Luke: Illuminating the Sage of Galilee by Kenneth L. Hanson (review)

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Reviewed by:

• Luke: Illuminating the Sage of Galilee by Kenneth L. Hanson
• Zev Garber

Kenneth L. Hanson, Luke: Illuminating the Sage of Galilee. Denver, CO: GCRR Press (imprint of the Global Center for Religious Research), 2022. Pp. 248. $38.00.

Hanson (University of Central Florida) tackles issues of composition, interpretation, and scriptural message of the Gospel of Luke in an unusual way. His methodology to help the reader access teachings and meanings of passages in the Synoptic Gospels follows more or less the standard Hebrew Scriptures approach: introduction, analysis, and commentary that draws out its main themes and comments on individual verses and problems of interpretation. He engages categories of Hebrew Scriptures, rabbinic sources (Mishna, Talmud, Midrash, Targum), and Dead Sea Scrolls to complement and/or contrast episodes, religious belief and practice, and ideologies projected primarily in Luke. Positing, identifying, and defending a Hebrew style of philosophy, ritualism, and argumentation in Luke, he compares and contrasts the Weltanschauung of the third Gospel with comparable Synoptic and Pauline parallels and, where relevant, with Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Hellenism.

The tightly argued chapters and abundant footnotes (some repetitive to avoid seeking the original notation) cover history, geography, culture, language, literature, personalities, philosophy, and religion—in short, Hebraic epistemology, [End Page 607] argumentative narrative, ritualistic belief and practice independent of Hellenistic intellectualism.

Traditional Christian teaching on the Gospel of Luke instructs that the life, teaching, and death of Jesus is a central message of universal salvation addressed to all people. According to tradition, at the close of the second century, based on the authority of St. Irenaeus and Tertullian, Luke-Acts has been attributed to Luke, a physician who accompanied Paul in his missionary journeys from Troas to Philippi (Acts 16:10–17) and from Philippi to Jerusalem (Acts 20:5–12), and went with him to Rome, where he stayed during his captivity (Col. 4:14; 2 Tim. 4:11). Most modern scholars are of the opinion that Luke’s Gospel is composed of two main sources, Mark and the so-called “Q,” while material unique to Luke called “L” and the Birth stories (chaps. 1–2) are attributed to a Jewish-Christian source. Additionally, some have proposed that the Synoptic Luke is an original “Proto-Luke” consisting of “L” and “Q,” to which a later editor added sections of Mark, while the Passion Narrative is said to be derived from an independent source.

For the most part, Hanson’s hypothetical evolution of Luke within the Synoptics agrees with contemporary scholarship (Anthological Text, Reconstructed Text, etc.), but his indebtedness to the Jerusalem School of Synoptic Research (Southern Baptist minister Robert Lindsey and Orthodox Jewish Hebrew University professor David Flusser) sees a Hebrew subtext or “under-text” (Grundschrift) to Luke. Though written in idiomatic Greek, the Gospel’s multiple use of Hebrew words and idioms suggests that Hebrew terms and biblical passages were carefully translated and transmitted from a primary Hebrew ur-text. To suggest that Luke’s distinctive emphasis and interpretation on the Holy Spirit and the roles of women and gentiles are actually grounded in an original Hebrew text underscores a strong claim of Jewishness to Jesus (rabbi, king, messiah). Nonetheless, there are narratives that cannot be identified with the original ur-text, such as the fall of Jerusalem in 70 C.E. described in detail lacking in the Gospels and thus suggesting a post-70 Lukan redactor (Lk. 19:43–44, 21:20 and 24).

The time is long overdue for Jewish educators, clergy, and laity to penetrate into Christian scriptures to discover and appraise the historical Jesus, which can help to illuminate and correct the misgivings and misdirection about the Jews found in Christendom. Hanson’s mastery of Hebrew and Jewish tradition is a wonderful incentive. He explains and explicates key words and practices, such as adoni (my lord), not Ado-nai (my Lord), a title of respect when addressing [End Page 608] a superior; the proper recitation of the Šĕma` (Lk. 10:27; cf. Mk. 12:30 and Mt. 22:37); and the institution of the Last Supper (a Seder meal?) (Lk. 22:15–20; Mk. 14:22–25; Mt. 26:26–29; 1 Cor. 11:23...