A Review of Luke Timothy Johnson’s Prophetic Jesus, Prophetic Church (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans 2011)

Prophetic Jesus, Prophetic Church by Luke Timothy Johnson joins a slowly growing swell of scholarly literature espousing the theme of ‘prophethood’ to be one of Luke’s most prominent themes. Johnson examines the data holistically (throughout Luke–Acts) and he observes that in his gospel Luke portrays Jesus’ public ministry to be prophetic and in its sequel – Acts – he also portrays the disciples’ ministry as prophetic. Whether consciously or unconsciously, Johnson structures his chapter by chapter exposition of the theme of prophethood like the sequence of alternating panels of biblical exposition/pastoral exhortation which is to be found in Hebrews. This is a book whose value far outweighs its modest presentation.