Luke’s Christology of Divine Identity (Library of New Testament Studies | LNTS)
Overview
Henrichs-Tarasenkova argues against a long tradition of scholars about how best to represent Luke’s Christology. When read against the backdrop of ancient ways of constructing personal identity, key texts in the Lukan narrative demonstrate that Luke indirectly characterizes Jesus as the one God of Israel together with YHWH. Henrichs-Tarasenkova employs a narrative approach that takes into consideration recent studies of narrative and history and enables her to construct characters of YHWH and Jesus within the Lukan narrative. She employs Richard Bauckham’s concept of divine identity that she evaluates against her study of how one might speak of personal identity in the Greco-Roman world. She engages in close reading of key texts to demonstrate how Luke speaks of YHWH as God in order to demonstrate that Luke-Acts upholds a traditional Jewish view that only the God of Israel is the one living God and to eliminate false expectations for how Luke should speak of Jesus as God.
This analysis establishes how Luke binds Jesus’ identity to the divine identity of YHWH and concludes that the Lukan narrative, in fact, does portray Jesus as God when it shows that Jesus shares YHWH’s divine identity.
Key Features
- Extensive literature review of Lukan Christology
- Frame Luke's presentation of Christ in the context of the Old Testament
- Provides a detailed analysis of the Christology of Luke and Acts
Contents
- Luke's Divine Christology in Scholarly Studies
- Constructing Characters' Identities in the Lukan Narrative
- Exploring the Categories of Personal and Divine Identity
- YHWH's Divine Identity in Luke-Acts
- Jesus' Divine Identity in Luke-Acts
- Conclusion
Top Highlights
“That is why a valid reading of the text cannot be produced when either the text or the reader is in control of meaning because meaning is produced as the interaction between the text and the reader takes place, where the text has the leading role.19 When meaning is defined as a product of a dialogue between the text and the reader, the importance of the text and the responsibility of the reader are emphasized.” (Page 30)
“Gabriel explains Jesus’ divine sonship as a result of Yhwh’s initiative and enablement through his Spirit rather than as an adoption at his inauguration as king of the Jews, Luke leaves no room for human initiative or action in Jesus’ conception.” (Page 141)
“Instead Luke manifested his thought concerning Jesus’ divinity intuitively by way of using OT allusions” (Page 11)
“The expression κέρας σωτηρίας, applied by Luke to Jesus, is used only twice (2 Sam. 22:3; Ps. 18:2 [17:3, lxx]) and exclusively as a reference to Yhwh, where it is collocated with such titles as helper, protector, defender, and refuge.35 Consequently, when Luke characterizes Jesus as the ‘horn of salvation’ rather than as a horn, he predicates of Jesus what in the lxx was predicated exclusively of Yhwh, claiming for Jesus Yhwh’s divine identity and Yhwh’s responsibilities as Savior.” (Page 154)
“However, they also learn that his unique identity cannot be fully explained through his relationship to David because, unlike Davidic descendants who were to become adopted sons of Yhwh at their inauguration, Jesus will be Yhwh’s Son from the moment of his unique conception by Yhwh’s Spirit. Therefore, he will derive his identity primarily from his unique relationship to Yhwh as Son.” (Page 139)
- Title: Luke’s Christology of Divine Identity
- Author: Nina Henrichs-Tarasenkova
- Series: Library of New Testament Studies
- Volume: 542
- Publisher: Bloomsbury
- Print Publication Date: 2016
- Logos Release Date: 2017
- Pages: 224
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subjects: Bible. N.T. Luke › Criticism, interpretation, etc; Bible. N.T. Acts › Criticism, interpretation, etc; Jesus Christ › Person and offices; Jesus Christ › Divinity
- ISBNs: 9780567662910, 9780567662903, 0567662918, 056766290X
- Resource ID: LLS:LKSCHRSTLGDNTTY
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T01:16:58Z
