Skírnir - 01.09.2003, Blaðsíða 113

SKÍRNIR LÚKAS OG LEITIN AÐ SÖGULEGUM ARFI
339
Hér að framan var vitnað til hugmynda Kants um trúarbrögð-
in og söguna (sagnfræðina). í umfjöllun sinni á söguspeki Kants
kemst Yirmiyahu Yovel að þeirri niðurstöðu að sagan sé sá vett-
vangur hjá Kant þar sem hið algóða verði skynjað og skilið, og þar
sem „frjálst og mótandi atgervi hinnar praktísku skynsemi endur-
skapi heiminn eins og hann sé, svo til verði ný siðferðileg ver-
öld.“42 Hefur Lúkasi ekki einmitt tekist það í leit sinni og fram-
setningu á sögulegum arfi eða er saga hans og sagnfræði önnur?
Summary
The present essay investigates a prominent motif in the Double-Work of Luke-
Acts, the epic motif attributed to the figure of Abraham. The Lucan application of
the patriarchal motif is preceded by a discussion on the question of historical reli-
ability as well as to what extent it is possible to describe the stories told by St. Luke
from the perspective of history writing. By focusing on the Abrahamic motif, the
author of Luke-Acts is shown to manipulate an epic figure of Israel’s past for the
purpose of creating a cultural heritage for his present audience. In so doing, the
author reveals himself as a learned person who manipulates a known motif in an
act of imitation (imitatio), through which he merges his own audience or com-
munity with a distant legacy. The work, thus, has more in common with fiction
presented as history. Such a procedure, indeed, is reminiscent of the way modern
critics of historical studies and history writing describe the nature of historical re-
alities, namely, as embedded in fiction. The final section of the essay reflects on
several implications that may be drawn from the author’s method of writing. What
forces within the audience trigger the author to build a bridge back to the epic fig-
ure of Abraham? Once the author is not considered a passive agent of divine rev-
elation, the apparent manipulation of the epic motif under discussion has to be ex-
plained from a different point of view. The focus becomes the community or the
audience itself with its need for authentication, for legitimation of its own being.
It is suggested that the Lucan fiction is a response to exactly some such social
forces or motivations in a similar manner as ethical issues may be argued to moti-
vate religious myths, such as of Christianity, and not the other way around.
42 Yirmiyahu Yovel, Kant and the Philosophy of History (Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press, 1980), 31.