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Apocalyptic Traditions in the Lukan Special Material: Reading Luke 18:1–8

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 June 2011

François Bovon
François Bovon
Affiliation:
Harvard Divinity School
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Extract

Contemporary New Testament scholarship gives evidence of two trends. Some scholars, particularly those interested in the historical Jesus or the source of collected logia (Q) are going backward, trying to reach Christian origins and still influenced by the romantic dream of the pure beginning. Others are pressing forward, tracing the development of early Christian traditions, both in the canonical and non-canonical texts (particularly the Nag Hammadi Codices) in an attempt to follow the several streams of Christianity. These scholars continue to be influenced by the philosophical construction of organic evolution.

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 90 , Issue 4: Special Issue Honoring Helmut Koester , October 1997 , pp. 383 - 391
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1997

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References

1 The influence of the Enlightenment is still perceptible, and the work of Johann Gottfried Herder merits reinvestigation.

2 It is well known that Charles Darwin's and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel's work has had a formidable impact upon theologians and scholars, such as Ferdinand Christian Baur and Johann Adam Möhler in the nineteenth century, and many New Testament exegetes of the twentieth.

3 See his dissertation, Synoptische Überlieferung bei den apostolischen Vätern (TU 65; Berlin: Akademie, 1957).Google Scholar

4 See Koester, Helmut, “Jesus the Victim,” JBL 111 (1992) 3–15.Google Scholar

5 The reader can judge this from the general overview presented some years ago by Heinrich Zimmermann, “Das Gleichnis vom Richter und der Witwe (Lk 18,1–8),” in Schnackenburg, Rudolf, Ernst, Josef, and Wanke, Joachim, eds., Die Kirche des Anfangs. Festschrift für Heinz Schürmann (Freiburg: Herder, 1978) 79–95Google Scholar; more recently, Hedrick, Charles W., Parables as Poetic Fictions: The Creative Voice of Jesus (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1994) 187–207Google Scholar; Bock, Darrell L., Luke, Volume 2: 9:51–24:53 (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament; Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1996) 1444–56.Google Scholar

6 See Grundmann, Walter, Das Evangelium nach Lukas (2d ed.; ThHKNT 3; Berlin: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 1969) 346Google Scholar; Fitzmyer, Joseph A., The Gospel According to Luke (2 vols.; Garden City: Doubleday, 1981–85) 2. 1175–76.Google Scholar

7 Luke 17:8b: “And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” reveals a connection with 17:37: “Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather” and 17:19: “Your faith has made you well.” See Schweizer, Eduard, Das Evangelium nach Lukas übersetzt und erklärt (NTD 3; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1982) 184.Google Scholar

8 Meynet, Roland, L'Évangile selon saint Luc. Analyse rhétorique (2 vols.; Paris: Cerf, 1988) 1. 171–75; 2.Google Scholar 176–77; idem, Avez-vous lu saint Luc? Guide pour la rencontre (Lire la Bible 88; Paris: Cerf, 1990) 211–13.Google Scholar

9 Both texts use the term παραβολή (verses 1 and 9), and an interpretation follows each parable (verses 6–8, and 14). In both texts the verb “to say” is important, and the topic is the prayer.

10 “To get tired” (έγκακεîυ) is known in the Pauline and deutero-Pauline epistles and thus is also appropriate for Luke.

11 The last expression is also known by Matthew and Mark (see Matt 9:6 and Mark 2:10, for example).

12 See Schneider, Gerhard, Parusiegleichnisse im Lukas-Evangelium (SBS 74; Stuttgart: KBW, 1975) 71–78Google Scholar; Schneider, Gerhard, Das Evangelium nach Lukas. Kapitel 11–24 (2d ed.; Ökumenischer Taschenbuchkommentar zum Neuen Testament 3/2; Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlagshaus Gerd Mohn, 1984) 360Google Scholar; Kaestli, Jean-Daniel, L'eschatologie dans l'œuvre de Luc. Ses caractéristiques et sa place dans le développement du christianisme primitif (Nouvelle serie theologique 22; Geneva: Labor et Fides, 1969) 37.Google Scholar Luke's interpretation of the parable seems to be influenced by Sir 35:15–19; see Hedrick, Parables as Poetic Fictions, 188 n. 3.

13 I do not take the phrase καί μακροθυμεî έπ' αύτο⋯ς to be a question. In declining to do so I am diverging from the NRSV.

14 For this interpretation of μακροθυμ⋯, see Riesenfeld, Harald, “Zu μακροθυμεîv (Lk 18,7),” in Blinzler, Josef, eds., Neutestamentliche Aufsätze. Festschrift für Josef Schmid (Regensburg: Pustet, 1963) 214–17.Google Scholar

15 Luke 10:30–36, 38–42; 19:1–10; 24:13–32. The results of a poll of school children in Germany revealed that the best known stories of the Bible are practically all from what scholars have determined to be Luke's special material.

16 Under the category of Lukan special material, I consider only material that appears in the sections proper to Luke, which can be found in Luke 3–24. The documents used by the evangelist in the birth and infancy narratives are from another origin.

17 See particularly Petzke, Gerd, Das Sondergut des Evangeliums nach Lukas (Zürcher Werkkommentare zur Bibel; Zürich: Theologischer Verlag, 1990).Google Scholar

18 See Bovon, François, Luc le théologien. Vingt-cinq arts de recherches (1950–1975) (2d ed.; Le Monde de la Bible; Geneva: Labor et Fides, 1988) 11–84.Google Scholar

19 Verse 7b has been registered as a Lukan addition in harmony with verse 8b.

20 On God as a judge, see Gen 16:5; 18:25; 31:53; and Ps 7:11. For Israel as a widow, see Isa 54:4. God's care for the widows appears in Deut 10:18 and Ps 68:5. For God and Israel as a married couple, see Isa 54:5–8; Jer 2:2; 3:8–9; Ezek 16:6–14; and Hos 2–3.

21 See Linnemann, Eta, Gleichnisse Jesu. Einführung und Auslegung (6th ed.; Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1975) 13–14.Google Scholar

22 That is, unless this sentence is just the beginning of the interpretation of verse 7a.

23 See, for example, Mark 4:9 or Luke 14:35.

24 See Harnisch, Wolfgang, “Die Ironie als Stilmittel in Gleichnissen Jesu,” EvTh 32 (1972) 421–36Google Scholar, esp. 430–36; Hedrick, Parables as Poetic Fictions, 187, 201–7.

25 See Weder, Hans, Die Gleichnisse Jesu als Metaphern. Traditions- und redaklionsgeschichtliche Analysen und Interpretationen (FRLANT 120; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1978) 267–73Google Scholar, esp. 270–71.

26 Schweizer (Evangelium nach Lukas, 184) is of the opinion that, without verses 7 and 8a, the parable would have been incomprehensible unless Jesus had spoken it in a situation that clarified its meaning.

27 It was not the focus of this paper to compare Luke 18:1–8 with the parable of the friend disturbed during the night (Luke 11:5–8); see Spicq, Ceslas, “La parabole de la veuve obstinée et du juge inerte, aux décisions impromptues (Lc 18:1–8),” RB 68 (1961) 68–90Google Scholar, esp. 86–87. Some further points of contact should be mentioned between Luke 18:1–8 and Luke 21. In chapter 21, one finds also a widow (Luke 21:1–4), the Christian community in the pronoun “you” (see, for example, Luke 21:12–19), a reflection on the end of time (Luke 21:5–36), the notion of vindication (έκδίκησιζ, Luke 21:22), the suffering of the community (Luke 21:12–24), the necessity of patience (Luke 21:19), and the role of prayer (Luke 21:36).

28 This has to be emphasized in a period where many historians of early Christianity insist on the wisdom character of Jesus' teaching and of early Christian thought.

29 This is similar to the viewpoint of the community of Qumran; see Schiffman, Lawrence H., Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls: The History of Judaism, the Background of Christianity, the Lost Library of Qumran (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 1994) 329–39.Google Scholar

30 Compare the similar relation between the “bride” and the “Lamb” in Rev 18:23; 21:9; and 22:17.

31 See Acts 7:56; see also Luke 17:22 and Luke 21:36.

32 I am not aware of any alternative hypothesis that seeks to place the Lukan special material within a particular early Christian group.

33 Compare Luke 9:51; 13:22; and 19:28.

34 Luke 9:51–52, 56. The reader will find a full bibliography of this Lukan pericope in vol. 3 of my commentary, L'Évangile selon saint Luc (Geneva: Labor et Fides, forthcoming). At present, the reader may consult Fitzmyer, Gospei According to Luke, 2. 1181–82; or Segbroeck, Frans van, The Gospel of Luke: A Cumulative Bibliography 1973–1988 (BETL 88; Leuven: University Press, 1989) nos. 158, 159a, 311, 531, 854, 925, 1845, 2553, 2584 and 2738.Google Scholar