Raymond Brown, The Birth of the Messiah
This volume discusses the infancy narratives in great detail.
Darrell Bock, Luke, vol 1, 1996.
One of the major strengths of this work, besides being up-to-date
relatively, is that Bock provides lots of info on who holds what view.
If you want to know the literature available and a good summary of the
positions taken, Bock is a good place to go.
Also due for at least honorable mention, might be
J. Firzmyer, Luke (Anchor Bible)
D. Hagner, Matthew, vol 1, WBC
J. Nolland, Luke, vol 1 WBC (I cuoldn't fail to mention one of my
probable future doctoral advisors)
Fitzmyer is important because everyone in Lukan studies is in
conversation with him, even though I think his approach to Luke seems
questionable in that it fails to recognize any meaningful narratal
cohesiveness in Luke's gospel as relevant to interpretation (one oif the
problems, IMHO, with form-critical studies).
There is a vast amount of literature on the genealogies, so some
survey approach such as these would be a good way to approach it I would
think. There are also interesting text-critical alternatives. In one
MS, a copyist went sideways instead of top to bottom appaently when
copying Luke's geneaology with comical effects, including someone giving
birth to God if I recall correctly.
Ken Litwak
Gradaute Theological Union
Berkeley, CA