In this paper I will examine the meaning Luke gives to famines in his double work.(1) That the term might have special significance to Luke is indicated by its relative frequency in his writing: of 12 references to famines (�, sometimes meaning "hunger" more generally) in the New Testament, half are in Luke-Acts.(2) Matthew and Mark each refer to famines only once, while Luke refers to famines six times. I will first examine the Old Testament background for famines, then its use in the New Testament outside of the Synoptics, and finally Luke's use of it, starting with the one instance he shares with Matthew and Mark.
In the Old Testament, famines are recounted for a variety of reasons. In the prophetic tradition, especially in Jeremiah, famines are most often one of the chastening tools used by Yahweh to show disapproval and judgment on the sinfulness of the people.(3) To take an explicit and typical reference, "I [Yahweh] will punish those who live in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem, with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence" (Jer 44:13). Throughout the prophetic tradition and in many other places in the Old Testament,(4) famines are seen as deserved punishments sent by Yahweh.(5)
But some examples with different emphases must be observed in order to fill out the Old Testament depiction of famines. First, several passages do not refer to Yahweh sending the famine at all, whether as punishment or otherwise; it just seems to occur.(6) Although Yahweh's ultimate sovereignty and control over the situation may well be assumed in many of these cases, it is still worth noting that in these accounts Yahweh's use of the famine for punishment is not the point of the story, nor even an important part of it.(7)
Secondly, in several places in the Old Testament, famines (whether they are from Yahweh or not) are seen as trials or simply hardships, rather than as punishments. Sometimes they are trials that cause the people to give up and be defeated by their enemies (e.g. 1 Macc 9:24, 27). With an even more secular outlook, Sirach sometimes sees famines as part of the necessary and inevitable cycle of life: "In the time of plenty think of the time of hunger; in days of wealth think of poverty and need" (Sir 18:25). Again, here famines are not punishments for sin, but simply normal difficulties to be worked through as part of life.
Finally, in many of the Old Testament references to famines, the emphasis is on God's ending the famine, rather than causing it. This is the case even in the prophetic tradition: "I will make the fruit of the tree and the produce of the field abundant, so that you may never again suffer the disgrace of famine among the nations" (Ezek 36:30; cf. Ezek 34:29). Here the famine is clearly seen as a punishment from God, but the emphasis is on God's ending the punishment and reconciling with the sinful people. In other passages, the element of punishment is completely absent, and famines are instead regarded as trials that the faithful are to survive with God's help.(8) The famine in Egypt recounted in Genesis 41-47 is treated similarly. Although it is said to be caused by God (Gen 41:25), it is not brought about in order to punish anyone, but it is part of God's plan to elevate Joseph (Gen 41:37-45). And once he is in a position of authority, Joseph uses it primarily to show his forgiveness and love for his brothers, and to save their lives (Gen 45:5-8). At several points in the Old Testament, famines are portrayed primarily as the opportunity for both divine and human mercy and love to be shown to those suffering, rather than as chastening tools of the wicked or trials of the faithful. The origins of the famines in these passages may be ambiguous, but the divine and human responses that they illicit are clear.
Thus there seem to be three emphases in the Old Testament's references to famines. A famine can be seen as 1) a punishment from God, 2) a trial or hardship to be patiently endured, and/or 3) the occasion for divine and/or human compassion to be shown to those in need.
How are these different emphases taken over and adapted by New Testament authors? Paul refers to famines once (Rom 8:35), offering hope to believers that the suffering of a famine is not to be feared.(9) Paul clearly views famines here not as punishments from God, but as trials of the faithful. As on other topics, Paul's concerns are primarily pastoral: in his own life and in his advice to his congregations, Paul treats famines as trials that Christ's followers will have to endure, perhaps frequently, though with the assurance of Christ's love and presence.
The author of Revelation treats famines in two distinct ways. In chapter six, famine is associated with the third and fourth horsemen of the Apocalypse (Rev 6:8).(10) The devastation described there is one of the trials of the faithful. In chapter 18, however, famine is one of the deserved punishments meted out upon Babylon by God's angel.(11) Whether famines are trials or judgments depends on who is involved: in Revelation they are trials for the faithful and judgments on the wicked.
The one reference to famines common to all three Synoptics is found in Jesus' eschatological discourse.(12) The version in Matthew and Mark is very close.(13) In both, famines are one of the signs that precede "the end,"(14) trials for the faithful to endure.
But Luke has significantly expanded these signs by making the earthquakes "great" (�), adding "pestilences... terrors and great signs from heaven" (Luke 21:11), as well as omitting Mark's mention of "the beginning of the birth pangs." By his redaction, Luke has made these disasters explicitly not eschatological:(15) believers will have to undergo many and various sufferings before "the end."(16) More importantly, the climactic famines predicted in Luke 21:11 will not just be warning signs to be observed or trials to be endured. Right before the famine in Egypt, Joseph told the baker that he would be beheaded (Gen 40:16-19), while he told the cupbearer that his head would be lifted up as part of his release or redemption (Gen 40:9-15). In verses unique to Luke's Gospel, Jesus gives encouragement in similar terms: "...not a hair of your head will perish.... when these things begin to take place, look up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near" (Luke 21:18, 28).(17) Luke has made the famines triumphal and redemptive, another opportunity for God to show mercy and compassion on the people.
Luke's first reference to a famine is an Old Testament allusion in which he refers to the famine described in 1 Kings 17:1-16 (Luke 4:25-26). Once again, in this Old Testament story and in Luke's appropriation of it, the emphasis is on God's merciful acts towards the widow, which include even resurrecting her son, not on his sending the famine in the first place.(18)
The other references to famines in Luke's Gospel are in the story of the prodigal son (Luke 15:14, 17). As in the Joseph story, the famine is not sent as punishment, but it provides the occasion for a family member, this time the prodigal's father, to show his love, forgiveness, and joy at being reunited with his lost loved one (Luke 15:23-24). As the previous stories of famines showed the activity of divine love and compassion, the story of the prodigal son shows that famines will bring out the same qualities in human beings.
Both of the references to famines in Acts make much the same point. Stephen makes explicit reference to the famine in Egypt (Acts 7:11). The Old Testament story that most clearly depicts famines as occasions for human love and mercy is mentioned by Stephen as one of the pivotal moments in Israel's history, and may also be meant by Luke to prefigure Christ and salvation history.(19) Luke's final reference to a famine is in Acts 11:28, referring to a famine that occurred during Claudius' reign.(20) Once again, a famine provides humans with the opportunity to show their love and compassion for one another through concrete acts of kindness and generosity.
In the Old Testament, famines can be a sign of God's disapproval and judgment on the people, a hardship to be borne patiently, or an opportunity for human and/or divine compassion to be shown. The various New Testament authors adapt these images in different ways. For Paul, famines are trials that believers have to endure. For the author of Revelation, famines can be either an apocalyptic trial for the faithful, or punishment of the wicked. For Matthew and Mark, famines are an apocalyptic sign and a trial for the faithful to endure before "the end." Luke's focus is clearly on famines as opportunities for both human and divine compassion to be exercised or revealed. By his redaction of Mark and his recounting of famines elsewhere in his work, Luke has explicitly de-eschatologized them and made them part of ordinary human experience. But by making them routine, Luke has made them even more important moments in human life and history: the frequent misery of human hunger - both literal and figurative - cries out for both divine and human intervention, and in Luke's story it is a cry that has not and will not go unanswered. From the Old Testament stories of famines alluded to in both the Gospel and Acts, to the famine that drives the starved prodigal son back to his father, to the predicted famines that will leave true believers not only unscathed but also redeemed, to the famine that the church's charitable generosity alleviates: these are Luke's stories of famines, and they consistently show the healing and redemptive power of both divine and human love. For Luke, physical catastrophes have been and will continue to be the clearest examples of spiritual triumphs.
1. An earlier version of this paper was read at the Annual Meeting of the Colloquium Biblicum Lovaniense, Catholic University of Leuven, July 1998. I refer to the author of the third Gospel as Luke throughout without implication or speculation as to his identity. Throughout I also assume the two-source hypothesis.
2. Matt 24:7; Mark 13:8; Luke 4:25; 15:14, 17; 21:11; Acts 7:11; 11:28; Rom 8:35; 2 Cor 11:27; Rev 6:8; 18:8.
3. Amos 8:11; Isa 5:13; 8:21; 14:30; 51:19; Jer 5:12; 11:22; 14:12, 13, 15, 16, 18; 15:2; 16:4; 17:18; 18:21; 21:7, 9; 24:10; 27:8; 32:24, 36; 34:17; 38:2, 9; 42:16, 17, 22; 44:12, 13, 18, 27; 52:6; Bar 2:25; Lam 2:19, 21; 4:9; 5:10; Ezek 5:12, 16, 17; 6:11, 12; 7:15; 12:16; 14:13, 21.
4. E.g. Deut 28:48; 32:24; 2 Sam 21:1; 24:13; 1 Kings 8:37; 18:2; 2 Kings 8:1; 1 Chr 21:12; 2 Chr 6:28; Sir 39:29; 40:8-9; 48:2.
5. On this aspect of famines in the OT, see W. H. Shea, "Famine," in Anchor Bible Dictionary (ed. D. N. Freedman; New York, et. al.: Doubleday, 1992) 2:769-73, esp. 772.
6. E.g. Gen 12:10; 26:1; Ruth 1:1; 2 Kings 4:38; 6:25; 25:3; Tob 4:13; Jud 5:10; 7:14.
7. Cf. Shea, "Famine," 773.
8. E.g. Exod 16:1-36; 2 Kings 7:3-8; 2 Chr 20:9; Job 5:20; Pss 33:18-19; 37:18-19.
9. Paul also refers to his own "hunger" at 2 Cor 11:27 in a way quite similar to the Romans passage: see M. Black, Romans (2nd ed.; NCB; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989) 121.
10. The exorbitant prices of the third horseman (Rev 6:5-6) would probably cause famine, although famine itself is not mentioned until the fourth horseman: cf. C. H. Giblin, The Book of Revelation (Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical Press, 1991) 83-85. On the relation of Revelation 6 to the Synoptic apocalypse, see I. H. Marshall, The Gospel of Luke (NIGTC; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1978) 765.
11. Cf. Giblin, Revelation, 170-72.
12. Matt 24:7 // Mark 13:8 // Luke 21:11. On the discourse as a whole, see E. E. Ellis, The Gospel of Luke (2nd ed.; NCB; Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1974) 239-43; Fitzmyer, Luke, 2:1323-30. On the NT's use of famines in reference to the eschaton, see Shea, "Famine," 773.
13. Matthew only changes the word order ("famines and earthquakes in various places"), and adds "all" ().
14. Though especially in Luke it is debated whether this is the end of Jerusalem (thus Fitzmyer, Luke, 2:1334-37), or the end of the world (e.g. Marshall, Luke, 764; J. B. Green, The Gospel of Luke [NICNT; Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1997] 734-35).
15. Cf. Marshall, Luke, 761: "The description of these is fuller than in Mk., and Mark's note that these are the beginnings of birthpangs is omitted. This may suggest that for Luke even large-scale disasters are not a sign of the End"; Fitzmyer, Luke, 2:1329, "What is evident in the Lucan recasting of the inherited eschatological discourse is... the clearer postponement of the eschata of the world."
16. Luke gives examples of such in Acts 11:28 (see below) and 16:26; cf. Fitzmyer, Luke, 2:1337. On the worldwide or cosmic aspects of the disasters in Luke 21:9-11, see also R. Geiger, Die Lukanischen Endzeitreden: Studien zur Eschatologie des Lukas-Evangeliums (Bern: H. Lang; Frankfurt: P. Lang, 1973) 169-72.
17. The first of these verses even stands in some tension in its context: see Marshall, Luke, 769-70; Fitzmyer, Luke, 2:1341.
18. This story is thus closely related to the raising of the widow's son (Luke 7:11-17); on the Lukan and pre-Lukan elements in both, see K. Paffenroth, The Story of Jesus according to L (JSNTSup 147; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1997) 33-34, 55.
19. Thus L. T. Johnson, The Acts of the Apostles (Sacra Pagina Series 5; Collegeville, MN: 1992) 121-22; J. Fitzmyer, The Acts of the Apostles (AB 31; New York et al: Doubleday, 1998) 366; contra H. Conzelmann, Acts of the Apostles (trans. J. Limburg, et. al.; Hermeneia Series; Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1987) 53.
20. On the historicity of the famine, see K. Lake, "The Famine in the Time of Claudius," in The Beginnings of Christianity (repr. ed.; Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1979) 5:452-55; B. W. Winter, "Acts and Food Shortages," in The Book of Acts in Its First Century Setting (ed. B. W. Winter; 5 vols.; Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1994) 2:59-78, esp. 62-69; Johnson, Acts, 206; Fitzmyer, Acts, 481-82. Cf. Fitzmyer, Luke, 2:1337, who connects this verse along with Acts 16:26 (on earthquakes) to Luke 21:11.