Hearing the Silence: Jesus on the Edge and God in the Gap--Luke 4 in Narrative Perspective

Description: In this refreshingly unique book Bruce Longenecker demonstrates that reading Lukes narrative is richly enhanced through attentiveness to what is tantalizingly left out of the Lukan narrative. In Hearing the Silence the reader is invited to delve deeply into literary and theological dimensions of the Lukan narrative through an exploration of Jesus strangely under-narrated escape in Luke 4:30. The options for interpreting the mechanics of that curious event are brought into dramatic relief by Longeneckers survey of the scenes reconstruction in Jesus-novels and Jesus-films in which a variety of strategies have been employed to iron out the scenes narrative oddity. Against their backdrop Longeneckers own constructive proposals bring the reader into direct contact with some of the most significant features of the Lukan Gospel and worldview. Endorsements: But the dog did not bark! Sherlock noted. Now Bruce Longenecker with a similar steely detective-like resolve explores one of the most perplexing silences in the Gospel of Luke. Specifically what actually happened to Jesus on the edge of a hill in Nazareth that he was able to walk away scot free from an angry mob? With literary sensitivity Longenecker demonstrates how the silence of details actually speaks volumes . . . God is at work to reveal the liberating power of the kingdom of God by preserving the messianic deliverer in the midst of evil. An engaging read! --Michael Bird Professor of Theology and Bible Crossway College Brisbane Australia Author of Colossians and Philemon: A New Covenant Commentary (Cascade 2009) This is an entertaining book with a serious point. Longenecker takes his readers on a captivating journey from the absurd to the sublime. Focusing on a single gap in the text of Lukes Gospel he starts with novelistic attempts at filling it (the absurd) and ends with deft reflections on how Luke crafts a narrative Christology (the sublime). With this highly innovative approach Longenecker deepens our appreciation of Lukes Gospel while also bearing testimony to the mystery of Christ. --George Hunsinger Hazel Thompson McCord Professor of Systematic Theology Princeton Theological Seminary Editor of Thy Word Is Truth: Barth on Scripture (2012) Longenecker proposes a christological arc for hearing Lukes narrative as a whole: the one who undergoes the eucatastrophic escape from the enraged townsfolk of Nazareth and is taken up by divine custody from his death by his nation to fill out the greater overarching blessing to Israel and the nations. The authors wit and imagination for filling in the gap of Luke 4:30 through the . . . arc of Psalm 91 outsmarts even the most creative Jesus novelists . . . in making sense of Jesus mysterious passing through their midst--stimulating provocative a delight to read! --David P. Moessner A. A. Bradford Chair of Religion for Biblical Studies Texas Christian University Fort Worth About the Contributor(s): Bruce W. Longenecker is Professor of New Testament and the W. W. Melton Chair of Religion in the Department of Religion at Baylor University Texas.