The Problem of a Beginning: Israel's Scriptures in Luke 1–2

Abstract

A narratological study of Luke 1–2, focusing above all on an examination of the plethora of echoes of the Abrahamic story of Genesis, leads to the conclusion that the "beginning" of Luke-Acts can be located only in God's purpose as articulated in the Scriptures of Israel; at this point at least, the framework with which Luke is working is not "promise-fulfillment," but rather a self-conscious continuation of the redemptive story.