The Apologetic Revisited: Exonerating Luke from an Ancestral Exegetical and Theological Burden

Description

The trend in the scholarship of Luke has been that of presenting Luke as being interested in the survival of Christianity within the Power apparatus of the Roman world. To achieve this pivotal aim, he seems to overlook the abysmal social maladies and wrongdoings of the Powerful of his time hoping not to endanger the peace and tranquility of Christianity. The intention of this research, however, is to show the defiance and fearlessness of Luke in dealing with the rich and the Powerful. He did not compromise the basic teachings of Christianity even in his respect for the constituted profane Authorities of the Roman order. A second proper look beholds the critical dynamics of his Gospel and the Acts, beginning with the Magnificat running through the angelic Annunciation scene and the Temptation of Jesus and ending with the punishment of Herod Agrippa. The reader beholds a hitherto unknown Luke, who operates from a particular critical stance and distance to the Powerful from the sociological perspective of hidden transcripts. Cover Table of Content Acknowledgement Chapter 1 1. Introduction to the theme of the Dissertation 2. The justification of the study 3. Some research works in the course of years 3.1 Conzelmann: Redaction criticism in Luke and the Apologetic 3.2 Yoder and Cassidy: Protagonists of a defiant Luke 3.3 Works of recent years 3.4 A shift in the Appeasement paradigm 4. Relevant Biblical texts for the Dissertation-theme 5. Methodological Approach Chapter 2 1. The Magnificat and the theme of Power (Lk 1:46–55) 1.1 Greek Text 1.2 English Translation 2. The Context of the Magnificat 2.1 Structure and Composition 2.1.1 Linguistic proof for the structure 2.2 Literary Genre 2.3 Literary Criticism 3. Tradition and History 4. Some Iiteral constructions of immense importance 4.1 ἡ ταπείνωσις 4.2. Φοβούμενοι του Θεοῦ 4.3 Ὑπερήφανοι 4.4 καθεῖλεν δυνάστας ἀπὸ θρόνων 5. Redaction Criticism 6. Conclusion Chapter 3 1.The Birth Narrative: Imperial edict and divine fulfilment 1.1 Greek Text 1.2 English Translation 2. The context of the birth narrative 2.1 The structure of the text of the birth narrative: Lk 2:1–20 2.2 The literary genre of the micro text 2.3 Literary development of the text 3. Religio-Historical Perspective 3.1 Imperial cult: A guide to the understanding of the text 3.1.1 The social and political Aspects of the pax romana 3.1.2 Εὐαγγελίζομαι 3.1.3 The imperial hegemony of the Roman era 3.2 Σωτήρ 3.2.1 Σωτήρ in Old Testament and Judaism 3.3 Χριστός 3.4 Κύριος 4. The Lukan profile and theology 4.1 The Lukan use of the title “saviour” 4.2 The Lukan use of Χριστός 4.3 Lukan theology and criticism of the pax Romana 5. Conclusion Chapter 4 1. The second item of the temptation of Jesus (Luke 4:5–8) 1.1. Greek text 1.2. English Translation 2. The context of the temptation pericope 2.1 The compositional structure of the temptation pericope 2.2. Synoptic comparison of the Lukan and Matthean Accounts 2.2.1 Historical and relational Questions 2.2.2 A hypothetical reconstruction of the Q version 3. History and Tradition 3.1 A traditional and historical consideration of the Lukan redaction 3.1.1 οἰκουμένη 3.1.2. Ἐξουσία 3.1.3 προσκυνεῖν 4. The political theology of Luke in the temptation account 4.1. Introduction 4.2. The social and cultural context of the Temptation Account in Luke 4.3. The political and theological message in the Temptation pericope of Luke 5. Conclusion Chapter 5 1. The Parable of the throne claimant (Lk 19:11–28) 1.1. Greek Text 1.2. English Translation 2. The Context of the parable 2.1. Structure and Language 2.2 Literary Genre 2.3 Synoptic Comparison 2.4 Literary Criticism 3. Tradition 3.1 Redaction Criticism 4. Conclusion Chapter 6 1. Leadership as service: The advice of Jesus within the last supper in Lk 22:24–30 1.1 Greek Text 1.2 English Translation 2. Context, Language and Genre of the Text 2.1 The structure of the Pericope 3. Synoptic Comparison between Luke and Mark 3.1 Differences in points of Departure 3.2 Text immanent comparison 3.2.1 The preoccupation of the Disciples 3.3 The theological Yield of the synoptic Comparison 4. Tradition and History 4.1 Φιλονεικία 4.2. Εὐεργέτης 4.3 Socio-historical Considerations 4.3.1 Νεώτερος 4.3.2 Διακονέω 4.3.2.1 Διάκονος as a go-between 4.3.2.2 The New Testament use of διακονέω κτλ 4.3.2.3 Διακονέω κτλ. and the innovations of Luke 5. The Twelve and their future judging role in Lk 22:28–30 5.1 Synoptic Comparison 5.2 Conditions and Content of the Promise 5.3 Conclusion 6. The political theology of Luke 6.1 The Lukan Jesus as ὁ διακονῶν 6.2 The political intentions of Luke 7. Conclusion Chapter 7 1. The Hubris of Herod: God’s wrath on an arrogant king 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Text and Translation of Acts 12: 20–24 1.2.1 Greek text 1.2.2 English Translation 2. The Context of the death of Herod 2.1 The semantic connections and structure of Acts 12:20–24 2.2 The Literary Genre of Acts 12:20–24 3. Tradition-Criticism 3.1 The Account of Josephus 3.2 Synoptic Comparison with Josephus 3.3 Historical FindingsThe 3.3.1 The emergence of the king 3.3.2 The speech of Agrippa and its consequence 3.4 Nero from the Perspective of History 3.5 Conclusion 4. Redaction Criticism 4.1 The theological intention of Luke 4.1.1 The offence of Agrippa within the context of Luke-Acts 4.1.2 Conclusion Chapter 8 1. Conclusion 2. Yields from the research 3. Proceeds for the day-to-day life Bibliography Bible Editions Primary Aids Ancient Greek and Roman Sources Epigraphs and Papyri Commentaries Monographs, Articles and other Contributions