ABSTRACT
This chapter illustrates whether Luke’s modifications are comparable to those that characterize biblical rewritings, as described by Geza Vermes and Philip Alexander. Defenders of the Two Source Hypotheses characterize the relationship between these gospels as indirect and refer to a common lost source, denominated Q, and both gospels’ independent rewriting of Mark. Luke’s rewriting of John the Baptist is conceived of in relation to the Lukan Jesus figure, and testifies to his liberal use of sources. The Lukan portrait furthermore discloses that the chronological and geographical structures in Luke-Acts are inherently thematic and theological, and not historical in a modern sense. Compared to Matthew, Luke has a different theological agenda for this figure and for the origins of a baptismal rite. Whereas John’s baptism can be interpreted as a constitutive baptism in Luke’s predecessors, it becomes a first step to conversion in the Lukan narrative, in which it is distinguished from Jesus’ baptism.
