[Propertalk] Fw: Luke 2:1-20; Part 1 of 3

Thu Dec 17 11:43:52 EST 2009

Forwarded, for Luke 2:1-20 - Part 1 of 3

-----Original Message-----
From: bstoffregen at roadrunner.com
To: brian.stoffregen at gmail.com
Sent: Wed, Dec 16, 2009 11:46 pm
Subject: Luke 2:1-20; 2:41-52

Attached are notes on the Christmas Text: Luke 2:1-20; and for the 1st Sunday 
after Christmas: Luke 2:41-52.Brian

December 25: The Nativity of Our Lord: Exegetical Notes on Luke 2:1-20

An outline of these verses is offered by Brown (The Birth of the Messiah, p. 410. Much of the following information comes from his book.)

Setting (1-7)

a) The occasion of the census brings Joseph with Mary to Bethlehem (1-5)

b) While there, May gives birth to Jesus; she swaddles him and lays him in a manger (6-7)

Annunciation (8-14)

a) Nearby, an angel of the Lord announces to shepherds the birth of the savior, Messiah, and Lord, giving them the sign of the baby in the manger (8-12)

b) A multitude of the heavenly host appears and recites the Gloria (13-14)

Reactions (15-20)

a) The shepherds go to Bethlehem to see the sign; and finding it verified, they make known what was told them (15-17)

b) The hearers are astonished; Mary keeps these events in her heart; the shepherds return, glorifying and praising God (18-20)

CAESAR AUGUSTUS

Luke sets the birth in the days of Caesar Augustus. His name was Octavian, the great-nephew of Julius Caesar. After the assassination of Julius in 44 B.C., he ruled with Lepidus and Mark Anthony. He became the sole ruler after defeating Lepidus in 36 B.C. and Anthony in 31 B.C. He was given the title "Augustus" by the senate in 27 B.C. (Our month of August gets its name from Octavian.) Before dying in A.D. 14, he had designated his stepson, Tiberius, as his successor. It is in the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar that Jesus began his ministry (Luke 3:1).

Augustus was remembered as the founder of the empire that brought peace to the world. There is an inscription at Halicarnassus that calls him "savior of the whole world". Brown writes: "It can scarcely be accidental that Luke's description of the birth of Jesus presents an implicit challenge to this imperial propaganda, not by denying the imperial ideals, but by claiming that the real peace of the world was brought about by Jesus" [p. 415]

Culpepper (Luke, New Interpreter's Bible) notes some contrasts:

The Savior of all people was born under the reign of Caesar Augustus, whose peace paled before that announced by the angels. The Messiah born under Roman oppression, which was so evident in the forced registration, would overthrow the powerful and raise up the oppressed. [p. 63]

THE CENSUS

There is much discussion about when (or if) a census of "all the world" (οἰκουμένη - oikoumenē) occurred. There are no other records of such an event during the reign of Augustus, nor of any census that required people to be registered in their ancestral cities. There is a record of a Judean census (which did not include Galilee) in 6-7 A.D. when Quirinius became governor of Syria. This took place ten years after King Herod had died, who was reigning when the birth announcements took place (Luke 1:5).

Within Luke's narrative, the census serves to move the holy family from Nazareth to Bethlehem. If it were known that Jesus grew up in Nazareth and that he was born in Bethlehem, there needs to be some connection between the two cities. Matthew's (ch. 2) approach is to have Jesus born in Bethlehem, presumably in the family's house, and then they are forced to flee to Egypt during the massacre of the children. When they return, they settle in Nazareth (to fulfill an unknown scriptural passage). 

Theological, we see that the Roman emperor, the mightiest figure in the world is serving God's plan by issuing an edict for the census of the whole world. Bethlehem will be the place where the savior of the whole world will be born. Craddock (Luke, Interpretation Commentaries) says more about this: 

Beyond any argument as to Luke's historical sources is his basic conviction that emperors, governments, and laws serve the purpose of God, often without knowing it. In this, Luke agrees with Isaiah 45:1. Caesar Augustus is more than a date for the story; he is an instrument of God's will. There does not have to be a miracle or an unusual event for God to be at work. God works miracles in Luke, to be sure, but God works without them, too. [p. 34]

There may also be symbolic meanings behind the census. 

Augustus may represent the Roman background of the birth, and a census the Jewish background. King David ordered a census (2 Sam 24) and incurred God's wrath in the form of a pestilence. But, in accord with God's ability to bring good out of evil, the place in Jerusalem where the pestilence stopped became the spot for the building of the Temple (2 Chr. 3:1). Jesus is born in the city of David. The temple plays a prominent role in the opening chapters of Luke. 

The census of Quirinius (mentioned above) provoked the rebellion of Judas the Galilean, the founder of the Zealot movement. Part of the charges against Jesus was that he refused to pay Roman taxes (Luke 23:2), of which Pilate declares Jesus innocent. Ironically, Jesus birth happened in Bethlehem, because his parents were obedient to the Roman census edict to go there and pay their taxes.

A Greek version of Psalm 87:6 attested in Eusebius' Commentary on the Psalms reads: "In the census of the peoples, this one will be born there." While we don't know for sure whether this version of Psalm 87 predates Luke or if it was influenced by Luke's story, it is possible that Luke was influenced by this version of the psalm and thus expanded the census taken by Quirinius of Judah to include the whole world.

Brian Stoffregen
pastor, Faith Lutheran Church, 2215 S 8th Avenue, Yuma, AZ 85364
e-mail: brian.stoffregen at gmail.com

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://stsams.org/pipermail/propertalk_stsams.org/attachments/20091217/ad959abe/attachment.htm>