the role of the lukan parables in terms of the purpose of luke's gospel

Chapter 2
A History of Research of the Lukan Parables
Of the best known and most loved of Jesus’ parables, many parables are found only in Luke’s
Gospel and in particular clustered in the central section of the Gospel of Luke. One therefore
anticipates that there would have been a number of studied works on the Lukan parables as a
whole, but in reality there are even less than thought. More recently, most of the researchers
on the Lukan parables, to my knowledge, tend to be limited to an analysis of individual
parables. Although there are a few works on the Lukan parables, I think that it is worth
dealing with a history of research on the Lukan parables, dividing it into two categories such
as research on the parables as a whole in the Gospel of Luke, and research on the parables
unique to Luke.
1. Research on the parables as a whole in the Gospel of Luke
Regarding research on the parables as a whole in the Gospel of Luke, I am aware of the
following five works: Those of M.D. Goulder, 1 G. Sellin, 2 J. Drury, 3 T.L. Noel, 4 and J.R.
Donahue. 5 M.D. Goulder explores these differences of the parables in each gospel under five
categories, concluding that the peculiarly Lukan and Matthean parables both differ enough
from the Marcan parables. In the first category, ‘The Subjects of the Parables’, he claims that
the Old Testament parable is predominantly a nature parable and this tradition is taken over in
Mark, and that Mark’s parables are, therefore, predominantly nature parables. 6 He contends
that, unlike Marcan parables, however, Matthew prefers magnificent subjects and expands,
allegorizes, and urbanizes his parables, and that Luke focuses on the people of the town
leaving behind the countryside. 7
In the ‘Scale of the Parables’, Goulder maintains that
Mark’s world is the village, Galilaean village, and that Mattew has the grand scale, and
1. M.D. Goulder, “Characteristics of the Parables in the Several Gospels,” JTS 19 (1968), 51-69.
2. Gerhard Sellin, ‘Studien zu den grossen Gleichniserzählungen des Lukas-Sonderguts: Die -
Erzählungen-besonders am Beispiel von Lk 10,25-37 sund 16,14-31 untersucht,’ (PhD dissertation: Münster,
1974); idem, “Gleichnisstrukturen,” LingBib 31 (1974), 89-115.
3. J. Drury, The Parables in the Gospels: History and Allegory (London: SPCK, 1985).
4. T.L. Noel, ‘Parables in Context: Developing a Narrative-Critical Approach to Parables in Luke’ (PhD
dissertation; Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Kentucky, 1986).
5. John R. Donahue, The Gospel in Parable: Metaphor, Narrative, and Theology in the Synoptic Gospels
(Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1988).
6. Goulder, “Characteristics of the Parables in the Several Gospels,” 51.
7. Ibid., 52-53.
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