Biblical Hermeneutics Topic A: 1.

Give an interpretation of Luke 2:1-20 applying insights from a narrative perspective

This piece of narrative exegesis will focus on three scenes in Lukes birth narrative endeavouring to show how they combine with each other and intertextually with Isaiah, and to a lesser extent Micah, to shape an extremely rich and evocative story about Jesus identity and divine mission whilst also reflecting on the response the story seems to demand of us as readers.

The Birth of Jesus In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered1

Augustus is the epitome of the classical hero, an enlightened warrior, a man of destiny. His Excellency Theophilis would have understood this. Therefore, a tension is created since in the previous chapter the archangel Gabriel, addressing Mary, has said that:

you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be end2.

Biblical quotations are taken from Luke 2:1-20 in the New Revised Standard Version unless specified 2 Luke 1:31-33

We have come to understand that the time of Jesus birth was one of great messianic expectancy. This expectancy is tangible in the opening chapters of Luke. At this stage we are perhaps expecting, like many Jews of the time, a great military leader, a new David to slay a new Goliath. Jonathan Kirsch opens his book on King David as follows:

Something crucial in human history begins with the biblical figure of King David. He is the original alpha male, the kind of man whose virile ambition always drives him to the head of the pack. He is the first superstar, a figure so compelling that the Bible may have originated as his royal biography. He is an authentic sex symbol, a ruggedly handsome fellow who inspires passion in both men and women, a passion expressed sometimes as hero worship and sometimes as carnal longing. He is the quintessential winner as one Bible scholar puts it, and the biblical life story of David has always shaped what we expect of ourselves and, even more so, of the men and women who lead us3.

Jesus, as the descendant of David, would have been expected to be a new David in a typological way but as we shall discover, there is a huge irony involved here. The new David we are introduced to is but a helpless mewling infant, immensely more vulnerable than the old; and equally, this new Goliath, the world empire of Augustus, is incalculably more powerful than his philistine trope. Jesus, we will discover, is almost the very opposite of David.

Kirsch, 2000, P1

All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the City of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David

No reader familiar with the Jewish scriptures could hear these words without recalling the prophecy of Micah chapter 5:

But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah, who are one of the little clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to rule in Israel

Micah says that this ruler shall be the one of peace and great to the ends of the earth. His kindred shall return to the remnant of Jacob and be fed by him in the strength of the Lord. Then the people of Israel will no longer depend upon people or wait for any mortal. This messiah is no mortal then. Rather, his origin is from of old, from ancient days. We get the impression that the remnant of Israel is something other than the Judeans generally. Presently, we will see who Luke offers as the type of this faithful remnant. Israel generally, however, now depends upon people Augustus, her high priests and/or she awaits a mortal a new King David to liberate her.

And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn

God came to earth in a shelter for animals, lay in an animals trough, perhaps in a cave that foreshadows the tomb from which he will rise from the dead; perhaps on pricking straw that foreshadows the nails and piercing of Calvary4. Later in Luke we read As
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Rowell & Chilcott-Monk, 2002, Page viii

they were going along the road, a man said to him, I will follow you wherever you go. And Jesus said to him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head5. It had been thus since Jesus birth. The Greek version of Isaiah 1.2-3 reads:

Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth, For the Lord has spoken: I have begotten children and raised them up, And they have set me at naught. An ox knows its owner, and an ass the manger of its Lord; But Israel has not recognised me, the people have not known me

Immediately before Jesus complaint that the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head, we read that he had sent messengers ahead of him to a Samaritan village to prepare for his arrival there. However the people would not receive him. Margaret Barker claims that the biblical narrative hides within it traces of an older, secret, tradition of Judaism that Christianity was the heir to6. A first rate Hebrew scholar she has shown that many scriptural texts involve sophisticated wordplays that cause them to echo. The above passage is one such echoing text. The ox, sor, knows its owner, qoneh, is very similar in sound to the prince sar, knows his begetter, qoneh being the ancient title for El Elyon in Genesis 14:19. The ass, hamor, sounds like komer, priest, and ebus, crib, is like jebus, the ancient name for Jerusalem. Beneath the familiar text can be heard another message: The prince knows his father and the priest of Jerusalem his master. The idea is contrasted with the reality, and that is the point of the oracle7.
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Luke 9:51-62 See for example Barker, 2004 (1). Jesus appears to suggest as much in Mark 4:10-12 7 Barker, 2004 (2), P15

What we can see therefore, is that the birth of Jesus represents the coming of a new order in opposition to the Augustan world empire and to the collaborationist state of his own people. A new tension is being introduced in Jesus birth in the manger the rejection of the Messiah by Israel because he did not fulfil existing expectations; because the people did not have eyes to see and ears to hear. This theme will be developed below.

In the first chapter of Luke the moment in which the New Order succeeds the Old within the people of God is made apparent. John, the baptiser, as the new Elijah we are told, will be called a prophet of the most high (El Elyon, qoneh) and he will go before the Lord to prepare his way, to give people knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins. John, son of the priest Zacharias, is the last of the old order and Jesus, son of David, is the establishment of the new.

Shepherds and Angels In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified

Why would the arrival of Israels long expected Messiah be first announced to shepherds? It is easy to skip by this passage without fully digesting its utterly profound implications. The announcement to the shepherds, rather than to world rulers or high priests has to be seen as a profound rejection by God of those who minister and rule in his name. The announcement of the angels leads us to identify these shepherds as the

remnant of faithful Israel. But this is shocking since the social status of shepherds was lowly indeed. Moreover these shepherds were, in many respects, outsiders, in view of their inability to observe strictly the laws of their religion on account of their mode of life8. Israel was once an outsider nation in captivity. According to one Rabbi, a possible translation of Hebrew is in fact outsider or other-sider9. Moses first son was named Gershom alien (outsider) in a strange land10. But now she is a collaborator, a vassal state, an appeaser. The Gospel of Luke, perhaps more than any other, will develop the idea that Jesus came as an outsider for the benefit of outsiders, be they the poor, the ill, the outcast of Israel, or be they those outside the covenant. This theme culminates in Lukes distinctive crucifixion scene with the story of Jesus and the criminal. The Oxford Bible Commentary says This episode is entirely in keeping with those earlier stories of Jesus open acceptance of the outsider.11

And suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favours!

The first chapters in Luke create an overwhelming sensation of heaven breaking into earth, of God acting in the world. By the time an angel of the Lord visits the shepherds, Zechariah (who was similarly terrified) and Mary will both have been visited by Gabriel. Before the birth narrative ends, Simeon will praise God and prophesy whilst Anna will begin to evangelise all who are looking for the redemption of Jerusalem. At
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Rowell & Chilcott-Monk, 2002, P103 Rabbi Laibl Wolf says In his youth Abraham had turned his back on the negative forces of tumah (spiritual blemish) and adopted the pathway of spiritual monotheism. This rebellious stance earned him his calling card the Ivri, meaning the other-sider, or the outsider. The word Ivri became anglicised as Hebrew. Wolf, 1999, P20. Whether this is etymologically correct or not is something of a moot point. The issue is more one of self-identification. 10 Exodus 2:22 11 Oxford Bible Commentary, P..See also Luke 7:36-50; 8:43-48; 17:11-19.

the centre of this divine influx is the appearance of an angel of the Lord to the shepherds living in the fields evoking Isaiahs vision of God in the Temple12 where Seraphs attend the Lord on his throne and call to one another Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.

At least four ideas are woven together in the passage concerning the shepherds and the angels.

Firstly, in the vision, the Lord tells the prophet to deliver this message to the people keep listening, but do not comprehend; keep looking, but do not understand. This can be seen both as a fulfilment of the prophecy and as a development of the idea that Jesus will be rejected because misunderstood. As Micah says, the people are waiting for a mortal, rather than surrendering to the strength of God13.

Secondly, the evocation of the passage serves to identify Jesus as the promised messiah. Isaiah cries out How long, O Lord? to which God replies:

Until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without people, and the land is utterly desolate; until the Lord sends everyone far away, and vast is the emptiness in the midst of the land. Even if a tenth part remain in it, it will be burned again, like a terebinth or an oak whose stump remains standing when it is felled.

The mysterious epilogue to this passage is The holy seed is its stump. This in turn reminds us of Isaiahs vision of the peaceful kingdom A shoot shall come out from
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Chapter 6 The importance of the vision of Isaiah is underlined by Jesus direct reference to it in discussing the purpose of the parables in Mark 4:10-12

the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots14. This passage is the source of the expectation of a new king from the line of David (Jesse being Davids father).

Thirdly, we are introduced to the idea of the worship of the angels. Margaret Barker writes:

Isaiah was in the temple, mystically looking beyond the veil and into the holy of holies itself. He was gazing into the heart of the creation, where he saw fiery seraphim praising the Creator. From their place by the throne the seraphim looked out onto the whole world and saw that it was full of the glory of the Lord. Thus Isaiah believed that angelic praise of the Lord was at the heart of creation, and the glory of the world around him flowed from this heavenly praise15.

Elsewhere, Barker says of this passage in Isaiah:

The harmony in heaven, shown by the praise and worship of the angels, had to be copied by the rest of the creation if there was to be peace and harmony on earth. The angels at Bethlehem, described by Luke in his nativity story, were singing about this: Glory to God in the highest this was the worship of the angels and peace on earth to men of good will this was the human response16.

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Isaiah 11.1-9. Isaiah goes onto to prophesy the return of the remnant (11.10-16). This echoes with Micah 5 (also a vision of the peaceful kingdom) where we read then the rest of his kindred shall return to the people of Israel. 15 Barker, 2004 (2), P138 16 Barker, 2004 (2), P139

Finally, there is the idea that the response of men to the worship of angels is the doing of peace17. The vision of Isaiah is of worshipping angels Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory18 whereas in Luke the angels declare glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favours. The key here is and on earth peace among those whom he favours. This is an addition to the worship of angels we have seen in Isaiah and suggests that the ministry of Jesus heralds the time at which the cities will lie in waste and the land will become utterly desolate. As Jesus reaches Jerusalem in his last week on earth he weeps over her If you, even you, had only recognised on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. Indeed the days will come when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you and hem you in on every side. They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another, because you did not recognise the time of your visitation from God19

Jesus, the messiah, will show that it is not the ways of man that lead to fulfilment but the ways of God. He has come to return Israel to the worship of the angels and the pursuit of peace on earth as the inevitable response of such worship. Yet there is a tragedy here that causes the Lord to weep. Jerusalem will not recognise the things that make for peace before she is laid waste and crushed to the ground.

Marys Response
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John, in going before the Lord, had called Israel to repentance, metanoia or, in Hebrew, teshuvah. The Jewish sages say that teshuvah was one of things whose creation predated the world. Since it is written into the very structure of the universe, teshuvah is the origin of time (as one of the necessary preconditions for change) and free will (the other precondition). Teshuvah means return to God in the sense of re-connecting, (sin thus being disconnection), turning, revolving, and replying, responding 18 Isaiah 6:3 19 Luke 19:41-44

But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart

Rowell and Chilcott-Monk write At the end of the birth narrative, Luke records in a simple note that Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. Here, Luke is saying to us something so surpassingly wonderful that we need to return to contemplate it time and again: that Mary, the Virgin Mother of God, is said to keep and ponder. She treasures them up and she meditates, reflects, and engages deeply with their meaning20.

Barker notes that:

One of the seraphim then touched Isaiahs mouth with a glowing coal from the altar, and he was appointed the messenger or angel of the Lord of Hosts. Isaiah not only saw the heavenly worship; he was himself a part of it, and when he had been touched by the fire, he too became the angel of the Lord21.

There is a similarity between the work of the coal and the Greek word we translate as ponder used of Mary in Luke 2. Rowell says that the Greek word we translate as ponder means really to symbolize and almost to kindle the imagination, and even, if we pushed it a little further, to be set on fire about something. There is therefore an imaginative and literary connection between the fiery coal and the contemplative practice in which Mary was engaged22.
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Rowell & Chilcott-Monk, 2002, P121 Barker, 2004 (2), P138 22 Another possible linkage is to Revelation 10 where John is told to eat the book or scroll. As Isaiah received his prophetic and angelic office through the vision and the burning coal, John receives his through the metaphorical act of eating the book, an act Eugene Peterson sees as a metaphor for spiritual reading lectio divina. 'St. John walks up to the angel and says, 'Give me the book. The angel hands it over, 'Here it is; eat the book.' And John does. He eats the book - not just reads it - he got it into his nerve endings, his reflexes, his imagination. The book he ate was Holy Scripture. There

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Rowell points out that The old monks were said to ruminate on Scripture, to chew it over as a ruminant chews the cud. So many Christians think of prayer simply as asking God for things; that is only a small part of prayer. When we pray deeply we should be like those old monks, chewing over the words of Scripture; or, better still, like Mary, kindling our imaginations and pondering in our hearts23.

Summary

One of the principle literary devices Luke uses to develop his themes is intertextuality. How much of this was intended by Luke is a moot point for like the branch that grows from the stump of Jesse, or the wild olive branch grafted into the tree of the people of Israel, we, like Luke, are woven into the text of Christ as Christians and we weave the texts of our life into that story too.

The second principle literary device Luke uses is irony. The irony of this passage is staggering. We are perhaps too familiar with the story to recover anything like the disorienting effect it must have had on the most excellent Theophilius and others of his time and situation. This device is particularly potent for dislocating us from our unquestioned assumptions and to open our eyes to the meaning of the incarnation.

The grand theme of the passage is one of the grand themes of Luke generally; the passing of the Old Order, not just of Israel but also of this world and the coming of the
is only one way of reading that is congruent with our Holy Scriptures, writing that trusts in the power of words to penetrate our lives and create truth and beauty and goodness. 'Spiritual reading', reading that enters our souls as food enters our stomachs, spreads through our blood, and becomes holiness and love and wisdom.' 23 Rowell & Chilcott-Monk, 2002, P121-122

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new. We glimpse something of how this new order will subvert the expectations of the old with simple herdsmen rather the warriors being seen as the vanguard of the Kingdom. Those who tend their flocks these lowly overseers of sheep will become the model for the bishops of Christs flock. The new order will be a return to the worship of the angels and to its reflex the pursuit of peace on earth.

How are we to respond to the text? We are Theophilus; we are the shepherds tending their flocks, going about their business, and most of all we are Mary, bearing within us the image of God24. Mary is held up as the first of this new order and in a sense the Church is born in the manger. In her prayerful response is the model for our own response. Ultimately we can see the traces of a call to divinisation. Like Mary we must treasure these words with their mystery, intertextuality and irony in our heart and ponder them so that like her, we too may be counted as the disciples of Christ.

For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. His authority shall grow continually, and there shall be endless peace for the throne of David and his kingdom.
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Space prohibits a deeper consideration of the idea that we may relate to this narrative as the one to whom it is addressed, the most excellent Theophilus, or as a believer to whom Christ has been revealed, i.e. a shepherd. Instead I have emphasised Mary as the type of the reader since I believe her role in the narrative is in a sense a culmination of the process of reading that takes us from interested onlooker (Theophilus) through committed believer (shepherds) to bearer-of-God

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He will establish and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time onwards and for evermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

Isaiah 9:6-7

<Word Count 3105>

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Bibliography Barker, M., 2004 (1). Temple Theology: An Introduction. London: SPCK Barker, M., 2004 (2). An Extraordinary Gathering of Angel. London: MQ Publications Griffith-Jones, R. 2000. The Four Witnesses. San Francisco: Harper Kirsch, J., 2000. Kind David. New York: Ballantine Rowell, G., & Chilcott-Monk, 2002. Come, Lord Jesus! Norwich: Canterbury Press Wolf, L., 1999. Practical Kabbalah: New York: Three Rivers Press

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