Folia Theologica 6. (1995)

János Székely: Mary and Martha how to receive the divine guest?

MARY AND MARTHA

163

often repeated opinion is to see in our story an exemplification of the first commandment (Lk 10,27a) as The good Samaritan - story is an illustration of the second (Lk 10,27b).11 The disposal of the material woul be then chiastic.12 Some scholars amplify the connection, saying that in Lk 10,25-37.38-42; 11,1-13. we have three foundamental teachings about piety (neighbour’s love, hear, prayer). It seems however, that the Mary and Martha pericopy doesn’t speak about the love of God (the first commandement) but about hearing the word of the Lord, Jesus. Some interpreters, realizing the difficulty, see in our pericope a lukan amplification (applying it to Jesus) and rectification (radicalizing it) of the usual understanding of the first commandment,13 as the good Samaritan’s example rectifies usual understandings of the second. Others finally would see in these passages a record of the pre-baptismal (Lk 9,51-10,38) and post- baptismal (11,1-54) catechesis, that Luke in fact mentioned to Theophi- los (Lk 1,4).14 We can realize already, how much the ’presumed’ context of a gospel-story can influence its understanding, determine the direction of its interpretation. Instead of beginning the discussion on an abstract level with the above mentioned proposals, I will first expose some of the verbal connections of our passage with the travel account, hoping that in this way our interpretation will be more objective and nearer to the lukan design.

The redactional introductory formulas have a great significance in Luke’s gospel, and indicate his intention with the different pericopies. Luke has three manners to indicate the progress and the change of his account:

— (’It happened’) ’in the’ + inf + aor.

— impf, in coniugatio periphrastica

— impf.

11 Cf. A. PLUMMER, The Gospel according to S. Luke (1900) p.290. W. GRUNDMANN, Das Evangelium nach Lukas (1961) p.225. H. MARSHALL, The Gospel of Luke (1978) p.450. E. KLOSTERMANN, Das Lukasevangelium (19753) p. 122. C. H. TALBERT, Literary patterns, theological themes, and the genre of Luke - Acts (1974) p.51. etc.

12 M. D. GOULDER, The chiastic structure of the Lukan Journey in TU 87 (1964) p. 197.

13 G. SCHNEIDER, Das Evangelium nach Lukas (19923) p.252.

14 H. SCHÜRMANN, Das Lukasevangelium (1993) vol. 2. p. 167-168.