‘He Spoke… Forever’: A Hebrew Idiom in Luke 1,55

Year
2017
Type(s)
Author(s)
Hugo Méndez
Source
Biblica, 98 (2017): 257–69
Url(s)
https://doi.org/10.2143/BIB.98.2.3217846
BibTeX
BibTeX

This article isolates three parallels to the expression, ‘he spoke… forever’ (Luke 1,55) in translations of the Psalms of Solomon and Jubilees. These parallels suggest that Luke 1,55 calques a Hebrew idiom for oath-swearing, likely known to Luke from Greek translations in his sources. Read in light of these parallels, Luke 1,55 fulfills a crucial structural and rhetorical function in its climactic position in the Magnificat, reinforcing the unity of the hymn’s second strophe (vv. 50-55), and giving shape to its theology of covenant and salvation.

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