The Lukan Prenatal and Expanded Early Childhood Jesus Narratives: 2nd Century Early Christian Literature (I)

The Lukan Prenatal (Luke 1) and expanded Nativity/Early Childhood Narratives (Luke 2) seem to be supplemental material to the embryonic earthly Jesus tale. As such it should by no means be surprising that the content of such contains traces of later authorship. 

Consider the active influence of the Holy Spirit in each respective writing. Since no such doctrine is known of until mid to late 2nd Century, then there is no reason to assume an earlier date for the following material:

- John was filled with the Holy Spirit from the womb (1.15,41)

- Mary was impregnated by the Holy Spirit (1.35)

-  Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and then prophesied (1.41)

- Zechariah  was filled with the Holy Spirit, and then prophesied (1.67)

- Simeon received revelations from, was directed by, and prophesied by the Holy Spirit (2.25,26,27)

It is difficult to date this material earlier than the mid 2nd Century since there is no evidence of the doctrine of a personal, directly influential Holy Spirit in Church writings before that time.

The emphasis within each such narrative as to ritual and obedience would likewise indicate a similar dating, for the concept of Christian Orthodoxy is also not known to have developed any earlier than the mid to late 2nd Century:

- Zechariah was a Priest who performed priestly duties (1.5,8-9,23)

- He and his wife Elizabeth walked in the commandments and ordinances of God blamelessly (1.6)

- They circumcised John on the eighth day (1.59)

- Joseph obeyed the command to appear in his home city in order to be taxed, along with his impregnated spouse Mary (2.1-5)

- They circumcised Jesus on the eighth day (2.21)

- Mary was obedient to the purification laws (2.22)

- Then they brought Jesus to Jerusalem to do the sacrifices according to the law of Moses (2.22-24)

- While there, they performed all things according to the law of God (2.39)

- They obeyed the command by appearing in Jerusalem each year (2.41)

- Reemphasized (2.42)

These several references to a compulsive and consistent obedience to routine and detailed ritual imply the structure and hierarchy which was developing within the Orthodox branch of Christianity from the mid to late 2nd Century. As such it would be difficult to date these passages any earlier.

Finally, the blending of the direct operation of a personal Holy Spirit and that of obedience and ritual seems representative of the latter 2nd Century struggles between the gnostic and orthodox branches of early Christianity. The very fact that such experiences and exercises are shared by the same characters within each narrative would further indicate a Catholicizing agenda by the author; for gnostic Christians claimed direct revelation as their basis of knowledge, while the Orthodox Church maintained written law and hierarchy as the foundation for faith and order. 

That each such narrative portrayed Orthodox believers operating by the direct influence of the Holy Spirit would only further seem to date this material to the later development within that struggle when the Orthodox Church was attempting to Catholicize both branches of faith into one united body.

And so the incorporation of the direct influence of the Holy Spirit and the emphasis upon ritual and obedience into each of the  Prenatal (Luke 1) and expanded Nativity/Early Childhood Narratives (Luke 2), and  even more so the portrayal of each in common characters therein likely dates this material even later in the 2nd Century historical development of early Christianity.

The catholic nature of these introductory narratives not only dates such as mid to late 2nd Century material, but remains consistent throughout the Luke-Acts corpus itself. 

Dave Henderson

Denison, Texas