LUKE 1:5 TO LUKE 2:52. NARRATIVES OF THE INFANCY OF JESUS. This section has outstanding peculiarities of style and diction as compared with Luke 1:1, and the rest of the Gospel. It has therefore been surmised that the writer has here incorporated an Aramaic (possibly Greek) source-document, or that... [ Continue Reading ]
PREFACE. The writer, influenced by the attempts of others to record the primitive tradition of Christianity as it was handed down by the first generation of disciples, essays the same task, and having taken pains to collect, examine, sift, and arrange the contents of the written and oral tradition,... [ Continue Reading ]
PREDICTION OF THE BIRTH OF JOHN THE BAPTIST. Lk. alone gives the story, which perhaps existed independently. and had been preserved in Baptist circles like that of Acts 19:1. Its Jewish character and form are evident: there are many reminiscences of OT incidents and language. In the days of Herod th... [ Continue Reading ]
PREDICTION OF THE BIRTH OF JESUS. Lk. alone gives this narrative. Three or four months before _the birth of Elisabeth's_ child, Gabriel comes to Nazareth and announces to Mary, a virgin betrothed to one Joseph, a descendant of David, that she stands high in Yahweh's favour. After dispelling her fear... [ Continue Reading ]
MARY VISITS ELISABETH. THE MAGNIFICAT. The passage links the two preceding incidents, and serves to show the inferiority of John the forerunner, to Jesus the Messiah. Mary (finding herself with child) proceeds to verify the sign. She seeks Elisabeth in a Judæ an village (perhaps Ain Karim, six miles... [ Continue Reading ]
THE BIRTH OF JOHN. THE BENEDICTAS. In due course Elisabeth bore her son and received the congratulations of her friends. When the babe has been circumcised and named, his mother rejects the proposal to call him Zacharias and insists on John. The deaf and dumb father confirms his wife's wish, and his... [ Continue Reading ]