The Genius of the Gospel of Luke

The genius of Luke’s Gospel is frequently overlooked by those who simply breeze through it or assume it is saying the same thing as Matthew and Mark. In fact, it is strikingly different. What especially matters are not so much the contradictions one finds, but the larger picture. Luke has radically edited Mark’s account in places to create a new portrait of Jesus. In this episode we see how he did it and what the end result is. Among other things, when you look carefully at the details of Luke’s account, you find that, unlike the other Gospels, here Jesus does not suffer during his passion and his death does not bring an atonement for sins. These are not minor differences. Why would Luke change the story so significantly?

This week, Bart addresses:

-What do we know about who wrote Luke and when?

-In broad terms, how does it relate to the other Gospels?

-Mark depicts Jesus as the son of God who has to die for the sins of others, but that no one recognizes him and Matthew portrays him as a distinctly Jewish Messiah come in fulfilment of the Jewish Scriptures. Does Luke agree with these views, or is it completely different?

-Do we have examples of Luke’s concern with Gentiles?

-Why would Luke make a passion without suffering?

-How can we explain Luke’s removal of atonement?

-How does Luke combine all of these different features to support his own theological message?

-What does this say about how we ought to read the Gospels? Should we take them all as parts of the same story, or as different stories?

[Pooneil]

My decades of bible classes were complely wasted in revealing the subtlety of the New Testament. This one video has more insights than all those classes and in church readings.

[sunvalleydrivemusic]

These two are such a great pairing. I hope they keep this up for a long long time.

[smerr]

Thanks for staying on topic and being concise. 30-40 minutes is just right to give us novices some new ideas and keep it interesting.

[leonkennedy]

Guys I'm a reformed christian and I love to listening n taking course of Bart Erhman is really inspiration

[RexJebamoney]

As usual a great deal of information. For almost 70 years the only information I had about following Jesus was from the church. Thanks to the internet and to research and study by various scholars and experts there is more information available to actually to be more informed in your spiritual journey. Ultimately we are all trying to be good custodians of creation during our short time here. We can take different paths, but the ultimate goal is to realize we are all one in creation and are a small part of a big picture, so big, that our minds cannot comprehend it. The only way to have heaven on earth is by respecting each other and cooperate with each other so that we can ultimately live in harmony just as what “God” or nature intended.

[joannasarcamedes]

I sure love this guy hes been digging for the truth for a long time. The wealth of insight and wisdom is just what i look for in a teacher of the word. Im all ears and on the edge of my seat when he speaks. The main stream preacher that went to bible college will for the most of them not dig deep enough to grasp the truth outside of the box . Thnx Bart.

[BanjaraHillbillies]

Bart always makes me feel like I am back in Seminary!

[holly]

Wasn’t it Mark Twain who said “Never put off to tomorrow what you can put off to the day after tomorrow.”? A wise man.

[stefanowohsdioghasdhisdg]

I've been waiting for this since he talked about Matthew and Mark

[tarotstudent]

This was great. Can’t wait for the genius of the gospel of John!

[dpichney]

Dr. Levine came to our Royal Poinciana Chapel in Palm Beach, FL several years ago and spoke about the the parable of the Good Samaritan and it was absolutely informative and eye opening! Also, she seemed to say in so many words tht she was no longer a believer and I questioned her about that. She said that she stays involved with her orthodox Jewish religion primarily to be part of a community of like minded people with a shared history and culture.

[while.coyote]

I think Luke was staring right at Matthew the whole time he was writing Luke, and the reason they disagree so strongly is precisely because Luke was appalled at how wrong Matthew was about stuff and wanted to "fix" it to reflect his own ideas. I think that's the same reason we have Matthew. And John, for that matter.

[simonodowd]

Professor Steve Mason gives an excellent presentation of the Josephus connection to Luke/Acts on MythVision, highly recommended to any fellow NT geeks or Christians interested in the history.

[michaelhenry]

I happy Bart is giving nods to the later dating to Luke/Acts and the Ferrer hypothesis.

[honeykira]

Fascinating and educational! Thank you so much! ❤️

[chcomes]

A new video, a new funky glasses competition :-) I would love the wave glasses to come back

[Rain-Dirt]

Bart Ehrman is a teacher/human whom I would have needed 20 y ago, but still has intellectual importance regarding his expertise. I'm still glad that these episodes are available to the (wider) public now today. Thank you, really.

(P.s.: Megan is a hottie... :) )

[sandraR]

Mark, Luke and Mathew's illustration is awesome and came from a true loving heart for what you read ❤

[DneilB]

7:25 That’s kinda interesting. If we combine the point about Luke referencing Josephus (thus Luke being relatively late) with this idea, is it possible then that Luke is trying to syncretize Paul’s “gospel” with the Matthew/Mark theology and the Johannine theology? If so, should we maybe credit the author of Luke with creating the foundation of Christian orthodoxy as it has come down to us?

[integrationalpolytheism]

14:30 - that's an interesting point to notice, however surely it doesn't take much thought to realise that anybody who is descended from Abraham must also be descended from Adam, so he must be descended from Adam in both lines, even if it doesn't explicitly say so.