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

which case the narrative’s order is crucial for his readers to understand God’s work in Jesus
and the early church. 22
Even though there are some suggestions for the meaning of , as
23 24 25
“completed events,” “assured events,” and “fulfilled events,” given the fact that Luke
puts his emphasis on the fulfillment of God’s plan in both Luke and Acts (Luke 1:20, 57, 2:6,
21-22; 4:21; Acts 9:23; 13:25; 24:27), “fulfilled” is suitable for the meaning of the term
. The events Luke will narrate, means God’s design is evident in the OT
and the history of God’s people, and is continuously affirmed in Jesus’ life, death and
resurrection and the Christian mission in Luke-Acts. In other words, it is in the very events
that God achieves his purpose. Here, is not restricted to the first generation that
participated in Jesus’ ministry or saw the time of salvation history’s initiation, but is extended
to the second and third generations who came to believe, namely, the Christian community,
since the perfect tense of the participle “fulfilled” denotes the continuance of a completed
action. 26
In verse 2, Luke directs attention away from the activity of compilers to that of
eyewitnesses. The conjunction (‘just as’) explains the origin of the accounts by
comparing the previous accounts about Jesus to their point of origin. Luke, by means of the
term, stresses the reliable grounds on which these accounts rested. That is to say, the accounts
of verse 1 are based on traditions which were handed down by eyewitnesses and ministers of
the word. Here, Luke finds a parallel between his predecessors and these eyewitnesses and
ministers of the word. To put it another way, “just as” the eyewitnesses and ministers of the
word had passed on the tradition of these “fulfilled events,” so the forerunners had compiled
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accounts of those events, molding them into a consistent and coherent unity.
Luke builds the general reliability and soundness of the previous narratives.
The terms and mean one group that has a twofold role,
In so doing,
22. Green, Luke, 38.
23. H.J. Cadbury, “Commentary on the Preface of Luke,” The Beginnings of Christianity, Part 1. The Acts of
Apostles, F.J.F. Jackson and K. Lake (eds.). Vol. II. (London: MacMillan, 1922), 489-510, here 495-96.
24. K. Rengstorf, Das Evangelium nach Lukas (NTD 3; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1937), 14.
25. Fitzmyer, The Gospel According to Luke, 293; Marshall, Luke, 41; Schweizer, 11; Du Plessis, “Once More:
The Purpose of Luke’s Prologue (Lk 1:1-4),” 263-64; Bock, “Understanding Luke’s Task: Carefully Building on
Precedent (Luke 1:1-4),” 190; Felix, “Literary Dependence and Luke’s Prologue,” 72; Green, Luke, 39-40.
26. R.J. Dillon, From Eye-Witnesses to Ministers of the Word (AnBib 82; Rome: Biblical Institute Press, 1978),
271, n. 115; Green, Luke, 40.
27. C.F. Evans, Saint Luke, 125; Green, Luke, 40.
28. Fitzmyer, The Gospel According to Luke, 294; Nolland, Luke, 7.
271
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not two