Luke for Everyone (New Testament for Everyone)

by N. T. Wright

Publisher:

SPCK

, 2004

Overview

The New Testament for Everyone Series provides a series of guides to the books of the New Testament, and this particular volume opens up what N. T. Wright calls "one of the most brilliant writings in early Christianity"—the book of Luke.

In it, Wright offers a wealth of information, background, and detail to the book penned by Luke, whom some call the "first real historian to write about Jesus." Because Luke was educated and cultured, his Gospel portrays the first-century Jewish and Roman world where the good news of Jesus Christ went forth from a unique perspective.

This New Testament for Everyone volume on Luke will leave the reader with insights that aid in understanding the story of Jesus and its implications for us all.

Key Features

• Offers fresh translation of the entire text
• Provides background information about each text
• Discusses the relevance of the text for today
• Includes a glossary of words and phrases for further explanation

What You’ll Learn

N. T. Wright makes it clear throughout his work on Luke: this Gospel is for everyone—laypeople, seminarians, and scholars alike.

Readers will see that Luke watched the extraordinary events happening at Pentecost in Acts 2—and everything surrounding those events—to not just recount what he saw but talk to those involved, dissect earlier writings, and come to his own conclusion so that what he communicated to his readers concerning Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection would be 100 percent true for people in ancient Israel—and today.

Because Luke was a cultured and educated man and the first real historian to write about Jesus, Wright's commentary focuses on the Roman and Jewish first-century world of which Luke writes. With Wright's guidance, readers will explore that world and interpret Luke accordingly.

After reading the Scripture passage, Wright offers compelling commentary that weaves in first-century background and context to make what is happening in the passage clear. For example, in his chapter on Luke 1:39–56 on the Magnificat, N. T. Wright comments:

“It’s the gospel before the gospel, a fierce bright shout of triumph thirty weeks before Bethlehem, thirty years before Calvary and Easter. It goes with a swing and a clap and a stamp. It’s all about God, and it’s all about revolution. And it’s all because of Jesus—Jesus who’s only just been conceived, not yet born, but who has made Elisabeth’s baby leap for joy in her womb and has made Mary giddy with excitement and hope and triumph. In many cultures today, it’s the women who really know how to celebrate, to sing and dance, with their bodies and voices saying things far deeper than words. That’s how Mary’s song comes across here. Yes, Mary will have to learn many other things as well. A sword will pierce her soul, she is told when Jesus is a baby. She will lose him for three days when he’s twelve. She will think he’s gone mad when he’s thirty. She will despair completely for a further three days in Jerusalem, as the God she now wildly celebrates seems to have deceived her (that, too, is part of the same Jewish tradition she draws on in this song). All of us who sing her song should remember these things too. But the moment of triumph will return with Easter and Pentecost, and this time it won’t be taken away. Why did Mary launch into a song like this? What has the news of her son got to do with God’s strong power overthrowing the power structures of the world, demolishing the mighty and exalting the humble? Mary and Elisabeth shared a dream. It was the ancient dream of Israel: the dream that one day all that the prophets had said would come true. One day Israel’s God would do what he had said to Israel’s earliest ancestors: all nations would be blessed through Abraham’s family. But for that to happen, the powers that kept the world in slavery had to be toppled (pp. 14–15).”

Readers will take away a solid understanding of the culture and context of the day that will not only illuminate what Luke was communicating to his first-century readers but help today's student better approach other books of the Bible, knowing they, too, have background, culture, and context that impacts understanding.

Top Highlights

“What is at stake, then and now, is the question of whether we will use the God-given revelation of love and grace as a way of boosting our own sense of isolated security and purity, or whether we will see it as a call and challenge to extend that love and grace to the whole world. No church, no Christian, can remain content with easy definitions which allow us to watch most of the world lying half-dead in the road.” (Page 129)

“They, like everybody else in Israel, had been reading the Bible through the wrong end of the telescope. They had been seeing it as the long story of how God would redeem Israel from suffering, but it was instead the story of how God would redeem Israel through suffering; through, in particular, the suffering which would be taken on himself by Israel’s representative, the Messiah.” (Page 294)

“To sit at someone’s feet meant, quite simply, to be their student. And to sit at the feet of a rabbi was what you did if you wanted to be a rabbi yourself. There is no thought here of learning for learning’s sake. Mary has quietly taken her place as a would-be teacher and preacher of the kingdom of God.” (Page 131)

“For Jesus, when people follow him and his way, that is the true repentance.” (Page 184)

“The servant-Messiah has not come to inflict punishment on the nations, but to bring God’s love and mercy to them. And that will be the fulfilment of a central theme in Israel’s own scriptures.” (Page 48)

Contents

• Introduction
• Abbreviations
• Map
• Luke 1:1–4 - Prologue
• Luke 1:5–25 - Gabriel Visits Zechariah
• Luke 1:26–38 - The Annunciation of the Birth of Jesus
• Luke 1:39–56 - The Magnificat: Mary’s Song of Praise
• Luke 1:57–80 - Zechariah’s Song of Praise
• Luke 2:1–20 - The Birth of Jesus
• Luke 2:21–40 - Simeon and Anna
• Luke 2:41–52 - The Boy Jesus
• Luke 3:1–9 - The Preaching of John the Baptist
• Luke 3:10–20 - John the Baptist Confronts the Crowds
• Luke 3:21–38 - Jesus’ Baptism and Genealogy
• Luke 4:1–13 - Temptation in the Wilderness
• Luke 4:14–30 - Opposition to Jesus in Nazareth
• Luke 4:31–44 - Jesus’ Authoritative Healings
• Luke 5:1–11 - The Miraculous Catch of Fish
• Luke 5:12–16 - The Healing of the Leper
• Luke 5:17–26 - The Healing of the Paralytic Lowered Through the Roof
• Luke 5:27–39 - Questions about Table-company and Fasting
• Luke 6:1–11 - Teachings on the Sabbath
• Luke 6:12–26 - The Beatitudes
• Luke 6:27–38 - Loving Your Enemies
• Luke 6:39–49 - Judging Others and True Obedience
• Luke 7:1–10 - The Healing of the Centurion’s Servant
• Luke 7:11–17 - Raising of the Widow’s Son
• Luke 7:18–35 - Jesus and John the Baptist
• Luke 7:36–50 - Jesus Anointed by a Sinful Woman
• Luke 8:1–15 - The Parable of the Sower
• Luke 8:16–25 - Jesus Calms the Storm
• Luke 8:26–39 - The Healing of the Demoniac
• Luke 8:40–56 - Jairus’s Daughter and the Woman with Chronic Bleeding
• Luke 9:1–17 - The Twelve Sent Out and the Feeding of the 5,000
• Luke 9:18–27 - Peter’s Declaration of Jesus’ Messiahship
• Luke 9:28–45 - The Transfiguration
• Luke 9:46–62 - The Nature of Discipleship
• Luke 10:1–16 - Jesus Sends Out the Seventy
• Luke 10:17–24 - The Celebration of Jesus
• Luke 10:25–37 - The Parable of the Good Samaritan
• Luke 10:38–42 - Martha and Mary
• Luke 11:1–13 - The Lord’s Prayer
• Luke 11:14–28 - Jesus and Beelzebul
• Luke 11:29–41 - The Sign of Jonah
• Luke 11:42–54 - Woes Against the Pharisees
• Luke 12:1–12 - Further Warnings
• Luke 12:13–34 - The Parable of the Rich Fool
• Luke 12:35–48 - Jesus’ Call to Watchfulness
• Luke 12:49–59 - Reading the Signs of the Times
• Luke 13:1–9 - The Parable of the Fig Tree
• Luke 13:10–21 - Jesus Heals a Crippled Woman on the Sabbath
• Luke 13:22–30 - Entering through the Narrow Door
• Luke 13:31–35 - Jesus Grieves over Jerusalem
• Luke 14:1–11 - Jesus and the Pharisee
• Luke 14:12–24 - The Parable of the Great Banquet
• Luke 14:25–35 - The Cost of Discipleship
• Luke 15:1–10 - The Parables of the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin
• Luke 15:11–24 - The Parable of the Prodigal: The Father and the Younger Son
• Luke 15:25–32 - The Parable of the Prodigal: The Father and the Older Son
• Luke 16:1–9 - The Parable of the Shrewd Manager
• Luke 16:10–18 - Teachings on Stewardship
• Luke 16:19–31 - The Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus
• Luke 17:1–10 - Forgiveness, Faith and Obedience
• Luke 17:11–19 - Ten Lepers Healed
• Luke 17:20–37 - The Coming of the Kingdom
• Luke 18:1–14 - The Parables of the Persistent Widow and the Tax-Collector
• Luke 18:15–30 - The Rich Young Ruler
• Luke 18:31–43 - Jesus Heals a Blind Beggar
• Luke 19:1–10 - The Calling of Zacchaeus
• Luke 19:11–27 - The King, the Servants and the Money
• Luke 19:28–40 - The Triumphal Entry
• Luke 19:41–48 - Jesus Cleanses the Temple
• Luke 20:1–8 - The Question about Jesus’ Authority
• Luke 20:9–19 - The Parable of the Tenants
• Luke 20:20–26 - On Paying Taxes to Caesar
• Luke 20:27–40 - Marriage and the Resurrection
• Luke 20:41–21:4 - David’s Son and the Widow’s Mite
• Luke 21:5–19 - Signs of the End
• Luke 21:20–33 - The Distress of Jerusalem Predicted
• Luke 21:34–38 - Watching for the Son of Man
• Luke 22:1–23 - The Last Supper
• Luke 22:24–38 - Prediction of Peter’s Denial
• Luke 22:39–53 - Jesus is Arrested
• Luke 22:54–71 - Peter Denies Jesus
• Luke 23:1–12 - Jesus before Pilate and Herod
• Luke 23:13–26 - Pilate Pressured by the Crowds
• Luke 23:27–43 - The Crucifixion
• Luke 23:44–56 - The Death and Burial of Jesus
• Luke 24:1–12 - The Resurrection
• Luke 24:13–27 - On the Road to Emmaus
• Luke 24:28–35 - Jesus Revealed at Emmaus
• Luke 24:36–53 - Jesus’ Promise and Ascension Glossary
• Glossary

Endorsements

In this series [Wright] excels as a communicator, making this the most exciting study guide since Barclay's Daily Study Bible.

—The Expository Times

Wright writes well and with an easy style. The short commentaries tackle New Testament books without being weighed down.

—Publishers Weekly

Product Details

• Title: Luke for Everyone
• Author: N. T. Wright
• Series: For Everyone Bible Study Guides
• Publisher: SPCK
• Print Publication Date: 2004
• Logos Release Date: 2011
• Era: era:contemporary
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subject: Bible. N.T. Luke › Commentaries
• ISBNs: 9780664227845, 0664227848
• Resource ID: LLS:EVRY63LU
• Resource Type: Bible Commentary
• Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-25T19:40:57Z

About N. T. Wright

Nicholas Thomas “Tom” Wright (1948–) is a New Testament scholar, Pauline theologian, and Anglican bishop and currently Research Professor Emeritus of New Testament and Early Christianity at St. Mary's College in the University of St Andrews and Senior Research Fellow at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford. Christianity Today named him one of today's top theologians. 

Wright was born in Morpeth, Northumberland, and recounts an awareness of God's presence from a young age—and that relationship with God ever since is reflected in his life and work. He's a prolific author; one of his most popular books, Surprised by Hope, frames the resurrection of the dead as the appropriate hope for all believers rather than an overemphasis on just "going to heaven when you die." He's among the leading theologians in the New Perspective on Paul debate. Wright has several honorary doctoral degrees, and in 2014, the British Academy awarded him the Burkitt Medal "in recognition of special service to biblical studies." In 2015, he was made a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Wright served as chaplain at Cambridge from 1978 to 1981, then as assistant professor of New Testament language and literature at McGill University in Montreal. Before becoming a chaplain, tutor, lecturer, and fellow at Oxford in 1986, Wright served as dean of Lichfield Cathedral, canon theologian of Westminster Abbey, and the bishop of Durham from 2003–10. In addition to the entire New Testament for Everyone Series, some of N. T. Wright's books include The New Testament in Its World: An Introduction to the History, Literature, and Theology of the First Christians, Who Was Jesus, The New Testament and the People of God, God and the Pandemic, Evil and the Justice of God, Surprised by Hope, and Simply Christian. He coauthored Jesus the Final Days with Craig A. Evans.