The Sinner in Luke

Adams

• Publisher: Pickwick Publications
• Year: 2008
• eBook ISBN: 9781498270083
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

This study examines the use of the term "sinner" in Luke-Acts. There is at present no scholarly consensus on the identity of the "sinner" in the Synoptic Gospels. Although the term is important in the Gospel of Luke, few works target the role of the sinner in it. Even fewer address the curious absence of "sinner" in Acts. Luke's narrative of Jesus' mission to "sinners," together with the comments about Gentiles in the gospel, prepare readers for the mission to Gentiles in Acts. Luke provides a link for readers by demonstrating how a Jewish religious sect made up of fishermen, toll-collectors, and "sinners," who claimed to have found the Messiah, became a religion with a wide Gentile following. In his use of the term "sinner," Luke suggests that "repentant Jewish sinners" and "repentant Gentile" followers of Jesus represent a fulfillment of God's promise of universal salvation.

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A Survey of the History of Interpretation of the “Sinner” in Luke

The “Sinner” in Discussions from the 2nd to the 16th Centuries

¶ Most early commentators identified “sinners” in the Synoptics as those who were notoriously wicked.1 For example, in chapter 15 of Justin Martyr’s First Apology (151–154 CE), Justin speaks of “countless multitudes who have turned away from intemperance and learned these things (moral purity).”2 For support he states, “For Christ did not call the righteous and temperate to repentance, but the ungodly and licentious and unrighteous. So He said, ‘I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.’” Here Justin cites Luke 5:32 as evidence that Christ called the truly wicked to a life of moral purity. This can also be seen in Origen’s description of the disciples as formerly “wicked.”3 Cyril of Alexandria in the fifth century also identifies “sinners” as actual “sinners.”4 He describes them as those not yet purified from their sins and profane. Cyril explains Pharisaic opposition to Jesus’ association with “sinners” not on ritual grounds but because Jesus disregarded the Law’s prohibition on association with the profane.

Augustine describes “sinners” as the opposite of the godly and mentions idolaters and drunkards as examples.5 Augustine also interprets Luke’s story of the Prodigal Son by identifying the younger brother with Gentiles and the elder brother as the people of the Jews.6 He connects the passage to Ephesians 2:17 (Serm. 112A.13) and interprets the parable as an allegory treating the admission of the Gentiles into the church without circumcision. The elder brother represents the complaining of the Pharisees in Acts 15 (Serm. 112A.8 ).

Commentators of the medieval period continued to hold the view of the Fathers that the “sinner” was the truly wicked based on moral grounds. In the late eighth century, Paschasius Radbertus describes Matthew in the account of the call of Levi as “sitting as a teacher of rapine in a fire of avarice consumed by the flames of greed (Matt 9:9).”7 He describes Levi’s home prior to his call as an “office of cruelty,” a “den of fraud,” and a “cave of iniquity.”8 Radbertus sees a parallel between Jesus’ call of “sinners” and the salvation of Rahab the harlot.9 He views the “sinner” as morally wicked in need of forgiveness of sins. Thomas Aquinas (1225?–1274) continues this viewpoint. He cites Bede (around 600) who explains that Matthew included his own name in the account of his call so that no one might despair of salvation because of the enormity of their sins.10 Aquinas describes Levi (Matthew) as a rapacious man, of unbridled desires after vain things.11 Regarding the “sinners,” Aquinas cites Augustine to explain that Jesus called “sinners” in order to save them from their iniquity as a physician seeks to save the sick from their sickness.12 Aquinas cites Bede and Ambrose (late fourth century) to explain that the call of Levi (Matthew) signified the faith of the Gentiles.13 Cornelius Lapide (1600) states that the “sinners” in the expression “toll collectors and sinners” seem to have been dissolute Jews who care little for the law and the religion of the Jews, and lived in a heathen manner, or who had apostatized to heathenism.14 John Calvin continues the designation of the Synoptic “sinner” as the truly wicked.15 Calvin describes the “sinners” to be “men of wicked lives and of infamous character.”16

In summary, the Synoptic “sinner” is viewed as a “real sinner” in the period prior to the seventeenth century. Although Augustine suggested a link between the Prodigal and the Gentiles, in general, the “sinner” term was understood to refer to the truly wicked.

The “Sinner” in Discussions from the 17th–19th Centuries and the Investigation of Jewish Sources

John Lightfoot in his commentaries published in 1658 titled Horae Hebraicae et Talmudicae, maintains the description of “sinners” as the truly wicked. Lightfoot, however, uses Jewish sources in his discussion. In his notes on Luke 7:36, he uses rabbinic literature to describe reasons Jews would designate a woman a “sinner.” The reasons are based on violations of the Law of Moses and the ceremonial laws of the rabbis. However, Lightfoot rejects the latter as the basis for the designation of the woman as an a(martwlo/j in Luke 7. He sees her as an adulteress or generally immoral woman, based on the connection between a(martwlo/j and the OT term My)i+axf.17 Starting in the seventeenth century Jewish sources became a primary source for discussing the meaning of the “sinner.” In a note on the expression “tax collectors and sinners” in Mark 2:16, although he did not cite the source, Lightfoot identifies the “sinners” by a virtual direct quote of m. Sanh. 3:3. “Sinners” were “dicers, usurers, plunderers, publicans, shepherds of lesser cattle, and those who sell the fruit of the seventh year.”18

The growing influence of Jewish sources upon the understanding of the “sinner” is evidenced in a commentary by William Trollope published in 1842.19 Trollope defines the “sinner” based on Lightfoot’s discussion:

The word hamartolos, “sinner,” is generally used in the Gospels, and indeed throughout the NT either to signify a heathen, or such of the Jews who, from their illicit practices, were looked upon in the same light as heathen. Of this later class the Talmud enumerates dicers, usurers, plunderers, publicans, shepherds of lesser cattle (swine), those that sell the fruit of the seventh year.20

In his treatment of John 7:49, Trollope identifies the “common people who are accursed” to be the ‘am ha-’aresI (Cre)fhf M(a) the people of the earth.21 Yet Trollope equates the “sinners” of the Synoptics with the ‘am ha-’aresI. Trollope links the term “sinner” especially with “Gentile.” In his discussion of the sinful woman in Luke 7:37, Trollope acknowledges that a(martwlo/j here possibly meant “a...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: A Survey of the History of Interpretation of the “Sinner” in Luke
• Chapter 2: Hellenistic and Jewish Concepts of the “Sinner”
• Chapter 3: Previews of Jesus’ Mission to “Sinners” in Luke
• Chapter 4: The “Sinner” Texts in the Gospel of Luke
• Chapter 5: The “Sinner” in Luke
• Bibliography