John Kilgallen, «Jesus’ First Trial: Messiah and Son of God (Luke 22,66-71)», Vol. 80 (1999) 401-414

Luke, according to the Two-Source Theory, read Mark. At the first trial of Jesus, that before the Sanhedrin, Mark has together, "Messiah, Son of God". Luke has intentionally separated the two titles. The present essay finds the explanation for separating Son of God from Messiah in the Annunciation scene of the Gospel. It is Luke’s intention that the reader understand Son of God in a way that admittedly the Sanhedrin did not. The laws of narratology indicate that Luke 1,35, a part of the Lucan introduction, be used by the reader to interpret Son of God at Luke 22,70.

from Luke 1,5 (after the prologue of 1,1-4) to 4,13. This essay is not concerned to treat this matter of introduction exhaustively, but a rehearsal of the basic reality is worthwhile, when we speak of Luke’s introduction.

        The limit of the introduction is set at the point where Jesus begins his public life; in Luke, that beginning point is at 4,14. The reason for identifying the beginning of the public life as the end of the introduction is rooted in the perception that the material which explains the death of Jesus is only the public life of Jesus, never the material which anticipates his public appearance in Galilee. With the public life, the Jesus who has admittedly appeared already for temptation and baptism — this Jesus becomes finally the dynamic personage of the drama unfolding in public to his death. What then preceded that public life is meant literarily to be a help to the reader who, while on the one hand proceeding with others (like Peter, Pharisees, Herod, the sick, the sinner) through Jesus’ life in search of his identity, on the other hand knows infinitely much more about Jesus, thanks to the introduction, than anyone who met him ever knew about him during his public life.

        The limit of Luke’s introduction is also determined, for those who follow the Two-Source Hypothesis, by the extreme likelihood that Luke fashions his introduction according to the structure of the introduction in Mark’s Gospel. The introduction of this latter work extends over the first thirteen verses of Chapter 1, and is divisible into four parts or testimonies about Jesus: 1. Mark’s witness that Jesus is Messiah, Son of God; 2. John’s witness that Jesus will baptize with the Spirit of God; 3. God’s witness that Jesus is His beloved Son; 4. the desert’s witness that Jesus is the Messiah. This fourfold witness is the structure behind Luke’s introduction. His hand is obvious in the development of these four points, and in the addition of Jesus’ genealogy. But it is clear that Luke limits himself by the four-point introduction used by his source Mark. Thus, as in Mark, so in Luke, the introduction ends with the appearance of the adult Jesus in Galilee, when the major player steps onto the public stage as catalyst who begins the work for which he is destined. Luke has an introduction, then, and his introduction has the characteristics of an introduction, a major characteristic being that it represents the author’s intent to present here what he expects the reader will carry with him throughout the work — in this instance, that Jesus is Son of God in the sense of that title Luke reveals in 1,35.