Abrahamic Traditions: The Birth Narrative according to Luke

1. How does Luke weave together the lives of John the Baptist and Jesus, and why has Luke has constructed the story in this fashion?
2. How do the Jewish scriptures shape these sections of the narrative?
3. How has Luke’s “background information” on John in the first two panels help the reader understand his prophetic role in the third panel?
4. Finally, consider Luke 1:1-3:38 in the context of the characteristics of ancient biographies we discussed a few weeks ago: how does his story “improve” upon Mk 1:1-11?

As we saw in White’s careful examination of Luke’s birth narrative, Luke has a very clear purpose in weaving the lives of John the Baptist and Jesus. By calling Elizabeth (Johns mother) and Mary (Jesus birth mother) cousins he connects John and Jesus in by making them directly related. Luke symbolically makes it a point to address the annunciation and the birth narrative of John prior to discussing the annunciation and birth of Jesus. This allows him to foreshadow John’s role in the coming of Jesus in the structure of the narrative. Luke actually tells two stories at the same time with John’s story always coming prior to Jesus. By constructing the passages this way, it really helps the audience understand the significance of John the Baptist.

Scholars generally agree that the Gospel according to Luke was written in elegant Greek some 50 years after the death of Jesus, probably in the 80s. The Gospel is the first of two works by the author, its companion volume being the Acts of Apostles. Tradition has given the name of Luke to the author, but there is no certainty that Luke was the author’s name, and if it was, that he was the Luke mentioned in the Acts of Apostles and the Letters of Paul. Luke may have been a Syrian from Antioch. Most scholars conclude from elements in the Gospel that the author was a Gentile writing for a community predominantly made up of Gentile Christians.

BIRTH ACCOUNTS IN MATTHEW & LUKE “COMPLEMENTARY & MAKE DIFFERENT POINTS”

n the New Testament, the birth of Jesus is only described in detail in two of the four gospels, Matthew and Luke.

Mark's gospel begins with the account and testimony to Jesus at his baptism in the Jordan by John the Baptist. John has a theological prologue, testifying to Jesus and describing the incarnation of the eternal Logos, but does not describe the details of the actual historical event. The accounts in Matthew and Luke complement each other in describing different events that occurred around the birth of Jesus.

As the joyous Christmas season approaches, we are given the opportunity once again to reflect on one of the central mysteries of our holy faith, namely, that the Son of God became man, born of a woman like every other human being. The Sacred Scriptures are the primary sources for the accounts detailing the conception and birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ and the participation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in these events.

The Gospels of both Matthew and Luke detail the birth of Jesus. Both of these narratives are more the than a mere story, and certainly not a fairy tale. The gospels are theological reflections on the meaning of Jesus as the long awaited Messiah who is revealed to be the universal saviour of all people.