Encountering Images of Spiritual Transformation

The Thoroughfare Motif within the Plot of Luke-Acts

Morgan

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9781498274586
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

Luke-Acts is an impressive two-volume narrative seeking to convince and engage readers regarding the spiritual impact of Jesus of Nazareth on the Jewish people and other nations. To this end, Luke employs an impressive arsenal of literary and narrative techniques. This book focuses on a motif and its performance, the thoroughfare motif, which includes those figurative and concrete expressions involving ways, roads, city streets, and country paths. This study traces this motif's performance within the unfolding plot asking what difference the motif makes--progressively and cumulatively--to the reader's encounter with the story's emphasis on salvation. For example, why does Luke take pleasure in describing transformational events on or in relation to thoroughfares? What are the connections between expressions like the way of peace, the way of salvation, and the way of God/Lord? Why does Luke use such an unusual expression like the Way to describe Jesus' followers? How do such expressions contribute to the spiritual landscape of Luke-Acts, the intermingling of concrete and figurative uses of physical imagery? Like an instrument in an orchestra, the thoroughfare motif works together with other motifs and themes to create a captivating exploration of spiritual transformation, received and opposed.

Part One

Motifs and Plot for the Study of Luke-Acts

1

How Can Motifs Contribute to the Study of Luke-Acts?

Luke-Acts was an ambitious project: a two-volume narrative seeking to convince and engage readers regarding the spiritual impact of Jesus of Nazareth on the Jewish people and other nations.1 The author, “Luke,” portrays a movement that extends through Jesus and his disciples from Jerusalem to Rome.2 He selects and portrays examples of this spiritual transformation on individuals and groups, some of which are quite unexpected. Yet, Luke also highlights significant opposition to Jesus’ mandate on human and spiritual planes. Indeed, this is not a story of a blissful pilgrimage. Rather, a pattern of reception and rejection among the Jewish people and “the nations” pervades the entire work. Luke aims to bring his audience to a greater certainty of faith by exploring central questions related to God’s plan accomplished through Jesus and his disciples despite opposition. Therefore, the two long scrolls, Luke and Acts, represent above all a narrative with a theological point and a specific pragmatic aim. Luke is not interested in merely conveying information about God; his aim is to provide certainty, assurance through instruction, about the difference that God’s revelation in Jesus brings (Luke 1:4).

In fact, not only was Luke’s project ambitious from a literary perspective, it was also audacious from a theological outlook. Internal evidence supports the idea that Luke intended his writings to be read within the tradition of Israel’s Scriptures. Through his work, he sought to extend what had already been written about Israel’s God. While something new happened—the Messiah has come—Luke’s intent was to connect the new with the old, to underline continuity in God’s interventions for Israel and all of humanity. This is the theological and pragmatic force of this two-volume work. It reflects Luke’s concern for his readership, namely, that they might live according to the reality of God’s continued activity through Jesus and his disciples.

Reading Luke–Acts through Motifs and Plot

To achieve these aims, rather than abstract or speculative theological argumentation, Luke provides theological interpretation through episodes, speeches, quotations, as well as, of course, through description and asides. Nonfictional narrative in fact has its own rhetoric: the “rhetoric of the real.”3 In this sense, Luke-Acts is perhaps as theological as Paul’s letter to the Romans. Yet, rather than much explicit commentary, Luke develops his theology through an impressive arsenal of narrative and literary techniques. The present work focuses mainly on one of these narrative techniques: the motif. More specifically, it explores the thoroughfare motif as a part of this literary, theological and pragmatic masterpiece.

Yet, what do motifs have to offer to the study of an ancient text such as Luke-Acts? As repetitive elements, motifs have interpretative value since they progressively draw the audience’s attention and have a cumulative effect on them pointing to what is meaningful in the narrative. Therefore, the present work examines a motif that contributes to the encounter of this world of spiritual transformation that Luke describes with great flair.4 The thoroughfare motif includes those figurative and concrete expressions involving ways, roads, city streets, and country paths. Why, for example, does Luke seem to take pleasure in describing transformational events on thoroughfares or in relation to them? Is there a connection between expressions like “the way of peace,” “the way of salvation,” “the way of God,” and “the Way”? In fact, why does Luke use such an unusual expression like “the Way” to describe Jesus’ followers? Moreover, does thoroughfare imagery appear in key moments of the plot? How does the thoroughfare motif perform within the plot of Luke-Acts? In other words, how does the thoroughfare motif enhance the reader’s encounter with the hero’s mandate of spiritual transformation through thoroughfare imagery? How do such expressions contribute to the spiritual landscape of Luke-Acts, the intermingling of concrete and figurative uses of physical imagery?5

This study suggests answers to these questions and indicates how this motif might have been important for Theophilus and the broader audience, from the perspective of “sympathetic readers” of the first century who sought to understand the story of Jesus and his disciples in light of Israel’s theological and literary history. In fact, Luke-Acts is a story within a larger story, which is told in the Jewish Scriptures. Luke portrays God as accomplishing his plan of redemption through the Jewish people, not only for them but also for every nation on earth. For this reason, this study also examines explicit and implicit intertextual cues—“the function and impact of a text or texts in a focal text”— to shed further light on the above questions.6

Like an instrument in an orchestra or a pattern within an elegant tapestry, the thoroughfare motif works together with other motifs and themes to create a captivating exploration of spiritual transformation, both received and resisted. The exploration of this motif’s performance will be done within the unfolding plot. It asks what difference the motif makes, progressively and cumulatively, to the reader’s encounter with the story’s main questions working toward some degree of closure. Reading the motif as a participant in the plot sheds light on its pragmatic and theological value.

The intent of this work is to make the results from previous research more accessible to a wider readership. I explain terms and concepts that often occur in the study of New Testament literature and theology, the Gospel of Luke, and the Acts of the Apostles. English translation accompanies the Greek text that contains thoroughfare expressions. In addition, I describe key terms from narrative theory (narratology)7 and its application to biblical texts.8 Of course, some knowledge of the above fields will make reading this book easier. Yet, it is hoped that readers will enjoy exploring the above questions and not be overwhelmed by technical discussion.

Since scholars have long recognized the value of thoroughfare expressions in Luke-Acts, the next section indicates key contributions with which I interact, build on, and extend. First, I wish to clarify here that this study explores a motif, and not a concept or a theme. These terms can be a source of confusion. For example, some scholars use the word “way” or hodos to describe a general concept that covers various elements. Furthermore, this discussion d...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Preface
• Foreword
• List of Abbreviations
• Part One: Motifs and Plot for the Study of Luke-Acts
• Part Two: Analysis of the Thoroughfare Motif’s Performance within the Plot
• Part Three: The Thoroughfare Motif’s Narrative and Theological Value for Luke-Acts
• Bibliography