Prominent Example of Christian Holy Scriptures - The Gospel of Luke - Term Paper Example

Introduction To Luke If one takes a close look at the civilization which was formed by humans, one will be able to point out a considerable number of peculiarities that it holds. Indeed, such abilities as generating verbal interaction or aesthetic content are not found anywhere beyond the social environment. However, the aspect that truly differs the mankind on a much deeper level is the highly developed spiritual world. That is why it would not be an exaggeration to suggest that religion has played its important role in the formation of human identity. This paper will examine a prominent example of Christian Holy Scriptures – the Gospel of Luke. To begin with, it must be noted that there is no clear indication that the above mentioned text was written by Luke. It is the tradition of Church that attributes the Gospel to this apostle. However, there are several indications which contribute to acknowledgement of his authorship: Luke was a highly educated person for his time, had a personal acquaintance with the Biblical characters, respected people who belonged to a lower class and was wealthy enough to devote time to create a Gospel (Bock, 1994, 138). Similar to the authorship, there is not a direct indication of date. Just like many of the ancient texts, the originals were lost and the researchers are able to work with the copies which were created afterwards. According to one approach, the Gospel of Luke should be dated 80 or 90 Common Era; however, some researchers tend to move the creation of the text a decade further. In addition that that, some scholars point out that mentioning of various contemporary events, such as conflict in the manuscript families or heresy of Marcion, provides enough basis to move the time of the creation of the scripture even further. The question of sources is another interesting one when it comes to evaluation of the Gospel in question. The main basis for the narration is the Gospel of Mark which was written roughly a decade before. However, since this text featured more factual information, Luke uses the so called Q source in order to present the complexity of the teachings of Jesus. Finally, there a part of the Gospel, around one third, that is unique to Luke. The structure of the Gospel in question is traditionally divided into six sections. The first part is the formal introduction, containing address to Theophilus. The next section is the description of birth of Jesus and his boyhood. Afterwards there is a part which tells the readers about baptism of Jesus and his fight against the temptations. Another section is dedicated to ministry of Jesus when He was in Galilee. The penultimate part contains the account of teaching of Jesus on his way to Jerusalem. The lat section highlights the famous events conflicts in Jerusalem, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus (Fitzmyer, 1981, 256). The outline of the Gospel of Luke might take the following form: the anonymous author claims that he strives to create an objective account of the events, surrounding life of Jesus. He tells about birth of the two key figures in the salvation of Israel: John and Jesus. When they grow older, the former baptizes the latter, revealing His divine nature. The next part of the book describes various miracles that Jesus performed while being in Galilee. After than Son of God starts His journey to Jerusalem, performing even more miracles and expanding His teaching. Having arrived at Jerusalem, He disrupts the social live in the course of the temple incident. Later he is caught, crucified and finally reveals his divine nature. One of the most important points about the Gospel of Luke is that other than the account of Biblical events, it also contains different notes on various theological principles. For example, it was this Evangelist that presented his views on the history of humanity, dividing it into three periods: the first, ranging from Genesis and up to the birth of John the Baptist; the second, focusing on live of Jesus; and third, starting from His resurrection and ending with the second coming. The next point which is characteristic to the Gospel of Luke is the development of the perception of Christ. Indeed, there are three main approaches which are clearly articulated in the text. According to one of them, Luke pays a lot of attention to different names that are given to Him: Christ or Messiah, Son of God, Lord, or Son of Man. The next approach reflects the contemporary role of a spiritual leader: the Savior (Marshall, 1978, 38). Thus, Jesus is proclaimed to be the Savior of all people. Finally, Luke also uses a lot of parts of the Old Testament in order to show the succession of these two parts of the development of Christianity. What is more important is that the Gospel of Luke stands out due to the fact that the Third Person of the Holy Trinity, namely the Holy Spirit. Thus, one would make no mistake that the increased role of the latter might be explained by the fact that the author wants to put emphasis on the unity of the Christians which is based on acceptance of Jesus Christ and facilitated by the Holy Spirit. Finally, one also might argue that the text in question has several implications for the position of Christianity concerning two important actors of the social life of the time, namely Judaism and the Roman Empire. Speaking of the former, Luke suggests that Jews have cursed themselves by killing the Savior and from that on Christianity is likely to direct its mission to the gentiles (Stein, 1993, 113). As for the Roman Empire, their power is granted by Satan and they also were involved in the rejecting the Messiah. Having analyzed all the evidence which was presented in this paper, one is able to come to the following conclusion: the Gospel of Luke is an important part of the Biblical tradition since it contains a detailed account of the contemporary events and hold important material that might be used to develop Christian teaching, such as the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, several views on Jesus Christ and many others. References Bock, D. (1994). Luke. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books. Fitzmyer, J. (1981). The Gospel according to Luke: Introduction, translation, and notes. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday. Marshall, I. (1978). The Gospel of Luke: A commentary on the Greek text. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. Stein, R. (1993). Luke. Nashville, Tenn.: Broadman Press. Read More