Uncovering gems in Luke 15
Uncovering gems in Luke 15
My first paper has just been published! Heather Beal and I used our oral Bible translation of Luke 15 as a case study to demonstrate that capturing the artistry of the biblical text in its original language results in more accurate, clearer, and more powerful translations.
I'm going to share highlights of this 25-page paper over the next three weeks. This week we'll cover the context of Luke 15 and its main point, as well as three gems I found while studying the passage.
Luke 15 - Context and Main Point
People are familiar with the stories of the shepherd abandoning his flock to find the lost sheep (Luke 15:4-7) and the woman searching for her lost coin (Luke 15:8-10). Even more people know about the father accepting the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32). Not many people, though, know that Jesus told all three stories in Luke 15 as an answer to the Pharisees who complained that he accepted and ate with tax collectors and sinners (Luke 15:1-2).
Why did Jesus tell these stories to the Pharisees?
To answer that best, we have to step back even further and look at what Luke records Jesus doing in the few chapters before Luke 15.
In chapters 13-15, Luke develops a theme first introduced when Jesus was presented, only eight days old, at the temple in Jerusalem. Simeon, a man filled with the Holy Spirit, prophesied that Jesus was "destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel" (Luke 2:34). Luke 13-15 shows this prophecy beginning to be fulfilled as Jesus demonstrates what true repentance looks like. Over and over in this section, Jesus emphasizes that those who are expected to be in the kingdom will not be, while those who would not be expected will be.
For example, in Luke 13:31-35, Jesus laments that Jerusalem, the chosen city, is the one who kills the prophets sent to her. Then, in Luke 14:1-6, Jesus has to rebuke a synagogue leader for stopping people from receiving healing on the Sabbath. This spiritually numb leader allowed people to care for the basic necessities of their animals but wanted to prevent suffering people, though much more important than animals, from receiving healing. In Luke 14:15-24, Jesus again highlights that the kingdom will not look like what people expect when he tells a parable about a banquet. A man invited many people to a banquet he wanted to throw. When everything was ready, the man sent messengers to call his guests to the banquet. One after another, every guest declined. The banquet holder, angry with those originally called, invites everyone else to the party.
Why did Jesus tell these three stories to the Pharisees? Because they, the ones who looked like they were part of the kingdom, were in danger of refusing to enter the kingdom because they despised the tax collectors and sinners.
Three Gems in Luke 15: The story template, the Pharisees and the Older Son, and Jesus' rhetorical device
Gem 1: The story template in Luke 15
Luke 15 is structured by three stories that make up a single "parable."
15:3 then he told them this parable, saying,
All three parables have the same basic structure. In the original Greek, the three stories even use very similar wording for some of these elements!
- Someone loses something valuable.
- The person invests significant time, energy, or money to ensure they get it back.
- They find what they lost.
- They throw a party and everyone joins the celebration.
Jesus' last story ends with a twist on the structure established by the first two stories: the older son, who should be at the celebration, refuses to join.
Gem 2: The Older Son sounds like the Pharisees and Scribes
Many commentators note that the older son in the last parable is symbolic of the Pharisees at the beginning of Luke 15. The similarities between the scribes and Pharisees and the older son go beyond their role in the story—careful reading reveals the speech of the two parties even sounds similar in Greek. I didn't notice this until I had studied the passage for over a dozen hours.
First, the older son's pride concerning his devotion to his father parallels the Pharisees’ pride about their religious devotion. The older son even uses religious words like "I have served you and not departed from any of your commandments" (Luke 15:29).
Second, the Pharisees make the same accusation of Jesus that the older son makes against his father:
| Pharisees about Jesus (Luke 15:2) | Older Son to the Father (Luke 15:30) | |
|---|---|---|
| a | This fellow | This son of yours |
| b | welcomes sinners. | comes back, after he’s spent all your money on prostitutes, |
| c | He even eats with them! | You kill the fattened calf for him! |
Gem 3: Rhetorical Device, a Cliff Hanger
Jesus uses a wonderful rhetorical device at the end of the third story, a cliff hanger. Will the older son honor the father by joining the party, or will he stay outside in his anger? The message to the Pharisees was clear: they still had the opportunity to honor the heavenly Father by rejoicing that tax collectors and sinners were coming to Jesus.
TL;DR
If the email was too long to read, here are the main points:
- My first paper, a case study of an oral Bible translation of Luke 15, has just been published.
- Jesus told the stories in Luke 15 to the Pharisees to provoke them to join God in celebrating the repentance of tax collectors and other sinners.
- Each story in Luke 15 follows the same template.
- The older son and the Pharisees sound the same in Greek.
- Jesus uses a cliff hanger at the end of Luke 15 to invite the Pharisees to join God's party.
Challenge for You
- Consider reading my paper on Luke 15 and sharing it with others who may be interested. Maybe someone you know, like your pastor or a seminary student, would really enjoy reading it!
- Read Luke 15 this week and see what other gems you might find!
References
All of this comes from my paper:
Beal, H., & Frost, J. (2023). Leveraging Biblical Artistry for Performance and Fidelity in Luke 15. Journal of Language, Culture, and Religion, 4(1), 1–25. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/370825235_Leveraging_Biblical_Artistry_for_Performance_and_Fidelity_in_Luke_15