Recent scholarship has discussed Luke's view of the Spirit in relation to conversion-initiation, the life of the early church, and the requirements of mission. This emphasis upon the functionality of the Spirit has associated the Spirit with the beginning of the church and its requirements. Accepting that Luke deploys a view of the Spirit as the 'Spirit of prophecy', research illustrates disagreement about the functions Luke ascribes to the Spirit. This dissertation supplements and challenges this balance in two ways. It shows that the Jewish background for Luke's view of the Spirit is more variegated than the rubric 'the Spirit of prophecy' would suggest. It supplements the consensus view that Luke's eschatological framework for the bestowal of the Spirit is essentially about the beginning of the church, arguing that Luke also presents the bestowal of the Spirit in relation to the 'last days' and closure of a Jewish age.

The aim of this thesis is twofold. First, to make a detailed study of the theme of the Gentiles and the Gentile mission in Luke-Acts. And second, to use these results as an avenue of approach to broader problems in the teaching of both Jesus and Luke. As regards Jesus, how his teaching on the Gentiles is related to his eschatology. As regards Luke, both how he sees the relationship between Jesus’ view of the Gentile mission and eschatology and how far his account of this mission in Acts squares up with the actual course of events so far as they can be deduced from the illogicalities and tensions within Acts itself and from the first-hand accounts of Paul. Jesus' attitude to the Gentiles is studied and used as a key to understanding his eschatology. Luke's presentation of Jesus’ attitude to the Gentiles is then examined, to see how far it differs from the views both of Mark and of Jesus himself. Luke's presentation of Jesus' eschatology is then considered, to see if and how he alters Jesus' eschatology to fit his presentation of Jesus' attitude to the entiles. The main sections in Acts which relate to Luke’s presentation of the Gentile mission are then examined, in order to discover both Luke's view of the Gentile mission and how close his account is to the historical facts. The main conclusions are that Jesus did not foresee a Gentile mission such as occurred after his death, a fact which is explained by his eschatology and which explains many of the problems which arose in the early stages of the Gentile mission, that Luke’s presentation of the Gentile mission and Jesus' eschatology shows him to be a pastor and a historian rather than a theologian, a point which is emphasized by a comparison with Paul, and that while Luke’s account in Acts is often misleading, he has left enough loose ends to make it a valuable historical source for the careful and critical reader.

Many scholars have focused on passages or themes in Luke-Acts, discussing either the Holy Spirit or judgment, yet no study has given focus to the interconnection between the two, especially in regard to condemnatory judgment. This thesis explores the Holy Spirit's relationship with judgment in Luke-Acts. The first chapter defines the terminology and the narrative-critical method employed. The works of Robert P. Menzies, Max Turner, Matthias Wenk, and Rustin Jack Umstattd are examined to survey the extent that a relationship has been developed between the Spirit and judgment in Luke-Acts. Seven texts that link the Spirit and judgment are the focus of chapters two through eight: Luke 3:16-17; 12:8-10; Acts 5:1-11; 7:51; 8:18-23; 13:9-11; 28:25-28. In these texts, the Holy Spirit is connected in some way with fire, unforgiveness, deception, resisting, greed, blindness, or condemnation. In each instance, Luke's presentation is examined to determine the Spirit's role, and ultimately how judgment is developed. The second chapter discovers that Jesus' baptism with the Holy Spirit and fire is central to the relationship between the Spirit and judgment in Luke's work. Through the Spirit, Jesus judges, cleanses, purges, and divides his prepared people from the world. The third chapter examines the blasphemy against the Spirit, defining this offence as a denial of Jesus by a believer. The Spirit cleanses a believer in forgiveness but also executes final judgment on the unforgiven. Chapters four and seven examine how Luke portrays the Spirit as the executor of Jesus' judging work on Ananias and Sapphira, who blaspheme the Spirit in their deceit, and Elymas, who is plunged into darkness for his opposition. Chapter six highlights that the Messiah alone bestows the Spirit. Chapters five and eight discuss the Jewish rejection of Jesus; yet the Spirit exposes their condemnation and God's salvation is still proclaimed.

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This dissertation is an analysis of a pattern of redactional doublets within the early 5th CE Greek-Latin bilingual New Testament manuscript of Codex Bezae (D), specifically in the Gospel of Luke. Seven doublets are examined in comparison with Codex Vaticanus (B). As background, the aspects of possible harmonisation, prophetical interpretation during the Second Temple Period, use of the Elijah/Elisha motif, and Jewish rabbinical hermeneutics, support the thesis that this pattern of specific repetition is representative of the author/redactor’s controlling hermeneutic. The conclusions of this study reveal that (1) this pattern is prophetical/affirmational in agreement with the aforementioned methodology during the period of the exemplar, and (2) the homogeneity of theological themes, i.e. soteriological, eschatological, and pneumatological, support an early date of origin in the 2nd century CE.

Within Lukan scholarship, studies on the theme of Passover have mostly been confined to the pericope of the Last Supper (Luke 22:1–20). Few have ventured outside it and explored the presence, let alone the significance, of the theme in other passages throughout Luke-Acts. Thus, the aim of this study is to show where, how, and why Luke appropriates the theme of Passover in his writings. I propose that besides the passion narrative, allusions to Passover can be found in three other sets of passages: the infancy narrative, the Parousia discourses in Luke 12 and Luke 17, and the rescue stories of Peter (Acts 12) and Paul (Acts 27). My investigation shows that the theme of Passover plays a major role in how Luke structures his narratives. I also show that Luke associates Passover with Jesus’ passion, enabling him to convey the message of God’s salvation. The pairing of Passover and passion for explaining the salvation of God is not limited to the passion narrative. Instead, it is present in other Passover-related passages throughout Luke-Acts. Using the foundational story of Passover in Exodus 12–13 as my point of departure, I begin my research with an analysis of references to Passover in early Jewish writings (Chapter 2). This chapter helps to set Luke within broader Jewish interpretive traditions. Next, I examine the Lukan text, beginning with the passion narrative (Chapter 3), where allusions to Passover are most concentrated and least disputed by scholars. This chapter prepares us to understand allusions to Passover in the infancy narrative (Chapter 4), two Parousia discourses (Chapter 5), and two particular rescue stories in Acts (Chapter 6). The final chapter synthesises all the findings (Chapter 7).

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This dissertation seeks to cover the entire joy theme in Luke-Acts. The Gospel of Luke has been called the ‘gospel of joy', and the joy theme has been recognized in Acts. Although the joy theme is clearly present in Luke-Acts, it has received relatively little attention in New Testament scholarship. This study seeks to examine the joy theme from a socio-rhetorical vantage point. In order to facilitate a careful study of the persuasive use of the emotion of joy and its social impact, the distinct but interrelated textures of the Lukan tapestry are examined separately. From the wide vantage point of the Lukan corpus, the nature of the treads woven into the tapestry are clearly visible. In order to trace these threads, I examine: (1) the repetition of joy, (2) the use of intertextuality from Isaiah, (3) the relationship between joy and God, and (4) joy as an ideological tool amidst conflict. The thesis presented here demonstrates that the joy theme empowers the Lukan rhetoric of reversal. This study contributes to scholarship by connecting the well-known use of ‘reversal' with the emotion of joy. In other words, Luke's two-volume corpus is based on a worldview that is totally ‘upside-down'. Objectively, the joy theme provides the reader/auditor with evidence that YHWH has fulfilled or begun to fulfill his promises. Subjectively, the joy theme provides pathos or emotional power that draws the reader/auditor into the narrative and ultimately into the upside-down world. The emotion of joy is one of the primary ways that the narrative seeks to persuade the reader/auditor to enter into the values and beliefs that characterize this ‘upside-down' world in which YHWH has visited his people in Jesus. This stands in contrast to recent claims that Luke does not utilize emotion as a rhetorical tool.

This study aims to explore Luke’s presentation of Jesus’ authority in the light of his depiction of various authorities. Luke provides valuable clues to an understanding of religious and political power of the Roman Empire through Jesus’ birth and trial accounts. Also, my thesis analyses what role Luke’s tax-related accounts play in relation to the emperor’s authority. In this respect, I wish to present a new argument about Luke emphasising Jesus’ interaction with tax-collectors, as a way of displaying his moral authority, seen in his intervening effectively with one of the most prominently hated aspects of the empire, an aspect that the emperor was responsible for and should have dealt with. This analysis helps us to look into Luke’s portrayal of Jesus’ authority with the focus on the titles, benefactor and saviour. In doing so, comparisons and contrasts are to be made between Jesus and the emperor. Thus, this study aims to discuss how Luke elevates Jesus’ authority on the basis of his stance toward the emperor.

This study investigates the relationship between eschatology and ethics in Luke-Acts. Scholars have frequently noted an apparent relationship between these two themes, but none have traced the themes and their relationship throughout Luke's two volumes. Both of Luke's volumes begin with an emphasis on eschatology and ethics. John the Baptist announces the imminent day of judgment. When the crowds ask what they should do, he exhorts them to share their possessions. Peter announces that Pentecost signifies the last days. When the people ask what they should do, he exhorts them to be baptized. Luke then recounts how they all shared their possessions. Two objectives drive the analysis of Luke-Acts. The first is to investigate whether Luke demonstrates an emphasis on eschatology and ethics not only at the beginning of his two volumes, but throughout them. After considering the travel narrative in Luke's Gospel and the mission to the Gentiles in the book of Acts in addition to the beginning of these t[w]o volumes, this study concludes that Luke does indeed relate these two themes. The second objective is to ask why Luke brings these two themes together. This study resists an attempt to find a systematic, reductive reason why Luke relates eschatology and ethics, but finds that at least part of the connective tissue between these two themes is the making ready of “a people prepared for the Lord” (Lk 1:17).