An Interpretation of Luke 11:1-4 - Term Paper Example

?An Interpretation of Luke 11 4 Introduction In the passage of Luke 11 4, the passages that come before this particular passage are unrelated - the exact passage that came before this passage was a passage regarding Martha and Mary. The preceding chapter, Chapter 10, was focused upon the 72 disciples, who are going to different towns, two by two, to spread the word of Christ, before Christ himself can come to these towns and spread his word. Mary and Martha, upon whom the previous passage before Luke 11 1:1-4 was focused, were two sisters. Martha and Mary were entertaining Christ at their house, and Martha was busy serving, while Mary was busy listening to the word of Christ. When Martha complained to Christ that Mary was not helping her with serving, Christ replied that “Mary has chosen the best part, and it will not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:42). In other words, since Mary had chosen to receive Christ's words and to listen to Him, as opposed to Martha, who did not listen to him, preferring to focus on service of, presumably food and drink, Mary was the one who was receiving the best part of his visit. This was the passage before the passage of Luke 11:1-4. While it is, in the strictest sense, unrelated to the previous passage, the previous passage gives context to this passage. Christ, in this passage, is teaching his disciples how to pray. It is then that he recites to them what is commonly known now as “The Lord's Prayer” - “Father, hallowed be thy name. They kingdom come!....” As noted above, this particular passage took place during the the time when the 72 disciples were spreading Christ's word throughout the land. The passage that comes after this goes on to state that if the disciples ask for something, they shall receive it. This would be true even if the disciples came upon a home that would refuse them entrance. Jesus is telling the disciples that, if they pray, they will receive what they are asking for. The placement in the book suggests that, perhaps, the disciples were having issues with getting people to open their doors up to them. The previous passage regarding Mary and Martha was put into this part of the Bible because it illustrates the attitude that some of the townspeople had towards Jesus and his 72 disciples, as Martha was not interested in the word that they were spreading, and complained bitterly that her sister was too interested in the word and not in service. Perhaps some of the other disciples were having the same issues with this sort of treatment, so they were asking Jesus about what they could do to get the townspeople to allow this, and Jesus told them how to pray, so that the people would be more open to what they are saying to them. This is shown by this passage and the previous passage, and this passage, the “Lessons on Prayer” passage includes the admonition that if “you, evil as you are, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Good Spirit to those who ask him!” In other words, if the townspeople can entertain the 72 disciples graciously, they can learn to pray and learn to ask for what they want, and the Lord will grant it to them. Analysis of the Literary Style and Characteristics of the Passage According to Marshall (1998), literary style is the way that the story is told, and it is comprised of different elements, such as narrator, point of view, allegory, symbolism, tone, imagery, punctuation, word choice, grammar, and voice. The passage begins in the narrative voice of one of the disciples, as the disciple implored the Lord to teach them how to pray. Voice is one of the elements of literary style (Card, 1988). The narrative voice then shifts to that of the Lord himself. However, Luke is the one who is relating these events to the audience, because Luke is the author of this part of the text. So, in the strictest sense, Luke himself is the omniscient narrator, who is considered to be unobtrusive, as he is not a part of the story itself. However, at the same time, the reader must acknowledge that Luke is the narrator with the point of view of what is going on in the passage. Since he is the narrator, the reader must be able to trust his interpretation of the events, and know that he is re-telling the events properly and truthfully. The passage makes use of symbolism - “daily bread”(Luke 11:3) in the third line does not mean bread in the sense of the bread that one bakes in the oven with yeast, but, rather, refers to the word that the Lord will give them if they pray. The word that the Lord gives them is the word that they can use to overcome temptation and to have their sins forgiven. Therefore, this is symbolism, which means that the object - the daily bread – is representative of something else, which is, in this case, the word that of God for them. There is also the use of imagery in this passage – imagery is something that makes one use their senses to imagine that what is put into the text. In this case, the words “Thy kingdom come” (Luke 11:2) is evocative of the paradise that awaits the disciples if they pray and keep the Lord's word, the Lord's “Daily Bread” in their hearts and use it to overcome temptation. The passage is also cohesive, which is another element of style (Cutting, 2008). In other words, the passage itself is composed of related statements, or propositions, and there is not an unrelated proposition that would make the text less cohesive or even non-cohesive. The chunk of text which is in regards to the actual Lord's Prayer, which his recited by Jesus to his disciples, is the chunk of text that is related to the previous chunk, in which the disciples ask him how to pray, because these chunks are related in that the prayer is in response to the implorement at the start of the passage. The next part of the passage, the part where the Lord begins to talk about the friends who might refuse them entrance into their house, seems unrelated, so it makes it less cohesive. However, the next passage after that, where the Lord states that the disciples must only ask, and they shall receive, links back to the prayer that the disciples are to use, therefore these passages are cohesive with the earlier passages, because, with the prayer, they presumably would be able to ask the Lord for what they want, and they shall receive it. Exegetical Approach Traina (1985) states that there are two major ways for a Christian to interpret the Bible and conduct an Exegesis approach - revealed and rational. In the revealed Exegesis approach, the Bible is believed to be the inerrant word of God, and that the authors are inspired by God's words. The words of the Bible are therefore considered to be a divine revelation. The Bible, while written by men, is therefore imbued with meaning that goes beyond the words on the text. The other way of exegesis is the rational approach. While the revealed approach would not take historical context into account, nor the social environment, etc., into account, because the word of God is revealed, regardless of the circumstances of the word, the rational approach does take the social environment and a historical analysis into account in the reading of the text. The authors of the text are not inspired by the word of God, but are internally inspired. This is obviously a more secular way of approaching the text, because it acknowledges that the Bible is not the word of God, and, also, that the Bible is a product of the times, therefore the Bible should be interpreted according to modern times as well. In this case, the gospel of Luke, in the historical analysis, was written during a time when the pagans were being converted to Christianity, and the writings were answering questions that the pagans had for the disciples who were spreading the word. The gospel of Luke was written for these converts (Plummer, 1896). The best way to approach the text in question, and the entire gospel of Luke would be to approach it with a rational exegetical approach. The reason why this is the best way to approach this text is because the text itself is not the word of God, but, rather, is the word of Luke, who is relating the on-going process of converting the pagans to Christianity. This is obvious from the prologue, because Luke states, in the first four lines, that this is the purpose of this gospel “I also have determined, after following up all things carefully from the very first, to write for thee, most excellent Theophilus, an orderly account, that thou mayest understand the certainty of the words in which thou hast been instructed” (Luke 1:3-4). In other words, Luke is telling Theophilus that Luke and the disciples have been traveling and spreading the word among the pagans, and that the gospel is the word that they have been spreading. The entire gospel according to Luke reads as if he was chronicling the history of what they were doing at the time. It was a narrative of the word that they were spreading to the people. This is clear because the gospel begins with the birth of John the Baptist (Luke 1:5-80) and the birth of Jesus Christ (Luke 2: 1-7). He is not translating the word of God here, because these are events that already occurred, so he is relating historical facts – John the Baptist was born, and Jesus was born. These are all messages to Theopilus, and this is the message that was brought to the converts and these are the passages that are intended to give the converts and Theopilus a deeper understanding of the word that they are spreading. The gospel then goes on to talk about the life of Jesus himself. The gospel describes miracles, how the twelve were chosen, and the mission of the apostles. In other words, these are all events that had already occurred, and he is simply recounting them to give Theopilus, and, indirectly, the pagans, a sense of what the word is about that was being disseminated. It was during the mission of the apostles that the passage in question occurred. The Lord appointed 72 disciples to spread the word of the Lord, explaining that he is sending them “forth as lambs in the midst of wolves” (Luke 10:3). It is clear that this is a historical analysis, a historical record, and that it was meant to be interpreted according to the times. The passages are meant as more of an accounting of what happened to the 72 disciples who are in the towns – how they were received by the people, what the people wanted to know, etc. Such as the man, the lawyer, who wanted to know what he could do to attain eternal life (Luke 10: 25). And the passages regarding Mary and Martha, as stated above – these are historical retellings, not the inspired word of God. Since the gospel of Luke is historical, then one must look to the history of the times during the time that Luke wrote the gospel. The book of Luke, according to the preface, was written prior to 63 AD. This was determined because he did not reference the destruction of Jerusalem, which happened in 70 AD, and it was also written before the Act of the Apostles closed its narrative. Therefore, this is the period of time that should be used in interpreting the gospel. The social history of this period time would be the time that Biblical historians can use for exegetical interpretation, assuming that the proper exegetical approach for these passages would be the rational approach. That said, while much of Luke's gospel was simply a historical re-telling of events, there are other indications that, perhaps, this exegetical analysis is superficial. That perhaps this is not simply a history of the events that were occurring during this time. There is substantial evidence that this is the proper exegetical approach, the rational approach, but, then, there is also evidence that perhaps there should be more of a combined approach of the inspired word of God – the revealed approach – with the rational approach. This is because there are passages that denote the supernatural. For instance, in the same Chapter as appeared the Lord's Prayer, regarding the kingdom of heaven and not being led into temptation, there also appeared an accounting of the devil, who was being cast out - “and he was casting out a devil, and same was dumb; and when he had cast out the devil, the dumb man spoke. And the crowds marvelled” (Luke 11:14). This is an interesting interpretation – here, Luke is not re-telling events that might have been recounted to him second-hand – such as Jesus telling Luke that this is what occurred. If this were the case – if Luke were merely quoting Jesus himself, as Luke was quoting Jesus in the earlier passage regarding the Lord's Prayer (Luke 11:1-4), then one might still state that this is a historical analysis, and the rational approach would still be the right approach to take for the entire gospel. However, this is not the case – Luke himself is recounting the incident with the devil being cast out. This sheds some doubt on whether the entire gospel can be approached rationally. If one is to approach this gospel entirely rationally, then this passage would be in doubt. The assumption would be that Luke could not be the eyewitness to the devil being cast out. Alternatively, there is another part of this same passage, where the devil is being cast out (Luke 11:14), that would still support the rational interpretation. The part in question is that the crowds are the ones who stated that Jesus had cast out the devil - “By Beelzebub, the prince of devils, he casts out devils” (Luke 11:14). The entire incident was used as a reason for Christ to admonish the crowd about devils, and that they must stand with him, in order to keep other devils away - “He who is not with me is against me; and he who does not gather with me scatters” (Luke 11:23). This might mean that he was recounting what he heard from the crowd – that Luke, himself, did not witness the casting out of the devil, but this is what was seen by the crowd, that the devil had been cast out. If this interpretation is supported, and Luke was not eyewitnessing the supernatural casting out of the devil, then the rational explanation of the exegetical nature of the gospel of Luke is still supported. Therefore, there is not really evidence that would contradict the rational exegetical interpretation of the text – Luke might not have actually seen the devil being cast out, but he might have heard the townspeople say that this is what occurred. Therefore, if one looks at the actual passage that is the subject of this paper – the passage that begins with the disciples asking the Lord how they should pray, and the Lord responding with the “Father, hallowed be thy name...”(Luke 11:1-4), the proper way to interpret this would be historically. In other words, Luke is not necessarily stating, himself, in his own words, that the prayers that the disciples are reciting will have the desired effect of “ask and you shall receive.” It is not even really known if Luke himself believed that, simply by reading this passage. For Luke is simply recounting events – that the disciples asked the Lord for the words that they should use to be able to get what they want. What they wanted during the time of this passage was entrance to the homes of the pagans, so that they may be able to convert them, and the Lord told them what words to state for this to happen. Therefore, it is impossible to tell if Luke really believed, or he was a dispassionate observer, a historian who does not judge what he tells the audience, or if he is a true believer. Did Luke really believe that this particular prayer was the way that the disciples can have their requests answered? Did Luke really believe that if one asks the Lord, then they will receive? This is unknown just by reading the gospel of Luke, because of the way that he steps back from the action and simply tells. Indeed, Luke himself describes the gospel as “an orderly account” (Luke 1:3). This is not exactly a way of stating that he passionately believes. Conclusion While there is not the sense that Luke was a true believer in the events, or the words, of the gospel, and there is the sense that he was a dispassionate historian, this does not take away the power of the words of this passage. This is a passage that is known to virtually everybody who has even a passing interest in Christianity, or virtually everybody who lives in the Western world. This is the definitive “Lord's Prayer.” As such, it has had a profound impact on just about everybody in the modern world. It instructs everybody on how they should address God, and it instructs everybody on how to have their sins absolved. What its main thrust, however, and what is most relevant to today's world is its admonishment about forgiveness. The modern world has a forgiveness problem, in general, because the inability to forgive is the basis for hate. However, the focus of this prayer is forgiveness. We are supposed to forgive our brother his or her trespasses, and ask for forgiveness just the same. While this might be carried too far – a person cannot continually trespass against somebody, without thought, then bring up this part of the Bible to show that he or she should always be forgiven, no matter what the person has done – still, the implication is that there is not enough love and forgiveness in the world. If the person is truly penitent, in that the person not only is sorry, but realizes the error and will not repeat it, then forgiveness should be in order. This is the main message for this passage, and this is the main idea that is relevant to today's world. Also, the issue of temptation – that is another problem that we might have in today's world. It is tempting to turn away from God, and towards things that are either do not further one's relationship with God, or towards things that are in direct conflict with God. Whether this temptation is adultery, drugs, violence, etc., the temptation to do bad things is always there. This passage does not imply that God will forgive every temptation. In fact, the passage does not imply that God is the one who is to practice the forgiveness, but the beseecher is the one who must practice forgiveness. What the passage does imply is that relief from temptation, along with the ability to forgive, are the two things that everybody should ask from God. This implies that these two things – forgiveness and relief from temptation – are what is most important to God himself. This is clear because these are the two things that the disciples are to ask for when they pray to God. Because this passage makes it known that these two things are most important to God, then that has great implication for our world and what we need to be asking for. And the daily bread, which is the word of God, is another part of the passage, and this would mean that we need to be asking God's help when we pray. If we do, then He will give this to us – our daily bread, his word. If we ask for God's help in temptation, forgiveness, and interpreting his word, then this will help us to know what God expects from us, as well as what he is willing to give to us. Bibliography Cutting, J. (2002) Pragmatics and Discourse. London: Routledge. Marshall, E. (1998) The Marshall Plan for Novel Writing. Cincinnati, OH: Writer's Digest Books. Plummer, A. (1896) A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel According to Luke. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. The Holy Bible (1955) New York, NY: Apostolate of the Press. Traina, R. (1985) Methodical Bible Study. Grand Rapids, MI: Francis Asbury Press. Read More