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As a re-cap.
In this gospel Jesus starts out as a member of a Jewish
community. But his genealogy also
shows he is a child of Adam - a child of the world. By the end of Section A he has been
thrown out (literally) of his family/time-based community at Nazareth. It has been pointed out that already
Luke is sketching out the wider framework in which to develop his
theology. He points out the
importance of belief in 'the word' of the angel. Indirectly this is a reminder to his
gentile reader(s) to believe and to accept authority. At the end of Section A there is a
warning about the importance of flexibility and openness. In terms of the overall framework, this
warning is especially relevant to people of a Jewish background. Luke now shows how Jesus sets about the
construction of a society which is inclusive and which can be based upon
the Gentile world. The first
quality (as above) to be considered, is authority. The reader knows from Mark's Section A
(c/f Reality Search analysis)
that clarification of what authority is based upon is the major crux of a
time-based or law-based society.
By its placement at the start of Luke's picture of a place-based
society, he demonstrates that first of all a place-based society should
be based upon a time-based society.
That is, it rests upon the first type of society. The first based society is primary -
like the vertical beam of the cross.
One finds right through the gospels (as pointed out in Version
Two) that the time or law-based society is mentioned first, both in the
structure and in the detail.
One could query that if that is the case, then
why are the Gentiles indirectly addressed, with the interaction between
angel and Zechariah? Also why are
the Jews indirectly addressed at the end of the first section with the drama
in the Nazareth
synagogue? This is because (c/f Reality Search) the gospel
structures appear to focus on the elements of the two societies
presented. In the first incident
in Luke there is the element of authority being presented (c/f time-based
societies). In the last incident
of the section there is the element of openness and flexibility (c/f the
place-based society). Later, when
John comes to write his gospel around the turn of the first century he
structures his Sections B and C on a
pattern that is similar to this one. That is, John also appears to
address Gentile Christians first,
but this is about the subject of Living Authority or law. Then he appears to address Jewish
Christians secondly, but this is
about the subject of a Living Word. So the time/place sequence is retained
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