1 - Legal terminology in Luke—Acts
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 November 2009
Summary
The use and distribution of three terms are of particular significance for Luke's understanding of the law: ‘law’, and the associated terms ‘custom’ and ‘Moses’. The term ‘commandment’ is used in connection with the law only three times (Lk. 1:6; 18:20; 23:56), refers elsewhere to human commands (Lk. 15:29, Ac. 17:15) and need detain us no further.
The term is not used in Mark, but is found eight times in Matthew and nine in Luke. Five of the occurrences in Luke are found in the birth narratives (Lk. 2:22, 23, 24, 27, 39), two are shared with Matthew (Lk. 16:16, 17; Matt. 5:18; 11:13), and two are in special Lucan material (Lk. 10:26; 24:44). In Acts is used fifteen times (excluding the variant in 24:6) and of these two are connected with Stephen (6:13; 7:53) and thirteen with Paul (13:15, 39; 15:5; 18:13, 15; 21:20, 24, 28; 22:3, 12; 23:3, 28; 24:14; 25:8; 28:23). The distribution within Acts is itself a significant preliminary indication of the context within which Luke found the law problematic, and is supported by a similar distribution of the related terms ‘Moses’ and ‘custom’.
A survey of the occurrences of in Luke—Acts suggests that they fall into two main categories.
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- Information
- Luke and the Law , pp. 1 - 11Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1983