Hard Sayings of the Bible by Walter C. Kaiser Jr. & Peter H. Davids

Author:Walter C. Kaiser Jr. & Peter H. Davids [Kaiser Jr., Walter C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Society of Biblical Literature
Published: 2015-10-07T16:00:00+00:00

Luke

4:1–13 Order of the Temptations? When we compare the account of the temptations (or better, testings) of Jesus in Luke 4:1–13 with that in Matthew 4:5–10, we quickly notice that their order is different. Both accounts agree that (1) the testing was initiated by the Spirit (although Matthew makes it clear that this was the purpose of the wilderness time, while Luke does not make it clear that this was the Spirit’s purpose), (2) Jesus fasted during this period (Matthew adds the detail of forty days), (3) Jesus was hungry after his fast, (4) at the end of the fast Satan approached Jesus, (5) the tests involved Jesus’ sense of identity, particularly his identity as Son of God, and (6) the first test was a demand for him on his own to make stones into bread. After this the two accounts diverge. While the two Evangelists agree on the content of the next two tests, they do not agree on the order. Luke ends with Jesus on the “the highest point of the temple,” while Matthew ends with Jesus on “a very high mountain.” Why are these accounts different, and doesn’t this cast doubt on the accuracy of the Gospels?

To start with we will assume that the two authors are using the same source, a source that had the testings of Jesus in one of the two orders. We say this because there is plenty of evidence that Matthew and Luke had a source in common (although it was probably an oral source) and because these two accounts are so close that a common source seems probable. However, even if they were using separate sources we would still have the same problem, but just pushed back from Gospels we can examine to sources we will probably never see. Thus our assumption of a common source is helpful as well as logical.

Next we notice that none of the Gospel writers claims to be giving a careful chronology. It is true that in Luke 1:3 the author claims to be writing “an orderly account,” yet this does not mean that the order he will set things down in is chronological. It was far more important to the ancient historian that we grasp the meaning of history than that we get the chronology straight. Thus Matthew groups the sayings of Jesus in five major “books” by topic: Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5–7), Mission Charge (Mt 10), Parables of the Kingdom (Mt 13), Church Discourse (Mt 18) and Eschatological Discourse (Mt 24–25). Luke has another way of grouping his material, so his Sermon on the Plain (Lk 6) does not contain everything in Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount; instead, some of the material is found in Luke’s section on God and Mammon (Lk 12) or on Prayer (Lk 11). In each case we get topical groupings, which give us an orderly account in that they order the material so we can better understand it. In neither case do we necessarily get the exact setting in which Jesus said all of the material.

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