Luke 1-9:20
Until recently, the Gospel of Luke, along with the other
synoptic Gospels, Matthew and Mark, has been understood
as a biography of Jesus rather than as a fountainhead of
theological content.
Now, modern study has demonstrated that the evangelists
who wrote the synoptic Gospels were theologians in their
own right. Just as important to them as preserving and
propagating the memory of Jesus, says Dr. John Nolland,
was 'the need to interpret him and all that his coming
implied.... The evangelists were engaged in proclamation
and not just reporting; their concern was so to tell the story
of the historical Jesus that their readers might encounter the
living Christ."
In this first of two volumes of commentary, Dr. Nolland
covers Luke 1:1 to 9:20, helping us to a rich and insightful
engagement with the text through discovering what we can
about how Luke actually produced his Gospel-its intended
audience, purpose, and setting; its sources, language, and
form. The Introduction includes essential background on the
perspectives of modern gospel scholarship, with special
attention to modern parables research; relationships between
Luke and Acts and among the Gospels and other writings of
the period; questions on authorship, date, and quality of
surviving text. Dr. Nolland's fresh Translation of the text is
undergirded by technical Notes on the textual witnesses, and
an extensive Bibliography accompanies the verse-by-verse
Comment in which his well-tempered emphasis on scholarly
discussion supports perceptive and practical interpretation of
the biblical writing in terms meaningful for late twentiethcentury faith.
JOHN NOLLAND is Course Leader and Head of Biblical