Date of Graduation

Fall 2021

Degree

Master of Arts in Religious Studies

Department

Religious Studies

Committee Chair

Mark Given

Abstract

In his gospel, Luke uses various identity markers in his description of Jesus (Son of God, Son of Man, Davidide, etc.). One of the primary markers that Luke uses for Jesus is “prophet,” and this marker serves Luke’s historiographical purpose of identifying Jesus as the culminating figure in Israelite history. A significant body of work has already been produced discussing the areas where Jesus is shown to act like a prophet. However, this thesis will continue the discussion by looking at the places where Jesus is shown to “bust” the prophetic mold by doing and saying things that prophets normally do not. First, this thesis will discuss some ideas offered by Bruce Lincoln (ancestral invocation, shared eschatological images, and authority construction) that will prove useful in identifying how Luke uses the prophetic office in his historiography. It will then discuss a variety of prophetic tropes that commonly appear in the Old Testament in order to then show how Luke has Jesus emulate these motifs in his gospel. It will be demonstrated that Luke shows Jesus to surpass or “bust” these prophetic tropes, thus cementing Jesus as one who is truly the ultimate figure of Israelite history and the legitimate central figure in the early Christian community.

Keywords

Luke, Jesus, christology, prophet, Synoptic Gospels, authority, Bruce Lincoln

Subject Categories

Biblical Studies

Copyright

© Kendall Joseph Mayo

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Open Access

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