Salvation in Luke: the Impact of Allusions to the Cult on His Soteriology

Salvation in Luke: the impact of allusions to the cult on his soteriology by Anthony John Talbot A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS BY RESEARCH Department of Theology and Religion College of Arts and Law University of Birmingham December 2015 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. Abstract This thesis examines possible allusions to the cult in Luke and indicates their potential impact on his soteriology. Various Jewish concepts of ‘salvation’ current in Luke’s day are discussed. This is followed by a critical examination of the Nazareth pericope (Lk 4.16-30) and the Emmaus encounter (Lk 24.13-35), as possible allusions to the Jubilee, and that Jesus might be presented as the fulfilment of the prophetic redemption contained therein. The sabbath-day healings are considered as possible indications that Luke’s Jesus deliberately healed on the sabbath in order that the sick might, being healed, receive shalom. Indications that Luke and his contemporaries may have understood the consecration of the sabbath in Genesis to be, at least partly, a celebration of shalom as the work of creation, is presented as possible evidence that the healing ministry of Jesus in Luke was fulfilling the purpose of the Temple cult (the ritual re-creation of Edenic shalom), and that Jesus applied to himself the exemption from sabbath-day rest granted to the Temple priests. Finally the prayer of the parabolic tax collector (Lk 18.13) is treated as a possible allusion to the prayer of the High Priest on the Day of Atonement and an indication that the righteousness attributed to those who observe the Day is now available to the penitent sinner. ְל ִמ ְריָם Acknowledgements I wish to express my profound thanks to my supervisor, Dr Philip Burton, for his invaluable constructive criticism and encouragement. AT Contents 0 Introduction 1 0.1 The question 1 0.2 Aspects of the cult relevant to this research 3 0.2.1 The Year of Jubilee 3 0.2.2 The Sabbath 4 0.2.3 The Day of Atonement 5 0.2.4 Salvation, Cultic Sacrifice and Atonement 6 0.3 Methodology 118 0.3.1 A Taxonomy of Allusions 18 1a Chapter One Part One: The Year of Jubilee announced in Nazareth as the programme for salvation in Luke 25 1a.1 Introduction 25 1a.1.1 Jesus replaces John: the field of scholarship 26 1a.2 The Isaian citation 28 1a.3 The narrative location of Lk 4.18-19 against Mk and Mt 29 1a.4 The response of the hearers 30 1a.5 The role of the spirit in Luke-Acts 35 1a.6 Luke’s use of Isaiah in the context of Second Temple exegesis. 40 1a.7 Purposeful anointing– οὗ εἵνεκεν ἔχρισέν µε 44 1a.7.1 Second Temple Messianic Expectations 44 1a.8 Good news for the poor 48 1a.9 Redemption 51 1a.10 The year of the Lord’s favour 52 1a.11 Conclusion 57 1b Chapter One Part Two: The road to Emmaus: the expected redemption and the Year of Jubilee 58 1b.1 Introduction 58 1b.2 The hope of Cleopas versus the passion predictions 59 1b.2.1 The passion predictions in Luke 61 1b.2.1.1 The first prediction 61 1b..2.1.1.2 The Transfiguration 64 1b.2.1.2 The second prediction of the passion 66 1b.2.1.3 The third prediction of the passion 67 1b.3 Messianic expectation and the Year of Jubilee 69 1b.3.1 Messianic expectation in the Dead Sea Scrolls 70 1b.3.2 A suffering Messiah 72 1b.4 Parallels with Philip’s encounter with the Ethiopian eunuch 75 1b.5 The ironic fulfilment of prophecy in the Emmaus pericope 77 1b.6 Conclusion 78 2 Chapter Two: The Sabbath - Salvation in Luke as the re-establishment of Eden-based 80 שָׁלוֹם 2.1 Introduction 80 86 שָׁלוֹם The diversity of meaning of 2.2 in the creation stories and the Garden of Eden 89 שָׁלוֹם The concept of 2.3 in the Priestly source 90 שָׁלוֹם 2.3.1 among the beasts 92 שָׁלוֹם 2.3.1.1 2.3.1.2 The completion of creation 93 in the Yahwist source 95 שָׁלוֹם Indications of Edenic 2.3.2 2.3.2.1 The goodness of creation 95 2.3.2.2 Remedying the loneliness of man, creating wholeness 96 2.3.2.3 peace and delight without shame and the consequence of sin 98 and the promise of its re-establishment שָׁלוֹם The Sabbath consecrated to celebrate 2.4 99 in Eden 101 שָׁלוֹם Exorcisms: the defeat of evil reversing the rupture of 2.4.1 2.5 The mythical association of Eden and the Temple 102 2.5.1 Further evidence of the mythical interpretation of the Eden sanctuary in wider cultic aspects of Genesis. 110 in the Temple 111 שָׁלוֹם 2.5.2 the fruit of salvation 112 שָׁלוֹם 2.6 in Luke 113 שָׁלוֹם Salvation and 2.6.1 2.7 Conclusions 115 3 Chapter Three: The Day of Atonement - The prayer of the parabolic tax-collector, an allusion to the day of atonement 116 3.1 Introduction 116 3.2 The Temple in Luke 117 3.3 The parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector 121 3.3.1 The penitential Psalms 122 3.3.2 The prayer of Manasseh 125 3.3.3 Yom Kippur 127 4 Conclusion 132 5 Bibliography 137 5.1 Ancient Sources 137 5.2 Modern Sources 138 Introduction +1 Introduction 0.1 The Question Since Hans Conzelmann (1969, p.201) declared that in Luke: ‘there is no trace of any Passion mysticism, nor is any direct soteriological significance drawn from Jesus’ suffering or death. There is no suggestion of a connection with the forgiveness of sins [in the Passion of Jesus],’ many redaction and other historical Biblical critics have continued to deny any sense of salvation in the death of Jesus in Luke. Thus for instance Marshall (1970) and Pilgrim (1971) read a more holistic sense of salvation to incorporate physical, social, economic and political dimensions alongside the spiritual, and agree that Luke does not clarify the means of atonement, but rather obscures it by omitting Mk 10.45 ,αὶ γὰρ ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου οὐκ ἦλθεν CD-,ονηθῆναι ἀλλὰ CD-,ονῆσαι ,αὶ δοῦναι τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ λύτρον ἀντὶ πολλῶν.1 For Glöckner (1975) salvation in Luke is not achieved by Jesus’ death or resurrection but rather by the repeated pattern of reversal: in his death and exaltation, Jesus identifies with the lowly who shall be exalted. For Dibelius (1966) the crucifixion was a model of innocent martyrdom rather than a means of expiation. Against this Karris (in Sylva ed. 1990) argues that translating CM,-D86 in Luke 23.47 as ‘innocent’ misses Luke’s theology of Jesus as the ‘righteous one’ (cf Ps 22; 31; 69; Wis 2) who, having suffered, was vindicated by God. Some (du Plessis 1994, +1 For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Introduction +2 Mittman-Richert 2008) see the Last Supper as an allusion to the vicarious sacrifice of Jesus on the cross which becomes a major theme in Luke-Acts. Finally, others (Doble 1996, Hagene 2003) have looked for a specifically Lucan model of salvation different from the traditional expiation/atonement models. For Doble the imitation of Christ is salvific, for Hagene Lucan history imparts saving knowledge to conquer human ignorance. (All cited in Reardon, 2013, pp. 77-95.) However Conzelmann limits his vision in addressing salvation simply to terms of substitutionary atonement, thus he opposes Lohmeyer (1937, p.181 cited in Conzelmann, 1969, p.201) who looks to the citation of Is 53.7-8 in Acts 8.32-33 (‘As a sheep led to the slaughter or a lamb before its shearer is dumb, so he opens not his mouth. In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken up from the earth’)2 and Acts 20.28, where Paul speaks of the church as having been purchased by Christ’s own blood. Conzelmann rejects any thought of atonement or substitution on Luke’s part in the former case, and the latter Conzelmann rejects as just a probable fashionable turn of phrase. Conzelmann focuses on the absence of ideas of atonement in the Passion, and the omission in Luke of Mark 10.45 (‘the son of man came to give his life as a ransom (AN718;) for many’). This thesis challenges Conzelmann by identifying possible allusions to the cult in Luke which provide an interpretative key to understanding the death of Jesus. Three aspects of the cult will be considered: the Year of Jubilee; the Sabbath; and the Day of Atonement. 2 Unless stated otherwise, all biblical citations in English are taken from Revised Standard Version (1952). Hebrew MT quotations are from the Codex Leningradensis, Greek LXX from Rahlfs (1935), and Greek NT from Nestle-Aland 27 (1993).

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