Canonical Mondays: Why does Joseph in Luke look like the Joseph in Acts?

Our purpose in this series of Canonical Mondays is to demonstrate how a canonical approach to the Bible opens fresh, new insights overlooked in the conventional way of biblical interpretation. Many of those fresh insights show how deeply embedded in the Old Testament is the hope of a future Messiah who will occupy the role of prophet, priest, and King.

We’ve shown how major Bible characters, sometimes deeply flawed, introduced in the early chapters of Genesis, are reintroduced to us via later characters whose lives demonstrate an improved version of that character. Abigail and Esther, for example, are portrayed as better Eves. Abraham and Joseph are depicted as better Adams. King Saul is portrayed as a seed of the serpent while David is portrayed as a seed of the woman (Genesis 3:15). The canonical approach reveals how the Bible is written as a seamless story, linked together with implicit threads, sustaining our hope for the coming of a future King and better Adam.

The exciting news is the New Testament writers also wrote their documents from a canonical approach. Let’s observe one example. Since the book of Acts is volume 2 of Luke’s two-volume work (Acts 1:1), I knew that the stories in the Third Gospel are often repeated through different characters in Acts. So, as I observed the way Luke introduces Barnabas to us as “Joseph, a Levite” (Acts 4:36), a bell rang in my head. That introduction looked odd and gave me pause. Why tell us at this point in the Acts story that Barnabas’ actual name was Joseph? Does it really matter that we need to know his real name? Apparently, Luke thinks we do.

So, when I read Luke’s portrayal of the role Barnabas (Joseph) played in the early stages of Saul’s life (Acts 9:26-30,11:22-26), I began to observe that he was repeating, even parroting the same fatherly role that Joseph played in Jesus’ early experience (Luke 2:21-25; 41-52)).

Both men are named Joseph. Joseph was not the natural father of Jesus and neither was Barnabas the natural father to Saul. What the first Joseph did for young Jesus, the second Joseph also did for young convert Saul. It was then I realized that by providing us with Barnabas’ real name, Joseph, Luke was proving one small clue to his larger strategy.

Just as there was a Joseph who played a significant role in bringing young Jesus into the covenant community, so also there was a Joseph who played a significant role in successfully bringing young Saul into the covenant community.

So, the natural question I asked was: Luke, why are you painting this mirror-like picture between Jesus and Saul of Tarsus? What is your point? What do you want us to learn?

But that’s was not all. When I put the microscope on the two mirror-like patterns of Joseph (Jesus) and Joseph (Saul) and examined the finer details, I was in for an even bigger surprise. We’ll look at some of those canonical details next time on Canonical Mondays. Thanks for reading.

Canonical Mondays: Why does Joseph in Luke look like the Joseph in Acts?

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