Monday, September 25, 2006

Lukan tidbit

<idle musing>
I was reading in Luke yesterday, when a phrase in 24.3 jumped out at me, “They did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.” I thought to myself, “That seems to be the first time I have seen Lord Jesus together in Luke.” So, I pulled out my handy Moulton & Geden, and, sure enough, that is the first and only time that word combination occurs in the gospel of Luke. Now, lest you think that it isn’t a Lukan phrase, I checked Acts, and it occurs 17 times in Acts. So, for Luke, anyway, the phrase Lord Jesus is a phrase that refers to the resurrected Jesus.

Then, using the only electronic Bible software I have, I pulled up the RSV to do a cut and paste. Guess what? The RSV & NRSV both omit the entire phrase “Lord Jesus.” So, out comes my NA 28 large print to check the apparatus. Hmmm…the only manuscripts that omit it are it and D. In other words, the western text as evidenced in Bezae and the Old Latin. So, out comes Metzger’s Textual Commentary. Ah, yes a “western non-interpolation.” That explains why they dropped it. I have always liked the RSV, but in this case I think they are wrong, but that is another subject for another day.

But, this whole process just illustrates how easily I get sidetracked. Here I was getting blessed by an observation about Luke's portrayal of Jesus and the next thing you know, I'm knee deep in reference works and missing the whole point. So, what is the point? That I have all these wonderful tools — or that Luke seems to be saying that Jesus confirms his Lordship by the resurrection? Duh...
</idle musing>

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