I. Howard Marshall’s Luke: Historian and Theologian

Abstract

I. H. Marshall’s Luke: Historian and Theologian was a relatively short volume published in 1970. It was written primarily to respond to Hans Conzelmann’s book, Die Mitte der Zeit (‘The Middle of Time’), which claimed that the author of Luke-Acts redacted his sources to respond to the crisis provoked by the delay of the parousia in the church of his day. While Marshall’s work had a relatively narrow focus, it had a surprisingly significant impact, not only defending the historicity of Luke-Act but also introducing evangelical readers to redaction criticism and the theological purposes of the Evangelists. Fifty years after its original publication, we survey the book’s contents and reflect on its impact for evangelical scholarship and New Testament studies in general.