Part Two: New Testament Literature
Chapter 10: The Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts
return to religion-online
A Historical Introduction to the New Testament by Robert M. Grant
Part Two: New Testament Literature
Robert M. Grant is professor of New Testament at the University of Chicago, A formost scholar in the field, his books include Gnosticism, The Earliest Lives of Jesus, and The Secret Sayings of Jesus. Copyright 1963 by Robert M. Grant.
Originally published by Harper and Row in 1963.
Chapter 10: The Gospel of Luke and
His history, however, is not an ordinary one, since he proceeds from the good Greek style of his preface directly into an account of the
miraculous conceptions of John the Baptist and his distant relative Jesus and makes use of a Semitizing style full of reminiscences of the
Septuagint. The break is so sharp that scholars have often supposed that he is making use of different sources and not troubling to make them over. Such a conclusion is unwarranted, however, for (1) since Luke writes as a historian he evidently possessed some training in grammar and rhetoric, and therefore had learned to write in various styles, and (2) he varies his own style in accordance with the situation; in Acts his style becomes more ‘classical’ as the gospel is brought closer to Rome.
Furthermore, it should be stated that he was almost certainly unaware of the modern distinction between ‘faith’ and ‘history’. In his view faith and history worked together, and one way of propagating the faith was to state what the history had been. This is not to say that he was always reliably informed, or that -- any more than modern historians -- he always presented a severely factual account of events. It does mean that he believed that the events, if represented accurately and in order, at least pointed in the direction of the Christian gospel.
Who was the author? The oldest discussion of this question is also the classical one. Irenaeus (c. 180) began, as all critics must begin, with Acts (Adv. haer. 3, 14, 1). (1) The author of the ‘we-passages’ in Acts, presumably from a travel diary, went with Paul to Troas and Macedonia (Acts 16:8-17); he sailed with him back to Troas (20:5-15) and thence to Jerusalem and Rome (21:1-18; 27:1-28:16). (2) Luke alone was with Paul later (II Tim. 4:11); he was a ‘beloved physician’ in prison with Paul, presumably at Rome (Col. 4:11). (3) Therefore the author of Luke- Acts was Luke. Further identifications were provided later; thus Origen (early third century) thought he was the Lucius of Romans 16:21, while Ephraim Syrus (fourth century) identified him with the Lucius of
Cyrene mentioned in Acts 13:1. The reliability of this proof obviously depends on several prior assumptions: (1) Paul must have written Colossians, and from Rome. (2) The tradition reflected in II Timothy must be trustworthy. Others have attempted to support these arguments by claiming that Luke makes use of ‘medical language’, but H.J.
Cadbury has shown that his writings do not reflect the details about ailments and their cures which are found in medical writings, that apart from such details there was no medical language in antiquity, and finally -- by a reductio ad absurdum -- that the arguments used to show that Luke was a physician could prove that he was a veterinary.
On balance we should incline to accept the argument of Irenaeus and to assume that it was intended to confirm a prior belief rather than to
introduce a new hypothesis. It should be said, however, that the question of the author’s name is not as important as the question of the author’s purpose; the latter question can be answered only from his writings.
It has sometimes been claimed that Luke cannot have been a companion of Paul because in neither the gospel nor the Acts is there any trace of the specifically Pauline doctrines to be found in the major epistles. This claim neglects the extent to which it is possible to associate and work with others without necessarily sharing all their concerns; in other words, it fails to do justice either to the variety to be found within the unity of modern Christianity or to that within the early Church.
In the Gospel of Luke there are 19,400 words and, in Acts, 13,380. The vocabulary of the Gospel includes 2,055 words; that of Acts, 2,038. In the Gospel there are 261 words not found elsewhere in the New
Testament; in Acts, 413. (Taking the two books together, their vocabulary consists of 2,700 words.)
Among Luke’s favourite expressions in the Gospel are the following:
the imperfect verb ‘egeneto’ (‘it happened . . .’) with ‘and’ or with a finite verb or with an infinitive. He also employs the preposition ‘in’
with an article and an infinitive to indicate that something was done or said while something else was going on. Events often take place ‘in the presence of’ (‘enopion’) persons. In this way he demonstrates his
concern with historical connections and historical witnesses. In improving the style of Mark he often uses a more ‘literary’ word for
‘immediately’ (‘parachrema’ for Mark’s ‘euthus’).
The ‘formulas’ he uses are less striking than those of Matthew, but it is worth noting that he speaks of an ‘only’ (‘monogenes’) son or
daughter’s being healed, three times (7:12, 8:42, 9:38), and sometimes begins parables with ‘what man’ (15:4) or ‘what woman’ (15:8), or ‘a certain man’ (10:30, 12:16; 14:16, 15:11, 16:1, 19; 19:12).( Parables like these occur only in two instances in Matthew, where they are introduced differently).
We can see something of Luke’s viewpoint when we consider his use of his principal source, the Gospel of Mark. (Fortunately we possess this source and therefore are not reduced to pure conjecture.) Luke uses
Mark in large blocks, instead of interspersing it with other materials as Matthew’s practice was; usually, though not always, he retains the order of Mark. Sometimes he anticipates something which Mark mentions later, and thus it appears that he read large sections of Mark, and
perhaps the whole gospel, before writing his own Section to correspond to it.
In general his use of Mark can be summarized thus:
Luke 1-2 non-Marcan
3:1-6:19 mostly Mark (1:2-3.19; 6:1-6) 6:20 - 8:3 non-Marcan
8:4- 9:50 Mark (3:31-9:41,omitting 6:17-29;6:45-8:26) 9:51-18:14 non-Marcan
18:15-24:11 Mark (10:13-16:8) 24:13-53 on-Marcan
He improves Mark’s style by omitting repetitious words and clauses; he omits expressions which attribute human emotions to Jesus (so also Matthew); he severely abridges the account of a violent action such as the cleansing of the temple. In the words of Cadbury, ‘the conduct of Jesus’ disciples and friends towards him in Mark can easily be improved on, and Luke improves it.’
Such observations may point towards an explanation of Luke’s omission of Salome’s dance in the story of the death of John the Baptist, but they do not indicate why he dropped a whole block of materials from Mark (6:45-8:26). It is most unlikely that Luke began cutting out materials with the story of walking on water because he found it incredible. While ancient standards of credibility were largely personal, the rest of Luke’s writings does not suggest that he would have found this story difficult to believe. It has been suggested that the copy of Mark which he used did not contain this section -- either because there was an ‘original Mark’ to which it had not been added as yet, or because somehow some leaves had fallen out of the papyrus codex and Luke either did not notice their
absence or did not /could not obtain them. Such theories possess all the fascination of the absolute -- in this case, the absolutely hypothetical.
We may suggest that Luke, as astute as most modern historians, observed that the materials in Mark 6:45-8:26 add little or nothing to what he could obtain either from other passages in Mark or from other materials available to him; he therefore chose to omit them. He could see that they were somewhat repetitious.
Luke was concerned with writing history. For this reason he attached to the public ministry of John and Jesus an elaborate synchronism (for which there are parallels in Greek historians and Josephus), dating the coming of the word of God to John the Baptist in the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar (AD. 28-9), when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judaea (26 -- 36), Herod tetrarch of Galilee (4 BC. -AD. 39), Philip his brother tetrarch of Iturea and Trachonitis (4 BC.-AD. 34), Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene (doubtful date), and when Annas and Caiaphas were high priest (3:1-2). This notice illustrates Luke’s desire to set the gospel narrative in the context of world history; it also reflects a certain lack of familiarity with Jewish affairs, for only Caiaphas was high priest at the time (though his father-in-law Annas doubtless retained the title
honorarily). Another difficulty occurs in his story of the birth of Jesus, which he dates both ‘in the days of King Herod’ (1:5, before 4 BC.) and in relation to a census under Quirinius, governor of Syria, in AD. 6 (2:2). Various attempts have been made to clear up this apparent
contradiction by postulating an earlier Roman census in Palestine, but it cannot be said that they have been entirely successful.
Luke was concerned with the historical setting of the mission of John and Jesus. He is the only evangelist to report John’s counsel to tax- collectors and soldiers (3:12-14). He apparently cannot agree with Mark that the tetrarch Herod would suppose that John had risen from the dead, so he ascribes this opinion to others (9:7-9) He realizes that the
beginning of Jesus’ mission, as Mark relates it, is historically
incomprehensible, and he therefore tells how Jesus read from Isaiah in the synagogue at Nazareth and stated that the prophecy had been
fulfilled (4:21). In his view, Mark’s passion narrative did not adequately emphasize ‘non-theological factors’, and he therefore lists the precise charges brought against Jesus: he was overturning the nation, forbidding the payment of taxes to Caesar, and calling himself an anointed king (23:2). Since Jesus was a Galilean, he must have been investigated by Herod (23:6-12). And for the centurion’s recognition of Jesus as ‘son of God’ (Mark 15:39) he substitutes his acknowledgment that he was ‘an
innocent man’ (Luke 23:47). It should of course be added that when Luke makes these changes it is easier for us to see that they have been made than to assign definite motives for each change or (and especially) to say whether or not Luke’s account is thus more reliable than Mark’s.
We do not know that he did not possess the reliable information he claims to have had.
Luke emphasizes the concern of Jesus’ ministry with rich and poor and with money. In his version of the Beatitudes Jesus blesses the poor (6:20, not the ‘poor in spirit’ as in Matt. 5:3) and the hungry (6:21, not those who ‘hunger and thirst for righteousness’ as in Matt. 5:6); Jesus denounces, indeed curses, the rich and those who are now well-fed (6:24- 5). There are a good many references to women and their relation to the gospel, even though it is Luke alone who states that ‘wives’ must be left for sake of discipleship (14:26; 18:29). The range of the mission of Jesus is extended beyond the Jewish people (cf. Mark 7:24-30, which Luke omits) to the despised Samaritans (10:30-7, the Good Samaritan;
17:11 -19, the Samaritan leper; a similar interest in Acts 8:5-35).
Presumably these Lucan emphases reflect at least one aspect of the ministry of Jesus.
It is clear that as a historian, and as a second-generation Christian, Luke is aware of a certain distance between himself and the earliest disciples.
This means that, like the other evangelists, he repeatedly states that the disciples misunderstood Jesus during his ministry; unlike them, he specifically indicates that their eschatological views were wrong. As they approached Jerusalem, they ‘supposed that the kingdom of God would appear immediately’ (19:11), but they were mistaken. Before they knew of the resurrection, some of them could say that ‘we hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel’ (24:21); even afterwards they could ask, ‘Lord, will you restore the kingdom to Israel at this time?’
(Acts 1:6). They did not yet understand that the Christ had to suffer and then enter into his glory (Luke 24:26); they did not know that the Spirit would be given to the Church, which would then witness to Jesus ‘to the end of the earth’ (Acts 1:8). For this reason Luke reports the saying of Jesus that ‘the kingdom of God does not come with watching; people will not say, "Lo, here" or "there"; for behold, the kingdom of God is within you (or, ‘in your midst)’ (Luke 17:20-1). Luke modifies some of the eschatological material derived from Mark; he agrees that the end will come, but Christians must not follow those who say, ‘The time has drawn near’ (21:8). It may be that the fall of Jerusalem has come (21:20- 4; but, even if it has, the end is not yet.
On the other hand, not all Luke’s modifications can be explained in this way. Why does he omit the statement in Mark 10.45, ‘the Son of Man came to give his life as a ransom for many’? Why does he substitute the words, ‘I am in your midst as one who serves’ (Luke 22.27)? He cannot be opposed to mentioning Christ’s sacrificial death, for he plainly refers to it in Acts 20:28. Perhaps he believes that the earliest disciples did not understand it as Paul did. This problem leads us to another, the question of the text of Luke 22:19b-20. Some manuscripts state only that at the Last Supper, Jesus took a cup, blessed it, and passed it to his disciples with an oath not to drink wine again until the coming of the kingdom;
then he took bread, blessed it, and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body.’ Other manuscripts continue at this point, adding these words:
given for you; do this in my remembrance. And likewise the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood which is poured out for you.
There is a considerable measure of confusion in the order of these words in the various manuscripts, and they are omitted entirely in Codex Bezac and in the Old Latin version, while they are paralleled partly in Mark (14:22-4) and partly in I Corinthians 11:24-5.
It can be argued that (1) the longer version was written by Luke and the confusion is due to the sequence cup-bread-cup, not found in early liturgies and therefore disliked by early copyists, or (2) what Luke wrote was only the shorter version (cup-bread, as in the Didache); the
confusion is due to the efforts of copyists to supply additional materials.
Here we enter the realm of textual history and can note that there are significant disagreements in other parts of Luke and, above all, in Acts, where Codex Bezae gives us practically a different edition of the book from the one found in other manuscripts. In Luke itself we find such divergences as (1) the ascription of the Magnificat (1:46-55) to
Elizabeth rather than to Mary (Irenaeus in the second century, Niceta of Remesiana in the fourth; some Old Latin manuscripts); (2) the
appearance of an angel to Jesus in Gethsemane (22:43-4); found in Codex Bezac but omitted in Alexandrian and Caesarean manuscripts);
(3) ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing’
(23:34 [cf. Acts 7:60], omitted by many Alexandrian and Caesarean manuscripts, perhaps in opposition to the Jews; contrast Matt. 27:25);
(4) ‘He is not here but has been raised’ (24:6; omitted in Codex Bezae
and the Old Latin, but found in the parallel, Mark 16:6); (5) Luke 24:12, apparently based on John 20:8-10 and omitted by Codex Bezae, the Old Latin, and Marcion; and (6) the statement about the ascension in Luke 24:51, omitted by the same witnesses and in one Syriac version.
What does this evidence prove? It proves only that the text of Luke has been subject to a good deal of modification -- in various directions. We know that in the second century two tendencies were at work (if not more). On the one hand, Marcion busied himself with deleting what he regarded as interpolations from the gospel; as far as we can tell from later witnesses to his now lost work, he rejected Luke 22:43-4 and 24:12 but accepted the other passages. On the other hand, Tatian prepared his Diatessaron in which the four gospels were run together; this process of combination tended to result in mixed texts. In consequence of the two tendencies and inevitable scribal errors, it becomes impossible for us to say whether the longer text or the shorter in Luke 22:19b-20 is the original one. Marcion himself accepted the longer text, removing only the word ‘new’ from the expression ‘new covenant’, since he did not believe that there was an old covenant.
While we have indicated that Luke regarded himself as a historian, we should bear in mind that his conception of history was to a considerable degree ‘rhetorical’. He felt free, as other ancient historians felt free, to give an arrangement to his materials which was not necessarily
chronological but brought out their meaning as he understood it. Thus in Luke 9:51-18:14 we have an account of a journey towards Jerusalem which the evangelist has used to provide an occasion for including materials of various sorts, mostly without precise indications of time or place.
Similarly the many speeches in Acts are largely in Luke’s style (the speech of Stephen in Acts 7 is a partial exception) and reflect his ideas (or does he reflect theirs?). The tendency towards uniformity in these speeches has been explained as due to the common practice of ancient historians who invented speeches suited to the occasions they were describing. In this regard, recourse is often had to a statement by
Thucydides, to the effect that when he did not have records of what was actually said he tried to compose something appropriate. Those who thus appeal to Thucydides usually neglect the rest of what he said: he stated that when he did have reliable reports he used them. Since we do not know that Luke did not have reliable reports, we cannot say that he did more than rewrite his sources, or perhaps write them for the first
time from oral tradition. It should be added that Thucydides did not provide the only model known to ancient historians, in any event;
Polybius, in the second century BC., severely criticized some of his predecessors for inventing speeches and said that the historian’s
business was to record what was actually said. And while we know that Luke’s contemporary, Josephus, liked to make up appropriate speeches -- one of them was supposedly delivered in a cave just before all the
witnesses committed suicide -- we do not know that Luke followed his example.
Cadbury’s statement about Luke’s work is rather enigmatic. ‘Even though devoid of historical basis in genuine tradition the speeches in Acts have nevertheless considerable historical value.’(F.J.F. Jackson -- K. Lake, The Beginnings of Christianity, V [London, 1933], 426.) Obviously the speeches have historical value as expressions of what Luke thought the apostles had said; but we do not actually know that they are devoid of historical basis.
The Acts of the Apostles
The book of Acts, the second of the two volumes written by the
evangelist Luke (probably after his gospel), is first certainly utilized by Irenaeus of Lyons, towards the end of the second century. He not only used it but also provided the classical proof that it was written by Luke:
the detailed information given in the ‘we-passages’ (Acts 16:9-18; 20:5- 21:18; 27:1 - 28:16) proves that it was written by a companion of Paul who went with him to Rome; this companion must have been Luke, in prison with Paul at Rome (Col. 4:14) and later (II Tim. 4:11). In the Muratorian fragment the book is described as containing the acts of all the apostles, presumably in order to reject apocryphal books of acts by implication. Thereafter no question was raised about it among orthodox Christians, though it was often neglected in periods when there was little interest in church history.
Even before Irenaeus’s time, the book may have been known to Clement of Rome and/or Justin Martyr, but the evidence for their use of it is ambiguous.
The text of the book has been transmitted in two quite different forms.
(1) Most of the Greek manuscripts, including the old uncials, and most later versions contain the form of Acts which is translated in English New Testaments. (2) On the other hand, in Codex Bezac (sixth century)