Advent and the Hymns of Luke’s Gospel

The four songs embedded within the first two chapters of the Gospel of Luke are a rich resource for reflecting on the advent of Jesus. Individually, they are meaningful and moving prayers and exclamations of praise in response to the good news about the arrival of the long-awaited messiah. Collectively, they reinforce and complement one another creating a tapestry of praise in celebration of the birth of the savior. The season of Advent is a perfect time to reflect on these beautiful passages.

For those unfamiliar with these passages, they are commonly referred to by their Latin names: the Magnificat (1:46–55) is the song of Mary; the Benedictus (1:68–79) is the song of Zechariah; the Gloria in excelsis (2:14) is the song of the angels; and the Nunc Dimittis (2:29–32) is the song of Simeon. Reading them as the responses of praise to the announcement and arrival of the promised savior is particularly instructive.

Themes of these songs include such things as the mercy of God, which is mentioned twice in the Magnificat and twice in the Benedictus; though the term is not explicitly used in the other two songs, they clearly reflect responses to God’s favor. The notion of reversals where the proud are brought low and the humble are raised up, or those in darkness are enlightened, are prominent in the Magnificat and Benedictus. The fulfillment of God’s promises to his people to deliver them is a theme of the Magnificat, Benedictus, and Nunc Dimittis. The arrival of light, salvation, forgiveness, and guidance into the way of peace are major themes of the Benedictus. The glorifying of God and the announcement of peace and God’s favor are themes of the Gloria in excelsis. Peace, light, salvation, and glory are themes of the Nunc Dimittis, along with the notion of the Gentiles as recipients of God’s enlightening and saving work through the savior. Taken together there is a very interesting move from the individual blessing of Mary, to the fulfillment of God’s promises of deliverance to God’s people, to the praise of the angels, to the enlightening work of the savior extending to all of humanity. In this way the progression of thematic praise to God in Luke’s birth narrative aligns with the overall thrust of Luke’s two-part masterpiece of Gospel and Acts. Both Luke’s Gospel and Acts end with echoes of this notion of the inclusion of the Gentiles in the people of God (Luke 24:47; Acts 28:28).

It is instructive to compare the contents and emphases of these four songs with the christological hymns embedded within other writings of the New Testament (e.g., Phil 2:5-11; Col 1:15-20). If we were to do so, we might immediately be struck by a few significant differences. Luke’s songs do not have a primary focus on Jesus, as much as the saving work of God, and they do not mention some important themes of the other NT hymns. Missing from Luke’s hymns are references to such concepts as the preexistence of Jesus, the incarnation of Jesus, the death of Jesus, the resurrection of Jesus, and the ascension of Jesus. The Magnificat does not even mention Jesus! While this sounds like a lot of significant christological content that is absent from these songs, the context of these songs is important to consider. These are included at the beginning of Luke’s narrative, a narrative which itself will unfold the significance of Jesus, detailing the death on the cross and the resurrection and ascension. For the author of the gospel, it was not necessary to spell out all of these specific christological ideas in each song or even in the opening chapters. Instead, the songs of the infancy narrative set the stage for what will follow. Here is how I’ve explained it: “Rather than recount the salient contents of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, these four psalms portray the responses of a range of devout characters to the news that the time of redemption has begun.” (New Testament Christological Hymns, 207)

In this regard I find the work of Kindalee De Long at Pepperdine University especially instructive. She explains how the narrative of Luke unfolds in such a way that these songs demonstrate the responses of joy that would be expected in the arrival of the promised new age of divine deliverance. This idea can be found throughout the prophetic writings including Joel 2:26-27, Zephaniah 3:14-15, Zechariah 9:9-10, and Isaiah 66:7-11. So it is not just in the words of the songs that the meaning is found, but in the actual act of joyous singing in response to the news of the arrival of the savior.

Also, in spite of the differences from the other early hymns, there are significant shared themes:

“In common with the christological hymns, however, is an emphasis on the birth of Christ as signaling the initiation of the new age in which God fulfills the expectations of the prophets. Specific touch points with the early Christian hymns are the idea that Christ brings about peace, that his advent enlightens humanity, and that Gentiles and Jews alike are included as beneficiaries of God’s actions in Christ. One final point of connection is the idea that God’s redemptive activities in and through Christ result in glory to God.” (New Testament Christological Hymns, 207-208)

All of those elements of Luke's hymns are the central themes of the christological hymns found throughout the New Testament.

For Luke as an author it seems that he not only “tells” the reader about the messiah but also “shows” the reader that the birth of Jesus inaugurates a new age. And for Luke, the scripturesque language of the hymns does not simply “tell” but also “shows” that this new work of God is the work that the Jewish scriptures and prophets had foretold. Like the other hymns in the New Testament, these passages show a rich and deep engagement with the Jewish Scriptures. Apart from a careful reading of the scriptural grounding of these hymns in their early Jewish context, it is difficult to appreciate the full meaning of these passages.

Not only Luke the author but the characters in the narrative themselves invite us to understand that this was good news for “all the people.” And as Zechariah exclaimed it was “by the tender mercy of our God” that the dawn from on high was breaking upon them. Further, these characters model an appropriate response to the divine visitation: joyous praise to God.

In our world that is still longing for peace, the praises of Mary, Zechariah, the angels, and Simeon, are as timely as they were in the first-century context. And they can still enlighten us today as we contemplate with them the mystery of God’s mercy revealed in the advent of Jesus.

Reflecting on Anti-Judaism in 2018

I was invited by the English and Theatre Department in my college to give a book talk this past week. As I was preparing the talk I was focusing on the great extent to which the New Testament christological hymns reflect a deep engagement with Jewish traditions, especially the Wisdom tradition and the prophetic promises of renewal of God’s people in the new age. I began to realize that I could not speak about the Jewish dimensions of these early hymns without also speaking to the rise of anti-Semitism that has been forcibly brought into our consciousness as a nation, and especially here in Pittsburgh. Below are some of the ways I have reflected on this reality and some of what I included in my talk this week:

In my writing and speaking to date, I generally gloss over the complicated relationship that developed between Christians and Jews in the first century and beyond. I had kind of assumed that, as people of good will in the 21^st century, “we” were beyond anti-Semitism and one did not need to write or speak directly against. Fair-minded and careful reading of ancient Jewish and early Christian writings demonstrates a sensitivity and respect that we all, whether scholars or lay people, should bring to the study of religious texts. But the horrific shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue, less than 3 miles from this location, means that there is still work to do to promote a responsible understanding of the relationship of Christianity and Judaism in antiquity. On top of that, the FBI released a report yesterday detailing a 37% increase in hate crimes against Jews over the last 3 years; hate crimes against Jews were already the highest proportion of religious hate crimes. 

All of this is very disturbing, and in our climate of increasing hate and animosity, people of faith must remind ourselves of the sacredness of all creation—meaning that every person, regardless of background, race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity—everyone we encounter is, according to Jesus, our neighbor, our brother, our sister, part of our human family. Those of us who believe that need to affirm it; and beyond affirming it, we now must also speak up where we can about these issues. 

Within our view of the human family as people created by God there is no room for racism or anti-Semitism. However, it is a sad fact that in history Christian biblical interpretation has at times played a part in devaluing Judaism. Anti-Judaism, as it is called, is unfortunately common in biblical interpretation, when Christians create a caricature of early Jewish belief and practice, and use that as a negative foil against which to present Jesus as bringing something new and better. It is often unintentional, but even something as simple as characterizing the Christian Old Testament (supposedly representing Judaism) as promoting law, wrath, and judgment—while claiming that the New Testament is a message of love, grace, and forgiveness—is in reality an expression of anti-Judaism. There are three serious problems about such portrayals of early Judaism. First, such over-simplifications are just flat out wrong: the Jewish Scriptures, rightly understood, are full of mercy, forgiveness, and grace; as is Judaism. Christians did not invent those concepts; they are Jewish through and through, as was Jesus. Second, those erroneous views of early Judaism have been used throughout history to justify abuse and mistreatment of Jews. Third, such simplistic views actually implicitly undermine the very teaching of the Scriptures which Christians claim to promote. We must stand against anti-Judaism and caricatures of people of faiths other than our own. 

Yes, we must also acknowledge that Christianity and Judaism are two very different religious traditions. But they share a great deal in common. At the very least, when reading the New Testament, Christians are obligated to be careful to understand the nature of the conflicts within first-century Judaism. It was not simply Jesus the loving Christian against the legalistic, mean-spirited Jews. It is rather Jesus the Jewish teacher engaging with his fellow Jews, wrestling with how to understand the promises of God for their day, and how best to live within the new age that God was initiating. 

The New Testament christological hymns [the subject of my book talk] show us that the earliest followers of Jesus saw Jesus as fully in line with the Jewish expectations that God would fulfill the ancient promises and redeem humanity. God was fulfilling God’s promises, and doing so through Jesus. Whether one accepts that Jesus was God’s agent in fulfilling these promises is, of course, the crux of the matter for Christian belief. But the early hymns show us that Jews and Christians alike can acknowledge the shared vision of renewed humanity that derives from the first century Jewish context and the shared biblical tradition. 

Further, like other Jewish resistance poetry, the New Testament hymns take aim not at Jewish belief. Instead, they take aim at the Roman emperor who had been elevated to divine status that belonged only to the one true God.

With those acknowledgements and cautions in view, I then concluded my talk pointing out the ways in which the New Testament christological hymns engage deeply with Jewish ideas, while also countering Roman imperial claims.

There are many good resources that address issues of anti-Judaism in Christian biblical interpretation, and I hope to engage further with those in future posts. Amy-Jill Levine’s work is a great starting point, both her books and her more popular writing. For now, I wanted to at least share these thoughts on the blog as I continue to reflect on the responses we are obligated to make to these disturbing rise of hate in our days.