The Lucan Beatitudes and Woes: A Realised or Futurist Eschatological Reversal?
The theme of eschatological reversal is ubiquitous in the third gospel. Luke, however, appears to present the motif in a contradictory manner, localising it temporally both in the present and in the future. Such a dual characterisation of the eschaton is particularly true of Luke?s Sermon on the Plain. This paper investigates three retentions of Q source material and four Lucan redactional changes which shed light on Luke?s peculiar insight on the matter. Utilising redactional criticism, this study investigates how Luke preserves, rather than silences, the coexistence of both a realised and futurist eschatology present in his source. His redactional efforts further amplify the two temporal plains. Luke does not choose between the two. For him, eschatological reversal is both realised in the present and actualised in the future.
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