the role of the lukan parables in terms of the purpose of luke's gospel

Luke’s readers would have been able to see “how the whole story of salvation, as well as the
life of Jesus in particular, is now objectively set out and described according to its successive
stages.” 13
Lastly, as Luke’s continuing eschatological interest is clearly visible in his gospel,
Conzelmann’s theory decisively loses its persuasive power. Rather than moving the parousia
into the future, Luke mentions the imminent return in relation to his church. In this respect,
Conzelmann fails overall to expound the eschatological concern of Luke.
1-3. The confirmation of the gospel
W.C. van Unnik draws a clue from Hebr. 2:2-4, where salvation was first declared by the
Lord, and attested to us by those who heard him, and God bore witness by signs and wonders
and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his own will. In
line with this, he believes that in Acts these themes which encourage the wavering faith recur
repeatedly to also reassure the faith of Luke’s readers. Hence, he argues that Luke-Acts is a
record of Jesus’ saving activity presented in his acts and his teaching. He also argues that
Luke wrote Acts to give his readers a fuller picture of God’s saving work. According to him,
Acts assures his readers that the central message of Luke’s Gospel and of the Christian
kerygma remains valid for them. Van Unnik basically sees the message of the Gospels as the
Christian kerygma, that Jesus’ activity is saving. As a result, Luke wrote to reaffirm Jesus as
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Savior to believers who were possibly wavering in their faith. It is difficult however, to
find broad support for this, since he confines his research only to Acts, although he notes that
the term in Luke 1:4 may be somehow related to the testimony of Acts. The
likelihood of the link between the confirmation in Acts, purported by Unnik, and the term
in Luke 1:4 is fairly promising in that the term bears the meaning of “correct
factual information” but “certainty” or “dependability”. 15
E. Franklin is basically against the contention of Conzelmann, Vielhauer and Haenchen
that Luke’s interest in salvation presents abandonment of the eschatological hopes of the
early church. According to him, Luke not only stands in the major eschatological stream of
the early Christian expectations, but also employs the history of salvation in his two volumes
to serve his eschatology, not to replace it. Luke, he adds, desires his readers to be ready to
meet their Lord when he appears. In doing this, Luke wishes to reinforce their belief in Christ,
13. Ibid., 132.
14 W.C. van Unnik, “The ‘Book of Acts’ the Confirmation of the Gospel,” NovT 4 (1960-61), 26-59.
15. Maddox, The Purpose of Luke-Acts, 22.
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