> Hi Greg, > I have asked all the Far North Coast Presbytery to watch the SBS Documentary > (available through Dymocks) on "Who wrote the New Testament?" - we will > probably discuss some of the issues you raise. > - Amelia Koh-Butler
I saw that documentary in parts. If I recall they pointed to, among other things, the fact that St Peter was referred to as "illiterate" in Acts 4:13. Thus they ask, how could he have written epistles? Of course, such a description is an unflattering comment by his enemies and may not have been literally true. It also raises the matter of Luke's account of "history", since Luke has here put words on the lips of the characters. How accurate was Luke anyway? When we compare Luke's second-hand account of the controversy over the Jewish Law it does not agree with Paul's first-hand account, nor does Luke accurately portray Paul's theology. As the late, great Robert Maddox said in his "Purpose of Luke-Acts", "It is now generally acknowledged that Luke did not know the Pauline letters, and that if he had any personal contact with Paul at all, it was not in such a way that he could get to know his theology in any more than a superficial way." Our congregation has been working through this and other issues in small groups. One of the questions was, Which represents Paul's theology most accurately: Paul's own letters or Luke's second-hand account? It was one of those "doh" type questions to which the answer was obviously Paul; but it brought the matter into the consciousness of the groups. Most movie-makers follow Acts in an account of Paul and thus manage to misrepresent the situation and Paul. The issue has ongoing implications. At first sight, Luke appears to have a benign attitude to Judaism, but closer inspection reveals a very negative summation. For instance, the destruction of Jerusalem is regarded as God's just punishment on the people who rejected Jesus. (Compare Luke's account of Jesus' apocalyptic discourse with the other Synoptics). Imagine the political ramifications of that for the modern question marks over the state of Israel. So does Luke provide the infallible word of God? That's an important question for the Church. This year we are majoring on Luke in the lectionary. - Greg ------------------------------------------------------ - You are subscribed to the mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] - To unsubscribe, email [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the message body 'unsubscribe insights-l' (ell, not one (1)) See: http://nsw.uca.org.au/insights-l-information.htm ------------------------------------------------------
