| Summary: | The hoary hypothesis of a Baptist source underlying Luke 1-2 is ventured anew, to see if it might benefit from a narrative appraisal of John's Nativity. The dramatis personae, besides the obvious ones, include the alternately bewildered, fearful, and joyous onlookers, who, with the virtuous parents, represent faithful Israel, deprived of the traditional site and personnel of its worship and finding in the wondrous birth the opening to an eschatological restoration. Parents and observers are joined in the plural voicing of the Benedictus, their exultant celebration of deliverance arriving from on high.
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