Read more
The writer of the Gospel of Luke is a Hellenistic writer who uses conventional modes of narration, characterization and argumentation to present Jesus in the manner of the familiar figure of the dinner sage. In this original and thought-provoking study, Willi Braun draws both on social and literary evidence regarding the Greco-Roman elite banquet scene and on ancient prescribed methods of rhetorical composition to argue that the Pharisaic dinner episode in Luke 14 is a skillfully crafted rhetorical unit in which Jesus presents an argument for Luke's vision of a Christian society. His contention that the point of the episode is directed primarily at the wealthy urban elite, who stand in most need of a transformation of character and values to fit them for membership of this society, points up the way in which gospel writers manipulated the inherited Jesus traditions for the purposes of ideological and social formation of Christian communities.
List of contents
1. Introduction: how to read Luke 14?; 2. Assumptions and preliminary reading; 3. Jesus as a healer of craving desire (14:1-6); 4. Uncommon 'symposium rules' (14:7-11, 12-14); 5. The big dinner (14:15-24): aspects of Lukan performance; 6. The conversion of a wealthy householder; 7. Forms, genres and composition; 8. Composition as argumentation: the rhetoric of Luke 14; 9. Toward closure (and openings).
Summary
In this original and thought-provoking 1995 study, Willi Braun analyses the Pharisaic dinner episode in Luke 14 and shows how gospel writers manipulated the inherited Jesus traditions for the purposes of ideological and social formation of Christian communities.
