From Mark to John: the development of the gospels
For a full explanation of the upper part of the diagram:
Go to 'Synoptic gospel sources'
For a full explanation of the lower right part of the diagram:
Go to 'The formation of the gospel of John'
The two editions of Luke
There exists overwhelming evidence that the first edition of Luke lacked the birth narratives, i.e. Luke 1:5 - 2:52.
- They are inappropriately placed before the genealogy.
- The formal language of 3:1 ff. fits better immediately after 1:4.
- In Marcion's text, 3:1 follows 1:4.
- John's gospel shows significant signs of a knowledge of Luke (shown by e.g. Barrett; Goulder). Yet the evangelist presented Joseph as the father of Jesus without any reservations (John 1:45; 6:42) and therefore he was probably not acquainted with the virgin birth story.
- I have discovered additional evidence, as yet unpublished, regarding the number of pages in the autograph codex (!) of Luke. This confirms that the birth stories are likely to have been absent from the first edition.
A possible explanation for the two editions is as follows.
Au_Luke was unimpressed by the Matthean birth narratives. So in the first edition of his gospel he followed Mark in opening the story with John the Baptist. One of the early (female?) readers of the first edition convinced him that the new gospel would have no chance of competing with Matthew unless it also had birth stories.
However Au_Luke's dissatisfaction with the Matthean account prompted him to plan an improved version.
So he extracted some of the salient features of the Matthean account, e.g. Jesus as a descendant of David, Mary engaged to Joseph, Mary with child by the Holy Spirit, Jesus as a saviour, an angel saying: "You shall call his name Jesus", Jesus born in Bethlehem, and used them as the framework for new birth narratives. He incorporated these into a second edition of his gospel.
