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Exegetical Considerations

Luke 3:1-6

2nd Sunday in Advent/ December 7, 2003

1. What is the literary context of this text?

a. How does that context provide an interpretive framework for this passage?

2. What is Luke’s source for this text?

a. How has he redacted that source?

3. How does the opening of this text recall
a. Jeremiah 1:1

b. 1:5?

c. 2:1-2?

4. What is the impact of listing the various political and religious hierarchies in vv. 1-2b and then claiming that God’s rhema happened upon John, the son of Zechariah, in the wilderness?

a. How had rhema been used in 1:37,38,65; 2:15,17,19,29,50?

b. How do those uses impact how it is to be understood in this context?

5. How had John’s mission been characterized in 1:15-17,67-79?

a. How does that impact an understanding of John’s mission in chapter 3?

6. When the narrative had last mentioned John in 1:80 what had he been doing?

a. How does that impact John’s appearance in 3:1?

7. What is the theological significance of the wilderness in Israel’s history?

a. How might that be impacting its theological significance in this passage?

8. How do vv. 4-6 echo Isaiah 40:3-5?

a. What is the significance of that echo?

b. What does that say about John’s mission?

9. How does the use of soterion in v. 6 recall the use of this word or its cognates in 1:47,69,71,77; 2:11,30?

a. What is being proclaimed about salvation through these words and in this text?

10. What is an Advent perspective as drawn from this text?