Happy Easter 2008

A part of the Easter message we proclaim this day is that Jesus appeared on the first Easter Sunday “not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses.” What we read in Acts 10:34 is a re-affirmation of the preface to the Gospel.

The Hebrew word for “minister of the word” is “huzzan” which is the name of the synagogue official in charge of the scroll.[i] Bailey claims that Luke's use of this word in this context means that these persons in charge of passing the controlled oral traditions are eyewitnesses who have the tremendous responsibility to ensure that the word is accurately transmitted.[ii] This appears to be an important part of Luke's message. These persons were pre-selected by Jesus and trained by Jesus for this special role and include not only the twelve disciples but also the 120.

One criticism of Bailey's theory is that there is no statement in the body of the text that supports his theory. Today's reading does.

Copyrighted 2008

Religion

Christianity

Gospel of Luke

[i] Bailey, “Informal Controlled Oral Tradition and the Synoptic Gospels," Asia Journal of Theology, 5(1): 34-54.

[ii] Bailey.