Inasmuch as Many Have Undertaken a Record: Luke Tells His Story

Luke begins by telling us many people have undertaken to recount the things which have taken place “among us” but that now he has done so himself. Apparently what those other people have done was not up to Luke’s standards, but many people, not only Matthew and Mark have started doing this gospel writing thing. That’s important. Apparently there is something about people at this time and this place, the early part of the first century and the late part of the first century of the Roman Empire, that tells them they must write this down. There are scripture scholars who note the stretch of years between the life of Jesus and the first Gospel (Mark in around 70). Often it is noted how long many writings were oral before being transcribed. But the thing about the Gospels is how short their oral tradition is. Early Christians needed to write the story down. The first century is a literate time, letter writing time, a write it down and send it off age.

            Scholars say Mark is the oldest gospel, and Mark has no infancy narrative. Mark is also the shortest gospel. We’ll get to him soon enough. Next comes Matthew, far longer. Scholars point out that Mark and Matthew contain in them the DNA of another lost Gospel called Q, Quelle, German for Source. Did the source have an infancy narrative? If so, why didn’t Mark use it?  If not, where is Matthew getting his from?

Luke opens his history :”In the days of Herod the King” as Matthew opens chapter two of his gospel, and like chapter two of Matthew, Luke opens his gospel in Jerusalem. He opens it with a man and a woman and a miraculous child, and an angel to boot. BUT that man is not Joseph, the woman is not Mary and the child is not Jesus. We are in the temple in Jerusalem and an old man named Zechariah is being called to perform the sacrifice and while he is in the Holy of Holies, the angel Gabriel appears at the side of the altar and declares that Zechariah and his wife will conceive a child and name him John because he will be .. well, not quite the Messiah. He will be great before the Lord. He will not drink strong drink, he will seemingly do many of the things the Messiah is supposed to be, but not actually be the Messiah. He will be a sort of …test run.

            Zechariah does not believe this or he does not believe it enough, and Gabriel, in angelic hauteur, strikes him dumb. Zechariah is dumb, but potent, and he impregnates Elizabeth, who locks herself up in her house for five months.

            But we are told that in the six month,. This same dumb striking Gabriel is sent to Nazareth to the home of a maiden named Mary. Oh, there is a lot going on in this one sentence and soon we will explore it.  On the more pedestrian end of things, Matthew and Luke seem to be agreed about two things: Jesus is born in Bethlehem and lives in Nazareth. These two places are not only on opposite ends of what was ancient Israel, but in the time of Jesus, separate territories. How the gospel writers reconcile this is different. Matthew simply has them already in Bethlehem.