Retoriska övningar vid den sista måltiden (Luk 22:14-38)

Luke’s account of the last supper (22:14–38) is here analyzed according to the pattern of chreia elaboration, which was one of the preparatory rhetorical exercises known as Progymnasmata in the Hellenistic school. The study begins with a brief overview of the preserved progymnastic textbooks or manuals and their contents, and then proceeds to show how influences from the exercises can be detected in the Gospel according to Luke on the micro-level (in the form of chreiai, recollections and narratives), on the meso-level (in the form of rudimentary or fully developed elaborations), and on the macro-level (in the structure of the biographical narration). It is then demonstrated that the last supper account conforms to the elaboration pattern, with the different parts of the section corresponding to the headings of an ideal chreia elaboration: paraphrasis and rationale (22:14–18), argument from the opposite (22:19–23), analogy (22:24–30), example (22:31–34), and testimony and conclusion (22:35–38). Luke’s composition appears to be inspired, even if not determined, by the exercise of elaboration. Recognizing this compositional pattern will help us to see more clearly the Lukan theology of apostleship as expressed in the farewell speech of Jesus: to be an apostle is to have received the call to be together with Jesus, at the meal, during his suffering, and when the kingdom of God arrives