Lukas och Rom - En studie av evangelieförfattarens framställning av imperiet och dess folk

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to see how Luke depicted the Roman Empire and in particular its people through his gospel. Around the time of the gospels’ composition, 70-80 A.D., tensions were high between the Jewish people and their Roman occupants. However, it was during this period of high tension that a small group of Jews distinguished themselves not only by claiming that the promised savior, the Messiah, had arrived but also by including non-Jewish members into their ranks. The stated question is how this group of Christians reasoned both among themselves but also with their surroundings. How did they justify their place among the Romans as a Jewish movement that over time lost more and more of their Jewish heritage? This study concludes that the Gospel of Luke was written as an apology in order to make the Christian movement look innocent in the eyes of the Romans and righteous in the eyes of converts and the Jewish society. He also asserted that moving outside of the Jewish community was not only a possibility, but had been Gods’ plan since the beginning. Furthermore, by using Roman individuals as positive role models and both Jewish and Roman leadership as negative ones, Luke shows through his Gospel that the Roman people wasn’t the problem. Instead, the problem Luke saw was the abuse of power from both Roman and Jewish leaders. Therefore, all of mankind (even Romans) should according to Luke be included and none excluded on the basis of their culture or ethnicity.