Session 1 Fact, Fable and Parable: Veracity of Redemption

Session 2 The Annunciation Accounts - Mary and Joseph

Session 3 Matthew and the shadow of the Pentateuch

Session 4 Luke and Primal Beginnings

Session 5 Genealogy - Grandmothers and Caesar

Matthew’s Account - Chapters 1 and 2

Luke’s Account - Chapters 1 through 3

Holy Spirit and Beginnings

Luke’s conjunction of the waters of baptism and Jesus as the new Adam sends us back to Genesis 1:1-2: “When God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.” That divine wind is literally the “spirit of God,” pneuma theou in Greek, and it reappears at Jesus’ baptism in Luke 3:22 as “the Holy Spirit, to pneuma to hagion in Greek. When you combine the waters of creation and the waters of baptism, collate the Spirit of God hovering over earth and over Jesus, and watch the title “Son of God” used for Jesus in 3:22 and for Adam in 3:38, you can easily understand Luke’s theological purpose.  Jesus is a new Adam, a new “Son of God,” the start of a new creation, the beginning of a transfigured earth. Page 94

The phrase “Jesus … when he began his work” (3:23) is, literally, “Jesus beginning” (Jesous archomenos), in which the second word is almost an adjectival description of him. In other words, it forcibly emphasizes that, for Jesus after his baptism by John, there was a “beginning” (arche) and not simply a continuation.

We are back once more in Genesis. Creation opens there with the phrase: “In the beginning” (arche). Luke uses that same word for the start of Jesus’ public life both at the end of his gospel (“Galilee where he began,” 23:5) and in his Acts of the Apostles (“all that Jesus did and taught from the begin­ning,” 1:1; “beginning from baptism of John,” 1:22; and “beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced,” 10:37). Jesus “begins” as a new creation. And that transformation of the earth in Jesus was destined by God from all eter­nity. Genealogy is destiny. Page 95

Emphasis on the Holy Spirit

That emphasis on the Holy Spirit in Luke’s overture pre­pares us for the repeated emphasis on the Holy Spirit at the start of Jesus’ public life in his gospel.  That begins with the baptism of Jesus at the Jordan. In telling that story, Luke makes a double mention of the Holy Spirit – first in promise and then in advent – which is then picked up several times in the immediately following context:

1.      The promise of the Holy Spirit: ”John answered all of them by saying, ‘I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is corning, I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.’” (3: 16)

2.      The advent of^-the Holy Spirit: ”The Holy Spirit descended upon him [Jesus] in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You arc my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well p1easd.’” (3:22)

3.      Jesus in the Wilderness: ”Jesus, Cull of the Holy Spirit, returned frown the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the, wilderness.” (4:1)

4.      The beginning of Jesus’ ministry in Galilee: ”Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee.” (4:14)

5.      Jesus’ first address: ”The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, be­cause he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free.” (4:18)

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In Acts it is the Baptism of the Church

1.      Promise of the Holy Spirit: ”John baptized with water, but you (the Twelve) will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now ... You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth ... And I [Feted remembered the word of the Lord, how be had said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’” (Acts 1:^:5, 8; 11:16)

2.      Advent of the Holy Spirit: ”When the Day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.” (Acts 2:1-4)

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