Luke. The Gospel of the Children of Israel

The Gospel of Luke, with its refined Greek, offers us a gospel of decision, of crossroads, that speaks to our times. Known as “A Gospel of Prayer” Luke is the one of the four Gospels whose theme is “sonship”: the Sonship of Jesus, of course, but also ours. This third Gospel is the transition between Matthew and Mark and the “spiritual Gospel” of John, the Beloved Disciple, which is traditionally placed as the culmination of the evangelical revelation. An initial approach to the Gospel of Luke can give an impression of disorder, as if it were a compilation of disconnected fragments. Many commentators have taken note of this aspect. However, Roland Meynet disagrees, pointing out that “it has been written in an orderly way”. We cannot forget that the New Testament was born in the Jewish world and that it is deeply etched by the writing techniques appropriate to that time. Having worked for more than 30 years in biblical and Semitic rhetoric, Meynet shows us the admirable and extremely precise composition of the Gospel of Luke. His commentary proposes unexpected interpretations in contrast with traditional readings. Meynet offers a “word by word”, step by step reading based on the latest achievements of modern linguistics, giving an interpretation of the text that manifests all its originality and strength. Roland Meynet, a French Jesuit, is presently professor of Biblical theology at the Papal Gregorian University in Rome, and was the former director of its Department of Biblical Theology. He is a founding member and currently the secretary of the International Society for the Studies of Biblical and Semitic Rhetoric in Rome and is one of the most important and renowned promoters of the rhetorical method as it applied to Biblical and Semitic texts. His numerous books and academic articles have contributed significantly to contemporary Biblical studies. In 2006 he was awarded the Grand Prix de Philosophie de l’Académie Francaise for The Gospel of Luke.