Jesus, Luke and justice: Luke's interpretation of justice taught by Jesus using the streams of justice from Greek, Roman and Hebrew traditions

Abstract

A study of the gospel of Luke and the prevailing justice traditions in the culture with which he was familiar reveals that Luke not only brought out the best from every tradition, but also that he used the best of each tradition to demonstrate the timeless quality of justice evident in his understanding of the teachings of Jesus. Through Luke's writing we can seethe unique quality in the teachings of Jesus in which an ideal is expounded without the manner of its attainment being overtly stated. Luke demonstrated that acts, historic or anticipated, can be tested against this ideal. Luke endeavoured to bring the justice of 'heaven' into the world by showing how a melding of the best of the traditions of the milieu in which he lived promised a world closer to that ideal. A careful reading of the gospel shows that, with the insight of a diligent scholar in the Greek tradition, Luke has captured the unique qualities of Hebrew justice as it was lived through Jesus in his obedience to the demands of the Law. Not only has he crafted a unique gospel incorporating the essential qualities of honour, trust and faith that are at the heart of the Torah, but he has also shown that, in spite of their first appearing irreconcilable, Greek, Roman and Hebrew justice can and should interact with each other. It is through addressing the person of Theophilus that Luke portrays the interultural opportunity evident in the vision of Jesus in order to show the universality of the justice taught by Jesus. This thesis is developed by extracting from Luke's gospel passages that relate to issues of justice and identifying their cultural bases from a brief historical summary of the contemporaneous justice traditions. Under the headings of Power and Control, Wealth and Poverty, Law and Elitism, Freedom and Domination, theme-focussed tables have been formulated identifying the sayings attributed to Jesus by Luke. Themes which underpin the justice content of passages are evolved with particularly evocative passages being studied in detail, then placed into a modern context. This methodology was useful clarifying a complexly derived message. As he saw the universality of the teachings of Jesus. Luke strove towards a conceptual Structure to realise a larger sense of justice that could exist within society but which was not apparent under the dominant regime of the Roman Empire.