"Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things accomplished among us," (St. Luke’s Gospel, Chapter One, verse one)
Twenty one hundred years ago the world was watching and recording the happenings in the backwater of Palestine. The focus of all the hubbub was on an obscure peasant named Jesus. Something so extraordinary happened at this moment that many observers were driven to write about the events surrounding this man. Each written record was different yet the same. Each writer had a unique view of these events. Through the subsequent hundreds of years, what came to be known as the Gospel of Luke is only one such account.
No history, at any time, is absolute history. Each attempt is colored by perspectives and prejudices that give a partial picture of past events. There are the accounts of Mathew, Luke and John of our traditional Bible, each with it’s own slant on the Jesus event. In addition there were the primitive gospels or the really first gospels. Luke probably was referring to them as the “many undertakings” of others. Then there are the other gospel histories that have only been recently unearthed. Add to these those only mentioned in ancient texts and small fragments of other gospels. At one time there may have been upwards of forty to fifty gospels. No one really knows how many gospels actually existed or how many are lost forever.
The point being that this writing furor indicates the magnitude of the Jesus event. It was and is the game changer of human history. Something must have happened beyond human explanation. Luke conveys for us the enormity of the events when he names them the “things accomplished”. Was he referring to a human exercise to organize a new religion? Could Luke have believed the events to be a result of the efforts of the Great Instigator? Was Luke misguided? Read on, let us find out where we stand.
G.Goslaw
Victorville, Ca
March 28, 2011
