Abstract of Brown, S. Kent. “The Temple in Luke and Acts.”

Brown, S. Kent.  “The Temple in Luke and Acts.”  In Revelation, Reason, and Faith: Essays in Honor of Truman G. Madsen, edited by Donald W. Parry, Daniel C. Peterson, and Stephen D. Ricks, 615-33.  Provo, UT: FARMS, 2002. [Israel/Herod/Christian/Theology]

This is an interesting and helpful article about Jesus and the Temple and the Temple in the New Testament generally.  The general thesis is that Luke shows that Jesus, the apostles, and thereby the Church, exhibited a positive attitude toward the temple, and worshipped there for decades after the Crucifixion, probably until AD 70 when the temple was destroyed.   This is not a position that is shared by many modern New Testament scholars who tend to see the portrayal of the Temple in the Gospels as negative or at best as a hybrid of positive and negative attitudes toward the Temple.   Few view Jesus as positive about the Temple.

Brown organizes his evidence in the following categories: 1) Luke begins his narrative on the life of Christ in the temple, 2) offerings  made in the temple, 3) spiritual manifestations in the temple, 4 ) teaching and learning in the temple, 5) worship and prayer in the temple, 5) ceremonies, 6) beauty and begging, 7) deliverance by Romans from Antonia, and 7) from sanctuary to destruction.

Of particular interest is his view of  the presentation of Jesus at the temple as a babe.  He argues  that Jesus was not redeemed from obligatory service to his Father as stipulated in the Old Testament, but rather presented Jesus to his Father for his service as Hannah did with Samuel.

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