1. How does Luke weave together the lives of John the Baptist and Jesus, and why has Luke has constructed the story in this fashion?
The birth narrative in the book of Luke is like no other story seen in the synoptic gospels. There is a strong emphasis on Jesus and John inside their mothers, where as the book of Matthew places much more emphasis on the events and signs surrounding Jesus’s birth. In Luke we see a masterful story being weaved together where the birth of Jesus and John has prophetic meaning of their final meeting. The story is woven together by first explaining the annunciations of Johns Birth in (1:5-25), directly followed by the annunciations of Jesus birth in (1:26-45,56). In both we stories we see the angel Gabriel being sent by the Lord to deliver the message of conception first to Zechariah, husband of Elizabeth and then to Mary the virgin, who is to be married. Next we see the birth, circumcision, and naming of Jesus and John woven together. Once again John is discussed first in (Lk. 1:57-66,80) and then the story of Jesus is to follow in (2:1-27,34-40). Both of these passages follow the same similar pattern of the child being born and prophecy being fulfilled. Although there is a much stronger emphasis on the birth of Jesus and there are already claims being made about him being the Messiah. Both the stories end in an almost identical fashion, talking about the child growing and becoming strong. The difference once again lies in the description of Jesus as it claims in verse 40 that “the favor of God was upon him.” Here we again see Jesus being lifted up over John the Baptist. Luke has constructed the story this way to give narrative complexity and a burden of proof to the story. It also has a heavy tone, in which John is a very important figure to the final destiny of Jesus, but that Jesus is Gods true son and chosen one.
2. How do the Jewish scriptures shape these sections of the narrative?
When looking at this story in light of Jewish scripture we find many similarities from the story of Sarah’s birth of Issac in Gen. (18:1-15) and Hannah’s birth of Samuel in 1 Sam. (1:1-2:10). Elizabeth’s advanced age and Zachariah’s skepticism, along with Mary’s surprise pregnancy, resemble the Abraham-Sarah story. Although we would seem to find the biggest literary connection and shaping from the story of Hannah. The Lukan author has used a part of (1 Sam. 1:11) in Mary’s prayer in (Lk. 1:46-49). In 1 Sam. Hannah petitions the Lord saying “if only you will look with favor on the lowliness of your servant.” We see a very similar claim by Mary “for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.” We also see close similarities between the story of John and Issac’s births. In (1 Sam. 1:11) Hannah promise God that “He shall drink neither wino nor intoxicants.” We find a very similar pronouncement in John’s story although it comes from the decree of an angle “He must never drink wine or strong drink.” The Jewish scriptures have a large influence on this narrative, as all of these connection would help Luke in displaying the prophetic coming of Jesus as messiah.
3. How has Luke’s “background information” on John in the first two panels help the reader understand his prophetic role in the third panel?
The Lukan author his constructed the narrative in such a way to show that John and Jesus were connected from the very start. We see this in (Lk. 1:41) “When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.” The leap of her child signifies that Mary is pregnant, hence John already knew of Mary’s conception and its divine implication. This sets the foundation for the connection between Jesus and John and further alludes to Jesus as messiah. It also sets up the rest of the birth narrative and most importantly gives strong meaning to their final meeting where John would baptize Jesus (3:21-22). The baptism is where Luke’s birth story would come full circle, as we can now see that their connection from before birth has been fulfilled.
4. Finally, consider Luke 1:1-3:38 in the context of the characteristics of ancient biographies we discussed a few weeks ago: how does his story “improve” upon Mk 1:1-11?
In the Lukan story we see a full depiction of the characteristics of ancient biographies. The story line of ancestry/birth, childhood/education, words/deeds, and death/afterlife are all part of the Gospel of Luke, which then alludes to Jesus as divine-man. The Gospel of Mark does not contain all of these characteristics. This goes back to Luke using Mark as a source for writing his gospel and how he sought to improve/elaborate upon Marks story. Luke is now able to make a declaration of Jesus as divine-man as his story now completely follows the characteristics of ancient biographies. Although I would argue that Luke’s goal would have been to raise Jesus even higher than the “divine-men” of these ancient biographies. As he is not seen as only divine, but as the Son of God and absolute savior of the entire world.