List of Appendices
1.6. Research Ethical Clearance
2.3.3. Luke’s Audience
There have been many questions regarding the community for whom Luke was writing.
Some scholars have argued that Luke is writing for a Gentile audience, (Fitzmyer 1981:57-59). Others God fearers, (Nolland 1989, 1993), while still others claim he is writing to Christians from a Jewish background (Tyson 1995:19-28). Similarly, there are questions as to the nature of the community for whom Luke is writing. Opinion varies as to whether Luke is writing for a specific community, a group of communities or an ‘open market’. Trompf (2000) argues that the conceived readership was ‘mixed’
(Jews/Christians/God fearers and proselytes/Gentiles) (Trompf 2000:106-116).
The gospel is addressed to Theophilus (Luke 1:3), a person who, apart from the reference in Acts 1:1 is otherwise not known. Since the time of Origen, the name Theophilus has often been interpreted symbolically, to indicate that the gospel was addressed to someone
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‘beloved of God’ or ‘loving God’. This may or may not have been the case. On the other hand, Theophilus could have been the real recipient of the document addressed under a pseudonym, or he could have been an official of some sort (Nolland, 1993). Irrespective of who Theophilus was or what his relationship to the intended readers might have been, the church has long understood the Gospel of Luke to be addressed to Gentile Christians.
Nolland states, ‘The usual and indeed the longstanding traditional assumption is that Luke was a Gentile who wrote his Gospel for a Gentile church of the late first century’(Nolland, 1989). This understanding is echoed by Fitzmyer who writes, ‘It is widely held today that Luke has written his Gospel for a Gentile Christian audience, or at least one that was predominantly Gentile Christian’ (Fitzmyer 1981). There is, however, a growing number of dissenting voices to this common assumption. Jacob Jervell (1972) claims that Luke was written for a Jewish Christian audience that are under fire from their Jewish neighbors. David Tiede (1980) draws on the early work of Jervell to argue that Luke was writing to those who had been, or still were, members of the synagogue.
He places Luke-Acts in the midst of Jewish tradition. He claims it reflects an intra-family struggle and debate between the many strains of Jewish tradition in the Hellenistic era, in the light of the destruction of the Temple, as to who is the faithful Israel.
Nolland and Tyson both claim that Luke was writing not for Jewish Christians, but for God-fearers. Luke’s arguments made assumptions of his readers that could only be true for people whose values had been shaped by first century Judaism. A God-fearer was the ideal reader for Luke’s Gospel. Luke was engaged in responding apologetically to Jewish polemic against the Christian movement. Godfearers would have experienced the ambiguity of their situation in Judaism: welcomed but still an outsider in Judaism.
Luke’s God-fearer stands at the crossroads (Tyson 1995:25-26). Tannehill and Esler claim that Luke was written for Christians, Jews and Godfearers, who were from a synagogue background. They argue for an audience of diverse social composition, churches that included people of different ethnic and religious backgrounds, social status and wealth, claiming that the kind of knowledge that Luke presupposes in its audience and the kinds of people who dominate the narrative provide evidence that both Jews and Gentiles (God fearers) were influential in the Lukan churches (Tannehill 1996:24; Esler 1987:31-32).
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In my opinion, Luke wrote for a specific Christian community from a socially diverse Jewish synagogue background, in a Hellenised social environment. Luke’s Gospel follows Greek literary and historiographic conventions. Its style and its use of sources, such as the Greek version of the Jewish scriptures and the acknowledgement of political and religious figures, is further evidence of the Hellenistic environment in which the Gospel was written. The Gospel itself suggests that Luke was writing for a Christian audience that was familiar with first century Judaism and with Jesus’ proclamation of the gospel. Luke has used Scripture in such a way that his audience needs considerable knowledge of the Jewish Scriptures–although in Greek translation. His allusions to the Greek Old Testament would have been unintelligible to someone unfamiliar with its language and contents, and this should be seen as evidence for a synagogue background for Luke and his audience (Tiede 1980). Luke’s descriptions of the synagogue and synagogue ritual are detailed and represent one of the most complete literary accounts of first century synagogue practice available. The synagogue in Luke’s Gospel forms the critical setting for Jesus’ programmatic announcement of the reign of God in Luke 4:16- 30. It was the reading of the scriptures in the synagogues that provided the meeting ground for discussion about the ‘interpretation of the times’. The synagogue background of the Lukan community suggests its composition as a mixture of Gentile God-fearers and Jews. Tannehill (1996) speaks of a community of Jews and God-fearers, women and men, poor and relatively wealthy people, common people and a few members perhaps of the elite or retainer class. Esler has argued for this composition, claiming that Luke has deliberately shaped his sources to present the first Christian community as composed solely of Jews and God-fearers (Esler 1987:39-43). He claims that, “The crucial development of the spread of the mission throughout the diaspora is to be the establishment of Christian communities containing both Jews and Gentile God-fearers.
That the two groups entered into table fellowship with each other profoundly shocked orthodox Jewish sensibility.”(Esler 1987:39)
Luke was writing to a particular Christian community, probably his local congregation. His concern to respond to the wider social, political and religious issues of the day in the context of the local community is shown in Luke 12:32 when he refers to the Christian congregation as the “little flock”. However, not all scholars share this position. While Esler claims that Luke’s Gospel was written for a particular Christian
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community and Tiede’s argument would imply this view, others argue that Luke’s Gospel is written for a group of churches, a number of different communities or for an
“open market”( Trompf 2000: 106). Luke Timothy Johnson (1991) argues that “given the length, complexity and literary sophistication of his work, it is likely that Luke intentionally addressed a more general readership”. Irrespective of whether Luke’s work was addressed to a particular community, a group of churches or a wider general readership, his narrative has been developed for a Christian community containing both Jews and Gentile God-fearers who were struggling with their response to the social, political and religious situation of the late first century