Recent and influential proposals (Richard Bauckham; James Dunn) have emphasized the role of memory in the composition of the Gospels. Despite the diversity and sophistication of these proposals, they have led to a devaluation of source and redaction analysis among some interpreters. On the contrary, attention to Lukan redaction of Mark, particularly with respect to the sequence of pericopae, reveals both the value of source and redaction analysis and the limitations of memory-oriented accounts of Gospel origins. Lukan transposition manifests itself most clearly in four pericopae: Jesus in Nazareth (Luke 4:16-30), the woman who anoints Jesus (7:36-50), the question of eternal life (10:25-37), and the tradition of the fig tree (13:6-9). Looking at these pericopae one by one, many interpreters debate whether Luke relies on independent traditions; taken as a group, they reveal Luke’s redactional and literary activity. In each instance (a) Luke neatly excises the pericope from its location in Mark’s sequence, (b) Luke changes fundamental dynamics of the pericope, and (c) Luke’s redactional activity favors widely accepted Lukan emphases. Memory-oriented interpretations will undervalue Luke’s emphases in these instances.
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Bauckham, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006), p. 246; Dunn, Jesus Remembered (Christianity in the Making 1; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003).
Schröter, “The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony?” p. 208; Catchpole, “On Proving Too Much: Critical Hesitations about Richard Bauckham’s Jesus and the Eyewitnesses,” JSHJ 6 (2008), pp. 169-81, esp. pp. 171-72.
Rafael Rodriguez, Structuring Early Christian Memory: Jesus in Tradition, Performance, and Text (LNTS; New York: T&T Clark, 2010), p. 32. To be fair, Rodriguez does not deny redaction. His interest lies in undermining the assumption that redactional material necessarily cannot contain authentic Jesus tradition (see p. 173). In a blog post, Rodriguez writes, “But my point is that the [G]ospels themselves show that copying and editing aren’t very helpful ways for thinking about their patterns of similarities and differences” (“[G]ospels scholarship at odds with source and redaction criticism?” Entry posted July 12, 2009, http://thinkinginpublic.blogspot.com/2009/07/gospels-scholarship-at-odds-with-source.html [accessed 30 August 2012]).
Michael F. Bird, “The Purpose and Preservation of the Jesus Tradition: Moderate Evidence for a Conserving Force in Its Transmission,” BBR 15 (2005), pp. 161-85, (161, emphasis mine). Bird is on record as affirming the usefulness of redaction criticism. I simply question how a study of Jesus tradition in the Gospels, one that depends on Bauckham’s work in particular (pp. 175-77), can elide the process of literary activity.
G. Carey, Sinners: Jesus and His Earliest Followers (Waco, TX: Baylor University, 2009), pp. 17-36.
R.B. Vinson, Luke (Smyth & Helwys Bible Commentary; Macon, GA: Smyth & Helwys, 2008), p. 335.
See M.E. Boring, Mark (OTL; Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2006), p. 343. But if one suggests that Luke removes that story for reasons of stylistic consistency, then one is left with explaining Luke’s intensification of the hostility on the part of the lawyer in the pericope’s new context. Alternatively, as we will see, many commentators perceive a strategic pairing of Luke 10:25-37 with the story of Martha and Mary that immediately follows it (10:38-42). However, we cannot account for why these two stories would be placed precisely as they are within the travel narrative.
As in Joel B. Green, The Gospel of Luke (NICNT; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), pp. 433-34. I am grateful to the anonymous reviewer who suggested this line of interpretation.
Nolland, Luke 9:21-18:34 (WBC 35B; Waco, TX: Word, 1993), p. 717; Manson, The Sayings of Jesus as Recorded in the Gospels According to St. Matthew and St. Luke Arranged with Introduction and Commentary (London: SCM Press, 1949 [1937]), p. 274. Fitzmyer does cite examples of the argument (Luke X-XXIV, p. 1004), citing G. Schneider, Das Evangelium nach Lukas (Ökumenischer Taschenbuchkommentar zum Neuen Testament 3; Gütersloh: G. Mohn, 1977), vol. 1, p. 296. Richard Vinson tentatively suggests the connection between the two accounts (Luke, pp. 449-50).
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Recent and influential proposals (Richard Bauckham; James Dunn) have emphasized the role of memory in the composition of the Gospels. Despite the diversity and sophistication of these proposals, they have led to a devaluation of source and redaction analysis among some interpreters. On the contrary, attention to Lukan redaction of Mark, particularly with respect to the sequence of pericopae, reveals both the value of source and redaction analysis and the limitations of memory-oriented accounts of Gospel origins. Lukan transposition manifests itself most clearly in four pericopae: Jesus in Nazareth (Luke 4:16-30), the woman who anoints Jesus (7:36-50), the question of eternal life (10:25-37), and the tradition of the fig tree (13:6-9). Looking at these pericopae one by one, many interpreters debate whether Luke relies on independent traditions; taken as a group, they reveal Luke’s redactional and literary activity. In each instance (a) Luke neatly excises the pericope from its location in Mark’s sequence, (b) Luke changes fundamental dynamics of the pericope, and (c) Luke’s redactional activity favors widely accepted Lukan emphases. Memory-oriented interpretations will undervalue Luke’s emphases in these instances.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 326 | 59 | 13 |
| Full Text Views | 73 | 20 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 132 | 53 | 0 |