Taking Mark 6:1-6 and Luke 4:16-30 at face value, a reader gains insight into each author without delving into the content. Mark, although the earlier of the two stories, is vastly shorter than in Luke. Luke’s version of the story is written eloquently, juxtaposed with Mark’s abrupt, straight to the point, Hemingway-esque style.

The first major difference between the two stories is that in Luke, Jesus reads from the scrolls of the Prophet Isaiah. Jesus read from the scroll, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me… to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord” (Luke 4:18-20). Jesus reads this passage from the scroll and then promptly sits down; proclaiming that he is the one Isaiah spoke of in the story. In Mark’s rendition of the story Jesus merely “began to teach” (Mark 6:2), not giving any further information about what was said. The crowd reacts surprisingly positively at first in Luke’s story, accepting the premise that Jesus is the Messiah. Conflict arises however when the people in the Synagogue ask Jesus to preform the miracles that they had heard about.

Jesus responds to the requests for miracles by saying, “No prophet is accepted in in the prophet’s hometown” (Luke 4:24). Jesus continues speaking, giving the people of Nazareth the examples of Elijah and Elisha who, instead of giving help to Jewish people, helped gentiles. The gathering of people were enraged at the apparent mention of gentiles, not Jesus’ claims to be the Messiah, as cited in the notes of the NRSV. Luke includes the details of Elijah and Elisha to further his agenda to make Jesus more appealing to a non-Jewish audience. Luke cites Elisha as cleansing a gentile leper, while passing up other Lepers in Israel. For Luke to draw parallels between the story of Elisha and the work that Jesus was doing, would have been very attractive to people who didn’t practice the Jewish faith. By showing that Jesus not only helped gentiles, but welcomed them, Luke emphasized the concept that Jesus’ teachings were for the people of the world, and not just Jews. If we take into account that it is believed that Luke himself was in fact not Jewish, it also makes sense that he would want to shed light on Jesus’ love of gentiles, since he was a gentile himself. Lastly, Ehrman notes that in the instance of the Prophets Elijah and Elisha, god sent them to help gentiles, thus Jesus embodies the prophecy of Isaiah by embracing the fact that he too will help gentiles like prophets before him.

– Jackson OConnell