Daily Bible Study

October 23, 2024 Bible Study — Luke Tells Us That He Did Not Record Events in the Order They Happened

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Luke 4-5.

Luke’s account says that after teaching and casting a demon out of a demon-possessed man in the synagogue in Capernaum, Jesus went to Simon’s house.  I find this interesting because Luke does not mention Simon, or anyone else, becoming Jesus’ disciple before this.  As I was thinking about this, I believe that Luke wrote it this way in order to communicate that he was not reporting the events from early in Jesus’ ministry necessarily in the order in which they occurred.  In order to explain why I reach this conclusion let me recount the order of events which Luke records here.

  • Baptized by John in the Jordan River
  • Fasted in the wilderness for 40 days
  • Returned to Galilee and taught in the synagogues
  • Taught in the synagogue in Nazareth and was rejected by the people there, after He said they would ask Him to perform miracles like those He performed in Capernaum.
  • Taught in the synagogue in Capernaum and drove a demon out of a demon-possessed man.
  • Went to Simon’s house, healed Simon’s mother-in-law, healed many others.
  • Went to a solitary place where people from Capernaum found Him and begged Him to stay in Capernaum.
  • Preached in synagogues in Judea
  • Preached from Simon’s boat at the Lake of Gennesaret(also known as the Sea of Galilee)
  • Called Simon, James, and John to be fishers of men (may have called others, including Andrew, here, but Luke’s wording is ambiguous).
  • Jesus taught in other towns

Now, let’s look at that.  Luke records Jesus preaching in the synagogue in Nazareth before recording Him doing anything in Capernaum.  Yet, Jesus references what He did in Capernaum to the people of Nazareth.  Which suggests that the preaching Jesus did in Capernaum, that Luke records after he records Jesus experience in Nazareth, occurred before the events in Nazareth.  So, why does this matter?  It matters because many of the “contradictions” people point to in the Gospel accounts are about how the different Gospels place events in different orders, or, apparently, at different times.  Here Luke, the Gospel writer most obsessive about accuracy, communicates that he is not recording events in exactly the order they happened.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.