Summary: The Lucan Passion Narrative and Its Use in the Lectionary 

The sessions at our 2002 meeting continued the project of examining lectionary presentations of the passion narratives.

The Seminar first examined its work from last year on the Matthean passion narrative. After considerable discussion of the role of Judas in the Gospel, especially his identification as the only character to address Jesus as "rabbi," the sample passion narrative lection was finalized.

At the second of our three sessions, the Gospel of Luke's passion narrative was studied. It was felt to have many positive features. The greatest discussion concerned 23:18 and 23:26, about which consensus was achieved. A final Lucan passion narrative lection was approved.

Since earlier it had been determined that the Gospel of Mark's passion lection was not in need of revision, the Seminar has now completed its work on all four passion narratives. It was agreed to make them available online together with supporting material. the latter included a list of the principles that the Seminar had used in devising the sample lection which had been discussed and approved at the meeting. These materials have now all been posted on "Liturgical Readings of the Passion Project" webpages.

At the last of our three sessions, the Seminar discussed the new Pontifical Biblical Commission study on "The Jewish People and Their Sacred Scriptures in the Christian Bible" and the Christian Scholars Group on Christian-Jewish Relations' forthcoming statement "A Sacred Obligation: Rethinking Christian Faith in Relation to Judaism and the Jewish People."  While weaknesses were seen in both documents, they were also both seen as making important contributions to Christian-Jewish Relations. 

It was decided that next year's topic would be "The Petrine Speeches in Acts." The last day will be devoted to how these texts are presented in the lections of the Easter season.