Page 76 - A Dissertation for Doctor of Philosophy

traditions that underscore Jesus’ role as preacher beyond the material he shared with Mark. Only

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Luke though, preserves the narrative of the boy Jesus in the Temple. Fitzmyer insists that

Luke intend to convey by this episode how much Jesus was “trained in the Torah and its

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requirement and fulfilling his obligations, even in advance.” By retaining this material, Luke

may be reporting how Jesus prepared for his future ministry while he was a young boy.

In Luke 4:16-30, Luke dedicates considerable space to reporting Jesus’ preaching at the Nazareth

Synagogue. A fair consensus of scholarship is of the opinion that Luke derived the basic

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structure of this Nazareth account from Mark 6:1-6, pre-Lucan, and Lucan materials. In this

pericope, Luke seems to describe Jesus as a preacher and takes this opportunity to introduce his

messianic preaching ministry. Old agrees, “Be that as it may, one could hardly find a better text

on which to preach a sermon on the messianic preaching ministry. Here we see Jesus preaching

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on preaching.” Yngve Brilioth, a historic homiletician asserts that it is “the key to the history of
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Christian preaching through the ages.”

Gentiles.” Cf. John Nolland, Luke 1-9:20 in Word Biblical Commentary, vol. 35a, ed. David A.
Hubbard and Glenn W. Barker (Dallas: Word Book, 1989), xxxii. In this commentary on Luke,
he maintains that the “the ideal first-century reader for much of the Gospel of Luke (and of Acts)
is a God-fearer.”

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Luke 2:40-51.
20
Joseph A. Fitzmyer, S.J., The Gospel According to Luke (I-IX) in The Anchor Bible, vol.
28, ed. William Foxwell Albright and David Noel Freedman (Garden City, NY: Doubleday &
Company, Inc., 1981), 438.

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Siker, “First to the Gentiles,” 74.
22
Old, Reading and Preaching, 131.
23
Yngve Brilioth, A Brief History of Preaching, translated by Karl E. Mattson
(Philadelphia, PN: Fortress Press, 1965), 11. See also Thomas K. Carroll, Preaching the Word
(Wilmington, DE: Michael Glazier, Inc., 1984), 10-20. He presents Jesus’ preaching in the