Words for unbelievers
Our readings for this week are Luke 1 and 2. Everybody knows Luke 2 close to by heart, particularly if they're fans of "A Charlie Brown Christmas".
The prologue to Luke struck me this time. It's something that's usually glossed over, but this time I found myself reading it in both the NAB and KJV versions. The message of it is almost but not quite, "I've read those other Gospels out there and they're deficient, so I've done my research and here's mine."
I found this interesting in that we've all talked about how Mark lacks a resurrection narrative and Matthew provides an infancy narrative, but it's different, and he rushes through the resurrection. Luke builds up both of these, plus he brings us some of the best Mary material, although my favourite story about her remains the marriage feast at Cana in John.
What this tells us is what people wanted out of a Gospel. They clearly wanted to know more than just Jesus's teaching and stories of his miracles. Who was he? What were his parents like? Where did he come from? The news of this itinerant Jewish preacher was clearly sparking imaginations and spiritualities all across the Mediterranean.
Whoever Luke was, we know from his writing style that he was educated, a second or third generation Christian, and that he also wrote Acts. So he probably had his nose a bit in the air when it came to Gospels by other writers, particularly Mark whose Greek isn't particularly literate. He also started sentences with conjunctions and that was a grammatical no-no even then.
So here's Luke's gospel, and you can believe that he knows what he's talking about, because of his learnings.
Belief is a big theme in the first chapter, and there is one unexplained question. Zechariah and Mary both receive almost identical messages from the angel Gabriel. The wordings are parallel. So why is Zechariah struck dumb from disbelief when Mary, who sets out in haste to the hill country to see if Elizabeth really is pregnant (because being a wise girl, she's not going to believe any old angel who flies in through her window) incurs no penalty?
The only reason I can think of is that Zechariah and Elizabeth are the latest in a long chain of miraculous pregnancies to elderly Jewish couples. The birth of John is firmly established as the place where the Old and New Testaments intersect. Having an elderly couple become parents to a great prophet was an established tradtion, and in a sense the rationale behind Zechariah being silenced was, "You've been a priest how long? You've known the Torah how long? Did you think that all didn't apply to you--especially the less believable parts?"
Mary's pregnancy, on the other hand, was a novelty in Judaism. Virgins don't become pregnant by the Holy Spirit in Judaism, only in Gentile religion. Furthermore, betrothal in the Galilee at the time was as serious as marriage, and getting pregnant by another man was adultery, punished by death. Mary's questioning thus may be attributed not to disbelief but a need to be very sure before she put her life on the line.
By this action she too becomes the last link in a chain leading the Old Testament behind the New. Mary is in the company of Rahab the harlot, Bathsheba the adulteress and Ruth the foreigner who, if "uncover his feet" is a euphemism, was a seductress as well. In this same chapter, Mary shows herself a prophet as well, through her psalm the Magnificat.
Luke wants to give us something by which we can believe. His mission statement is there for the reading. Let's take him up on his offer.
The prologue to Luke struck me this time. It's something that's usually glossed over, but this time I found myself reading it in both the NAB and KJV versions. The message of it is almost but not quite, "I've read those other Gospels out there and they're deficient, so I've done my research and here's mine."
I found this interesting in that we've all talked about how Mark lacks a resurrection narrative and Matthew provides an infancy narrative, but it's different, and he rushes through the resurrection. Luke builds up both of these, plus he brings us some of the best Mary material, although my favourite story about her remains the marriage feast at Cana in John.
What this tells us is what people wanted out of a Gospel. They clearly wanted to know more than just Jesus's teaching and stories of his miracles. Who was he? What were his parents like? Where did he come from? The news of this itinerant Jewish preacher was clearly sparking imaginations and spiritualities all across the Mediterranean.
Whoever Luke was, we know from his writing style that he was educated, a second or third generation Christian, and that he also wrote Acts. So he probably had his nose a bit in the air when it came to Gospels by other writers, particularly Mark whose Greek isn't particularly literate. He also started sentences with conjunctions and that was a grammatical no-no even then.
So here's Luke's gospel, and you can believe that he knows what he's talking about, because of his learnings.
Belief is a big theme in the first chapter, and there is one unexplained question. Zechariah and Mary both receive almost identical messages from the angel Gabriel. The wordings are parallel. So why is Zechariah struck dumb from disbelief when Mary, who sets out in haste to the hill country to see if Elizabeth really is pregnant (because being a wise girl, she's not going to believe any old angel who flies in through her window) incurs no penalty?
The only reason I can think of is that Zechariah and Elizabeth are the latest in a long chain of miraculous pregnancies to elderly Jewish couples. The birth of John is firmly established as the place where the Old and New Testaments intersect. Having an elderly couple become parents to a great prophet was an established tradtion, and in a sense the rationale behind Zechariah being silenced was, "You've been a priest how long? You've known the Torah how long? Did you think that all didn't apply to you--especially the less believable parts?"
Mary's pregnancy, on the other hand, was a novelty in Judaism. Virgins don't become pregnant by the Holy Spirit in Judaism, only in Gentile religion. Furthermore, betrothal in the Galilee at the time was as serious as marriage, and getting pregnant by another man was adultery, punished by death. Mary's questioning thus may be attributed not to disbelief but a need to be very sure before she put her life on the line.
By this action she too becomes the last link in a chain leading the Old Testament behind the New. Mary is in the company of Rahab the harlot, Bathsheba the adulteress and Ruth the foreigner who, if "uncover his feet" is a euphemism, was a seductress as well. In this same chapter, Mary shows herself a prophet as well, through her psalm the Magnificat.
Luke wants to give us something by which we can believe. His mission statement is there for the reading. Let's take him up on his offer.