Abstract
dc:description.abstractA majority of scholars over the last century and a half have characterized the discussion of the Law of Moses in the Gospel of Luke and Acts of the Apostles as ‘inconsistent’. These interpreters offer various proposals to explain this alleged inconsistency: Luke wrote at a later date, far-removed from the early debates about the Law within the nascent Christian movement, and thus he was unconcerned to systematize his source material; Luke narrates the cessation of the Law’s significance for the Christian community, yet his apologetic motivations – he seeks to portray the Law as the possession of the Church in order to furnish the Christians with an ancient pedigree – introduce inconsistency; or Luke attempts to narrate salvation-historical progression, whereby the Law loses the regulative status it once held in the new age of the kingdom, but Luke’s commitment to historical verisimilitude obscures this theme. Against these various proposals, in Luke and the Law: A Defence of Christian Law-Observance, I argue that Luke presents a consistent reading of the Law. In Chapter One, I argue that Luke, in line with nearly all Jewish literature of the late Second Temple period, views the Law of Moses as containing both regulative commands and predictive prophecies. For Luke, neither of these functions ceases in the age of the Church. In Chapter Two, I observe that Luke’s interpretation of the Law derives from the prophetic tradition in Israel’s scriptures. In key passages where Luke addresses the topic of Torah-interpretation, he describes the heart of the law-observance as practicing mercy, justice, and righteousness. By choosing to prioritize these practices over others, Luke demonstrates his indebtedness to Israel’s prophetic literature, where identical terminology and similar concrete actions are used to illustrate what the Law demands. In Chapters Three and Four, I argue that throughout the Third Gospel and Acts of the Apostles Luke characterizes Jesus and his followers as those who understand and obey Torah over against their opponents, who misunderstand Torah, erroneously accuse Jesus and his followers of breaking the Law, and show themselves to be lawbreakers through their actions. In a brief conclusion, I summarize my findings, consider what this rhetorical characterization of Jesus and his followers (and their opponents) might suggest about Luke’s social setting, and propose avenues for further study.
Degree
thesis:*- Name dc:type.qualificationname
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
- Level dc:type.qualificationlevel
- Doctoral
- Grantor dc:publisher.institution
- University of Cambridge
- Year dc:date.issued
- 2024
Author and committee
dc:creator, dc:contributor.*- Author dc:creator
-
- Wendel, Jason
- Advisor dc:contributor.advisor
-
- Gathercole, Simon
Subjects
dc:subject × 7Rights
dc:rightsIdentifiers
dc:identifier.*- DOI dc:identifier.doi
- https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.120898
- OAI identifier oai:identifier
- oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/388656