Loading...Now that I’ve devoted two posts to the major sine qua non of Luke’s Gospel – one that lays out its major themes and emphases, the other that deals with who wrote it, when, and why, I can provide some suggestions for further reading, important works written by scholars for non-scholars. I have given brief annotations for each book a mention, to give you a sense of what it’s about and so help you decide which, if any, might be worth your while.
I have divided the list into three sections:
- Books that provide important discussion of Luke in general or with respect to a particularly key topic
- Commentaries that give lengthy introductions to all matters of importance about the Gospel and then go passage by passage to provide more detailed interpretation (that’s where you can dig more deeply into “what does this particular word actually mean?”; “what is the real point of this passage”; how does this passage relate to what Luke says elsewhere in his Gospel or to what we can find in other parts of the New Testament?”; “where do we find similar ideas expressed in other writings in the Greek and Roman worlds, whether pagan or Jewish?” and so on.
- Online resources. A good reliable one! If you turn to other materials online, caveat emptor. And since online there is no emptoring, you need to caveat with particular diligence.
I have taken the first two categories from my chapter on Luke in Bart Ehrman and Hugo Mendez, The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings (New York: Oxford University Press, 2024), p. 175.
That chapter might be a good place for you to start if you want an overview much more extensive than what I’ve provided in these couple of posts. If you have an older edition of my book, it will work just about as well, since we have not changed it much for this edition.
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In Luke 9:26 Jesus says, “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes.”
I have heard you speak on this before and I’m wondering if you ever consider the possibility that Jesus has two aspects of him in one. Meaning he is Jesus a human a man, walking around, but also (amongst other things) he is this Christ. So in this passage, he is saying that the human Jesus is saying “words” , but I this Jesus component am going to die, but the other aspect of me will still exist as this son of man component. So when he’s saying Jesus and Christ, (here me, and the son of man) could he still be referring to himself but a different aspect of himself, what he will remain as after his crucifixion death? Hope that makes sense to you.
I’m not sure if you’re saying that this is Luke’s view of the view of (the historical) Jesus himself. I don’t think Jesus thought that of himself. If we want to say it’s Luke’s view we’d have to find othre passages in Luke that clearly attest this kind of view.
Thanks Dr Ehrman:
4+ consecutive blogs on one gospel book, consecutively helps me commit to memory the material in these books.
You know I went to that type of church that came up with their own 5th interpretation & since typing in Morgan’s lectures on the Gospels where he reinforced 4 books & teachings, not another one!
podcast of interest today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0xJNs8EKcc sorry not yours which I heard 1st.