels) portrays Jesus as trying to keep his messiahship a secret.  He doesn’t allow the demons to identify him when he casts them out; when he heals people he strictly instructs them not to tell anyone; he teaches his disciples the “secret of the Kingdom” privately when no one else is around; he teaches the crowds only using parables precisely (Mark indicates) so no one can understand what he means.  And he never publicly teaches about his own identity. This last point should be emphasized. Unlike other Gospels (see John 4:25-26!) Jesus never tells anyone publicly that he is the messiah.  When he is acknowledged as the messiah by Peter in a private conversation with the disciples in Mark 8:29-30, Jesus orders them not to let anyone know.  And then he starts teaching that as the messiah he has to be rejected and executed.  That seems to be a complete contradiction of terms for Peter, who has just made [...]

Are you familiar with the Gospel of Matthew?  If not, read on! If so, try to summarize its distinctive portrayal of Jesus in one sentence. (of say, 50 words or so max).  If you really can’t, then again, read on!  If you give it a try, check to see that you have both described it accurately and shown how it is distinctive among the other Gospels. Here’s a sentence that I might try if I were given the assignment: Matthew portrays Jesus as the miracle-working messiah who fulfilled the predictions of Scripture, taught the correct understanding of the Law of Moses, insisted his followers keep it by living lives of love, came to be rejected by his own people, but died for others before being raised from the dead. Hey, that’s exactly 50 words!   Now let me expound a bit by discussing the most important aspects of Matthew’s Gospel.  Matthew is often considered the “most Jewish” of the Gospels because of its repeated emphasis that Jesus is the Jewish messiah, sent from [...]

Scholars almost always say that Mark was the first Gospel and that Matthew and Luke were both copying it.  But why should anyone think so?  Is there any evidence or is it just one of those scholarly whims that everyone repeats because it's what they've always heard? I continue here with my explanation of the evidence from my book The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings, 7th ed. (Oxford University Press).  I am using the 7th edition instead of the more recent 8th that was co-authored with my colleague Hugo Mendez because he and I disagree on some things connected with the Synoptic Problem  and the chapter was rewritten significantly as we compromised over our differences.  But we're still talking to each other!  :-) **************************** For the past century or so, three arguments have proved widely convincing for establishing Mark’s priority to Matthew and Luke. Patterns of Agreement. Since the main reason for thinking that the Gospels share a common source is their frequent verbatim agreement, it makes sense to examine the [...]