Εἶπεν ὁ κύριος τῷ κυρίῳ μου
My intent for adult Sunday School this morning is to read and discuss Peter’s speech that begins at Acts 2:14 and which Luke concludes at verse 41 saying “those who welcomed Peter’s words were baptized, about three-thousand souls that day.”
The matter doesn’t especially torment me, but in my bumbling uncertainty I am always wondering and trying to figure out the evangelist’s christology, and I’m never sure about Luke. John’s gospel is easy and clear, but the synoptics are not, especially Mark, and I resist being led by what I always thought or want to conclude. So I’m unsure what Luke is thinking when he says God made Jesus both Lord and Christ (Messiah) (both?, and?, so that's two different things obviously), and at Acts 2:34 when he has Peter quoting from Psalm 110, “the Lord said to my Lord …” a verse that some see as christological and some see as confusing. Originally it’s not confusing at all, coming from the Hebrew bible that reads
The matter doesn’t especially torment me, but in my bumbling uncertainty I am always wondering and trying to figure out the evangelist’s christology, and I’m never sure about Luke. John’s gospel is easy and clear, but the synoptics are not, especially Mark, and I resist being led by what I always thought or want to conclude. So I’m unsure what Luke is thinking when he says God made Jesus both Lord and Christ (Messiah) (both?, and?, so that's two different things obviously), and at Acts 2:34 when he has Peter quoting from Psalm 110, “the Lord said to my Lord …” a verse that some see as christological and some see as confusing. Originally it’s not confusing at all, coming from the Hebrew bible that reads
נְאֻם יְהוָה, לַאדֹנִי--שֵׁב לִימִינִי; עַד-אָשִׁית אֹיְבֶיךָ, הֲדֹם לְרַגְלֶיך
which is “Yahweh said to my Lord,” where Yahweh is God, Adonai, and my Lord is David because it’s a song to David. So, God says to David, the Hebrew is clear.
But in Luke’s time and place, they were using LXX, the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew bible, where it reads Εἶπεν ὁ κύριος τῷ κυρίῳ μου and I’m not sure how Luke, likely a gentile Christian, is seeing it, or how he means Peter to be conveying it, or how he means Peter’s audience to understand it. It can but doesn't necessarily have christological sense. So, if someone in the Sunday School class wants it clarified, I’ll have to say I’m not clear on it. I’m clear what the psalmist meant, but not what Luke means. What’s Luke’s christology? If what the angel says in the annunciation narrative at Luke 1:35 (The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come over you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the one who is to be born will be holy. He will be the Son of God") is an indication, and if 1:35 is Luke’s and not part of a later addition as some scholars seem to think, then Luke’s christology seems arguably clear.
But in Luke’s time and place, they were using LXX, the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew bible, where it reads Εἶπεν ὁ κύριος τῷ κυρίῳ μου and I’m not sure how Luke, likely a gentile Christian, is seeing it, or how he means Peter to be conveying it, or how he means Peter’s audience to understand it. It can but doesn't necessarily have christological sense. So, if someone in the Sunday School class wants it clarified, I’ll have to say I’m not clear on it. I’m clear what the psalmist meant, but not what Luke means. What’s Luke’s christology? If what the angel says in the annunciation narrative at Luke 1:35 (The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come over you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the one who is to be born will be holy. He will be the Son of God") is an indication, and if 1:35 is Luke’s and not part of a later addition as some scholars seem to think, then Luke’s christology seems arguably clear.
IDK. Maybe it won't come up. Maybe if it does I'll try to distract by contemplating where three thousand people would have been baptized? In the Pool of Siloam? Probably they were sprinkled.
DThos+ looking out into the darkness