according to Luke

The gospel of Luke is interesting for two reasons:  it shares material with the Matthean text (not surprising), and its name recalls the leader of the Kitos revolt, Lukuas, who was also known as Andreas.  It is conjecturable that the gospel took its name (and added him to the “disciples” as a way of including that revolt in the Judean canon).

The most interesting feature of the Lukan narrative is its intertextual conversation with the Judean canon.  Where the Markan narrative references the Judean canon by the vocabulary used in its verses, and the Matthean narrative references Judean culture by referencing socially non-textual social specifics against the Judean canon (genealogy/gematria), the Lukan narrative references the Judean canon by placing parts of the narrative in geographic locations that it identifies by their association in the Judean canon (the woman at the well), or by including characters who are intended to remind the audience of similar characters in other works of the Judean canon (the angel announcing the birth).

When I translated the beginning of the Lukan gospel, I counted at least 10 different stylistic changes in the first chapter of the text.  If I were applying to the Lukan text a similar documentary theory as that applied to the TaNaKh by Christian scholars, I would suggest that the narrative was not a single continuous composition, but the work of several authors joined together to form a single narrative.

In the beginning of the narrative, we find an angel arriving to announce the birth of a special child, John, who is expected to follow the rules laid out for the Nazir.  The appearance of the angel recalls the angel who that Sarah would bear Isaac (Gen 17:19).  This is confirmed when we are told that the father, Zechariah, is old, as is his wife.  An angel also appears to Mary, who is told she will have a child.  By coincidence, Mary and Elizabeth are cousins.  The familial relation between the women recalls Leah and Rachel, wives of Jacob.  In this way, the constructor of the Lukan narrative attaches his narrative to Jacob, of whom Numbers said “There shall come a star out of Jacob…”  In case we missed the reference, the constructor of the narrative gives us a lengthy genealogy, in Luke 3:34, which declares Jesus to be a direct descendant of Jacob.  It is in the Lukan text (6:14) that we learn that Jesus renamed Simon Peter.  We also find Andreas among those named.  In Luke 2:36, we find Anna, a prophet, who is identified as the daughter of Penuel of the tribe of Asher.  This is one of the few references to the tribes of Israel outside of the Judean canon.