Luke 4:16-30 as Programmatic for the Gospel of Luke

Kirk E. Miller

The following is a paper submitted to Dr. Joshua W. Jipp in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the course NT 6211, Synoptic Gospels and Johannine Literature, at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, Illinois, September, 2014.

This paper seeks to prove that Luke 4:16-30 is programmatic for Luke’s presentation of Jesus. This will be accomplished by overviewing Luke 4:16-30, providing an initial case for Luke 4:16-30’s programmatic role, investigating textual matters in Luke’s citation of Isaiah 61:1-2, and tracing key themes from 4:16-30 throughout the entirety of Luke’s gospel.

Overview of Luke 4:16-30

Luke’s account of Jesus’ ministry begins with Jesus’ synagogue activity recorded in Luke 4:16-30. “As was His custom,” Jesus enters the synagogue. He then reads Isaiah 61:1-2 and interprets it by applying it to Himself in fulfillment categories (4:16-21).

Isaiah 61 occurs in the second major section of Isaiah, the ‘book of comfort’ (chs. 40-66). The ‘book of judgment’ (chs. 1-39) vividly presents God’s judgment of the nations, including Israel. In the ‘book of comfort’ the tides turn as Isaiah foretells of the restoration of God’s people. In Isaiah 61 the proclamation of this reversal of Israel’s fortunes is to be accomplished by a Spirit anointed messenger of God. Jesus interprets this agent as Himself.

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What not to say about interpreting the Bible literally – Gregory of Nyssa

Kirk E. Miller

The following is taken and modified from a outline on Gregory of Nyssa’s Life of Moses I will be presenting for a class.

In this work, Gregory of Nyssa presents a spiritual-moral-contemplative-allegorical interpretation of Moses’ life with the theme of virtue as its driving paradigm for his interpretive ‘insights.’ To say the least, most of his interpretations are rather outlandish. His goal is that “by transferring to your own life what is contemplated through spiritual interpretation of things spoken literally” (II.320) “those who have been striving toward virtue may find aid in living the virtuous life” (II.49, 148).

Below I’ll present something like a critique of his interpretive method that I’ll offer in my class presentation. My critique is stated as such: “Inappropriate use of allegorical interpretation.”

  • Allegorical interpretation of literature is legitimate if the literature is meant to be interpreted allegorically (e.g., Pilgrim’s Progress). The Pentateuch is not such literature.
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Key Bible and Theological Reference Tools: Interlinears

Kirk E. Miller

This post is a re-blog of my post at Rolfing Unshelved.

This post is part of a series entitled Key Bible and Theological Reference Tools. This series seeks to provide one with an introduction to some key Biblical and theological reference tools. In this series one will find basic explanations, significant examples, and other information about these reference tools.

Basic Description of Interlinear

English interlinear Bibles present the Biblical text in its original language along with a more literal English translation immediately below each word. Some English interlinears are formatted reversely, i.e., they present an English translation with the corresponding original language immediately underneath.

Helpful Interlinears

Bible Hub’s online interlinear – This interlinear will prove especially helpful for those who do not know the Biblical languages because it provides “Strong’s numbers” above each word. Clicking on a “Strong’s number” provides one with helpful concordance and lexical information about that specific word (e.g., see רֵאשִׁית 7225).

Principles from Romans 14 and 1 Corinthians 8-10

Kirk E. Miller

I spent some time examining Romans 14 and 1 Corinthians 8-10 due to a personal matter I am contemplating and thinking over. But in the process of doing so, I composed a list of principles from this passage that I thought I might as well share for the benefit of anyone who might find this summary helpful. Here goes:

  • Certain matters that are not really ‘issues,’ and in which one may have ‘rights,’ are considered ‘issues’ by some due to associations.
  • Make use of God’s blessings.
  • Avoid idolatrous and sinful practices.
  • The ‘weak’ (in conscience) are not to judge the ‘strong.’
  • ‘Strong’ (in conscience) are not to despise the ‘weak.’ The ‘strong are to avoid arrogance due to such knowledge.
  • One’s liberty is not to be determined by another’s conscience. But one’s exercise of such liberty is.
  • Everyone must be convinced. Violation of conscience is sin.
  • Decisions are to be oriented around what honors God. Do all to God’s glory.
  • Be aware that there are some matters in which one has a ‘right’ but may not be beneficial.
  • Everyone will give an account to God.
  • Exercising ‘rights’ does not necessarily equal doing what is loving.
  • Avoid causing others to stumble, i.e., encouraging others with weak consciences to do likewise, which for them would be sin (i.e., a violation of conscience).
  • Causing another to stumble is sinning against them and against Christ who died for them.
  • Due to potentially offending others, keep certain matters between you and God.
  • Pursue what is loving, brings peace and harmony, and builds others up.
  • Do not allow anything to be a hindrance to the cause of the gospel of Christ, so that more might be converted.
  • Become “all things to all people” (specifically in terms of evangelism in this context)–contextualize, accommodate.

* Note: Some of these principles seem to conflict with or be in tension with other principles in this list. This predicament seems to be best explained by the fact that Paul prioritizes certain principles above others (e.g., in 1 Cor 9 Paul states that he indeed has ‘rights’—a principle—but doesn’t exercise them for certain reasons, i.e., higher prioritized principles).

* Note: Paul tells the ‘weak’ to respect the liberty of the ‘strong’ and the ‘strong’ to accommodate the ‘weak.’ According to these dual instructions, if either category (i.e., the ‘weak’ or ‘strong’) fulfills their particular instruction, harmony will exist. It is only when neither group defers to the other group that conflict will arise, although Paul would seem to desire both groups to defer to the other.