Luke 2: Luke 9:51–19:27 (Hermeneia | HERM)

by Francois Bovon

Publisher:

Fortress Press

, 2013

This second volume of François Bovon’s three-volume commentary on the Gospel of Luke covers the narration of Jesus’ travel on the road to Jerusalem—the occasion in Luke of most of Jesus’ teachings to the disciples regarding faithfulness, perseverance, and the practice of justice and mercy. Bovon’s theological interest in Luke is highlighted here: as he declares in the preface, "I wish to examine his Gospel with the sober reserve of a scholar and with the confidence of a believer."

Key Features

• Presents a critical and historical commentary on Luke 9:51–19:27
• Includes the use of extra-biblical sources
• Provides a bold and authoritative interpretation

Contents

Top Highlights

“The first element is Martha’s hyper-busyness. Περισπάομαι is a very rare verb meaning ‘be pulled (in all directions at once),’ ‘be absorbed,’ ‘be quite busy,’ ‘be distracted.’²⁸ It thus has the complementary meanings of withdrawing oneself from one reality and being absorbed by one or more other realities.” (Page 71)

“When Christians are motivated by the kingdom of God and not by the fear of being without something, they acquire a proper relationship to money. They know that a vital minimum is indispensable for them, if for no other reason than to witness to the gospel, but they freely dispose of the rest. Nor do they forget—and the two examples in this pericope are there to remind them of the fact—that what is more than enough has the disastrous tendency to appear indispensable in their eyes when they succumb to temptation.” (Page 199)

“The reader will not fail to notice the reversal in the use of the word ‘neighbor.’ In the opening dialogue, the expert in the Law was trying to find a neighbor whom he could love. In Jesus’ question, which summarizes the parable, it is no longer a question of a neighbor who stood a chance of becoming an object, but rather one of someone who was becoming (γεγονέναι) the wounded man’s neighbor, as the active subject of a relationship.” (Page 59)

“But we should note that each time a disciple addressed Jesus using this title, it was when the disciple demonstrated that his faith was weak or his understanding limited. In the development of the story, these ten men suffering from ‘leprosy’ were, with one exception, to reveal the limits of their appropriate initial confidence.” (Page 503)

Praise for the Print Edition

Taken together, Hermeneia represents some of the best recent biblical scholarship . . . I have no hesitation in recommending them for students.

—Morna D. Hooker, Lady Margaret’s Professor of Divinity Emerita, University of Cambridge

Hermeneia will be the benchmark and reference point for all future work.

—Walter Brueggemann, William Marcellus McPheeters Professor of Old Testament Emeritus, Columbia Theological Seminary

Product Details

• Title: Luke 2: A Commentary on the Gospel of Luke 9:51–19:27
• Author: François Bovon
• Editor: Helmut Koester
• Translator: Donald S. Deer
• Series: Hermeneia
• Publisher: Fortress Press
• Publication Date: 2013
• Pages: 560

About Francois Bovon

François Bovon was a professor from 1967 to 1993 at the University of Geneva, in its Divinity School, which was founded by John Calvin in 1559. He was dean there from 1976 to 1979, and is still an honorary professor of the University of Geneva. He began teaching New Testament and early Christian literature at Harvard in 1993, and was chair of the New Testament Department from 1993 to 1998, and again in 2001-02. In recent years he has developed his teaching and research in two directions: the exegesis of New Testament texts, particularly the Gospel of Luke, and the publication and interpretation of non-canonical Acts of the Apostles, particularly the Acts of Philip, legends on Stephen, the first Christian martyr, and apocryphal fragments. His critical commentary on Luke, in four volumes, has been completed in German and French. Spanish and Italian will soon follow. The first volume in English appeared in the “Hermeneia” series, published by Fortress Press, in 2002. The second and the third, published together, appeared in Italian in 2007. His critical edition of the Acts of Philip, done in collaboration with Bertrand Bouvier and Frédéric Amsler, was published as volume 11 in the Corpus Christianorum: Series Apocryphorum by Brepols in 1999. His book The Last Days of Jesus was published in 2006, and a Spanish translation appeared in 2007.