Parabolic Figures or Narrative Fictions?

Seminal Essays on the Stories of Jesus

Charles W. Hedrick

• Publisher: Cascade Books
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN:
  9781498224857
  9781498224871
• eBook ISBN:
  9781498224864
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Studies

Hedrick contends that parables do not teach moral and religious lessons; they are not, in whole or part, theological figures for the church. Rather, parables are realistic narrative fictions that like all effective fiction literature are designed to draw readers into story worlds where they make discoveries about themselves by finding their ideas challenged and subverted--or affirmed. The parables have endings but not final resolutions, because the endings raise new complications for careful readers, which require further resolution. The narrative contexts and interpretations supplied by the evangelists constitute an attempt by the early church to bring the secular narratives of Jesus under the control of the church's later religious perspectives. Each narrative represents a fragment of Jesus's secular vision of reality. Finding himself outside the mainstream of parables scholarship, both ecclesiastical and critical, Hedrick explored a literary approach to the parables in a series of essays that, among other things, set out the basic rationale for a literary approach to the parables of Jesus. These early essays form the central section of the book. They are published here in edited form along with unpublished critiques of a thoroughgoing literary approach and his response.

Part 1

Foundations

1

Prolegomena to Reading Parables

Luke 13:6–9 as a Test Case1

Introduction

New Testament scholars do not agree on what a parable is and how it functions—and neither did the canonical evangelists.2 The designation “parable” is used in the gospels to describe the following: stories (i.e., narratives having a beginning, middle, and end: Mark 4:2–9); brief images (Mark 13:28); aphorisms (Mark 7:15–17); and traditional proverbs (Luke 4:23). Luke even regards banal advice about table etiquette and seating protocol at a banquet as a parable (Luke 14:8–10). Frequently a given literary unit is described as a parable by one evangelist but is not so described by another. Luke, for example, describes the twin proverbs new patch on old garment and new wine in old wineskins (5:36–38) as a (single) parable, but Matthew (9:16–17) and Mark (2:21–22) do not describe them as parables.

If we limit the term parable to include just the narratives, and then analyze how they functioned in the gospels, there is still no consistency. In general, the evangelists find them to be allegories from which they make whimsical applications to the life of the church, stories from which they draw short morals for the faith of the church, brief images and figures reflecting some point of early Christian theology or morality, and examples illustrating Christian morality.3 They do agree, however, that the parabolic language of Jesus, like virtually everything else he said, was cryptic and arcane. Hence the story, as parable, does not mean what it says, but something else quite different.4 In short, the evangelists treat the stories as cryptic discourse in need of religious explanation.

In the history of parables scholarship there have been programmatic shifts in understanding the parables, but not all scholars have shifted their understanding of parables to agree with the new definitions. The new strategies have not eclipsed the former conventional approaches. And so today, at one and the same time, parables are regarded as allegories,5 stories that make a one point comparison between a picture world and a substance world,6 metaphors,7 symbols,8 stories that disclose aspects of human existence,9 narratives about political power and the exploitation of the peasant class,10 and nonreferential fictions that should be read in the context of the ways that first-century Judeans understood themselves.11 Today no consensus exists among scholars on what a parable is or how it functions.

This chapter examines various interpretations of the brief story about a fig tree that does not bear figs when expected (Luke 13:6–9) and focuses on the assumptions and methods leading to these interpretations.

The Story

Translation Luke 13:6–9

(6) A certain (fellow) had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it, but did not find (any). (7) And he said to the vinedresser, “Look here, three years now I am coming seeking fruit on this tree, and I do not find (any). Cut it down; why indeed does it uselessly occupy the land?” (8) And having answered, he says to him, “Sir, leave it also this year, until which (time) I have dug about it, and throw (on) some manure; (9) and if it bears fruit in the future . . . , but if not the least, you will cut it down.”

A Few Preliminary Observations on the Story

“A certain (fellow)” (13:6) is typical of Lukan style.12 Hence, Luke may well have revised the story in other ways as well, assuming that it is traditional, rather than a Lukan creation. The narrative frame introducing the story does not call for a comparison, and Luke does not associate the story with the reign of God. In the sto...

Table of contents

• Preface
• Introduction
• Abbreviations
• Part 1: Foundations
• Part 2: Studies
• Part 3: Critiques
• Epilogue
• Bibliography