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  • From: "Edgar M. Krentz" <ekrentz AT sbcglobal.net>
  • To: Corpus-Paul <corpus-paul AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Corpus-Paul] Did Luke know Paul's letters?
  • Date: Sat, 26 Jul 2003 11:57:53 -0500

I tend to think that verses 19b and 20 (the "body given" and "covenant in my blood" verses) were added later, patterned after 1 Cor 11:24-25. Of course, this is the view of Hort, Ehrmann, and others. VV. 19b-20 are missing from all the oldest Latin and Syriac, and some of the Bohairic mss., and also from the oldest Western Greek ms. [D]. Luke's account hangs together literarily without them, being focused on his drinking again with them when the kingdom of God comes, and on the fact that his betrayer is at the table with them.

I think you are correct to take the Western text. One additional reason can be adduced. If you accept the longer text, as Joe Fitzmyer does, then you are faced with the fact that it is the only passage in Luke that interperts the death of Jesus positively. Peter's sermon in Acts 2 interprets Jesus' death as an evil to be set right by the resurrection. and seems consistent throughout the book of Acts--admittedly in contexts where the sermons are addressed to Jews/

Now, I want to go back to the main subject. How's this for a possibility? --
Luke did not know Paul's letters, but he did know Paul's preaching. This is shown by the fact that the only place in Acts where there is mention of redemption in blood, the words are uttered by Paul, when he says God obtained the church with the blood of his own Son (20:28), which IS distinctly Pauline, to my ear.

It strikes me rather as good Jewish Christian, not only Pauline. But the reference to blood is a problem. Paul does not seem to have any interest in the blood of Jesus. In 1 Corinthians 10 and 11 it is the bread on which he concentrates. He does not interpret the cup in the Lord's Supper as having anything to do with the forgiveness of sins. That is Markan, and with even greater emphasis, Matthean. In short, Paul does not use sacrificial language of Jesus' death--unless he is citing earlier [Jewish-?] Christian tradition, as in Romans 3:24-26 and 1 Cor 15:3-5. Hence, Stephen, I find that the one term PERIPOIEW is not enough to argue for knowledge of Paul. As the old Greek proverb puts it, MIA CHELIDON EAR OU POIEI, "One swallow does not make a spring."

"Obtained" (PERIEPOIHSATO) is a redemption/purchase word,
like (EX)AGORAZW and other words Paul uses (Gal 3:13,
etc), and "blood" summons up both the martyr image
and the sacrifice image.


Stephen Finlan
University of Durham
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Peace, Ed Krentz
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Edgar Krentz Professor Emeritus of New Testament Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago
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