Campus Location

Abilene Campus (Residential)

Date of Award

5-2022

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Committee Chair or Primary Advisor

Ken Cukrowski

Second Committee Member or Secondary Advisor

Richard Wright

Third Committee Member or Committee Reader

Peter Rice

Abstract

In this thesis, I argue in favor of the minority scholarly position that Luke 2:41–52 is literarily crafted to foreshadow the passion-resurrection. To make this case, I first address the most prominent technical issue levied against the foreshadowing reading: whether the phrase “after three days” should be read as a resurrection allusion (2:46). Through a Synoptic comparison to the Gospel of Matthew and the proposal of an under-appreciated parallel to Luke’s phrase in Acts 9:9, I demonstrate why the allusive reading suits Luke’s stylistic tendencies when evoking the resurrection symbolically. Next, I engage with the most pressing methodological issue facing the reading: the failure of previous proposals to establish a context for why the episode’s details should be read as purposefully crafted elements of foreshadowing. To remedy this shortcoming, I make a case for five literary features in 2:41–52 which suggest a foreshadowing function, including, most crucially, the Lukan motif of Mary “storing up” matters in her heart (2:51; cf. 2:19; Gen 37:11). By analyzing this motif’s inter- and intratextual performance, I argue that Mary’s “storing up” action functions as a signal to readers of foreshadowing elements in the text—elements which the reader must store up until their full significance comes to light. Finally, I appraise the likelihood that four representative details in 2:41–52 could serve as intratextual resonances of the passion-resurrection and suggest the significance of my reading for future literary studies of Luke-Acts.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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