Luke's Unique Parables: Genesis Narratives and Interpretations of Jesus

by Calum Carmichael

Overview

Calum Carmichael presents a new perspective on how parables unique to Luke's Gospel were composed. These parables took up moral issues that arose out of conflicts among figures such as Jacob and Esau, Joseph and his brothers, Judah and Tamar as portrayed in Genesis narratives. Providing literary and linguistic analyses, Carmichael demonstrates how Luke, like many of his contemporaries, absorbed the narrative legacy of the Hebrew Bible and used it to express ideas about Jesus. The Joseph story was of particular interest to Luke because Joseph's role during the Egyptian famine resulted in the rescue of his family, thereby giving the Israelite nation a future. Carmichael's radically different approach identifies the influence of ancestral wrongdoing on how Luke portrayed Jesus' moral teaching.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781009577885
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	03/06/2025
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.63(d)

About the Author

Calum Carmichael is Emeritus Professor of the Department of Comparative Literature at Cornell University and Associate Member of Cornell Law School. A recipient of fellowships from the John R. Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the American Council of Learned Societies, he is the author, most recently, of The Sacrificial Laws of Leviticus and the Joseph Story (2017) and The Book of Numbers: A Critique of Genesis (2012), and editor of The Cambridge Companion to the Bible and Literature (2020).

Table of Contents

Part I. Luke's Unique Parables: 1. Introduction; 2. Two debtors (Lk 7:36-42); 3. The good Samaritan (Lk 10:25-37); 4. The friend at midnight (Lk 11:5-13) Pater noster (Lk 11:1-4); 5. The rich fool (Lk 12:15-21); 6. The barren Fig tree (Lk 13:6-9); 7. Places of honor at a feast (Lk 14:1-11); 8. The lost sheep (Lk 15:1-7) The lost coin (Lk 15: 8-10); 9. The prodigal son (Lk 15:11-32); 10. The steward of unrighteousness (Lk 16:1-9); 11. The rich man and Lazarus (Lk 16:19-31); 12. The Widow and the unjust judge (Lk 18:1-8) The pharisee and the Tax Collector (Lk 18:9-14); 13. The pounds (Lk 19:1-27); 14. The wicked tenants (Lk 20:9-18); 15. Conclusion; Bibliography; Abbreviations: Luke's unique parables.