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

10. The Pharisee and the Tax Collector (18: 9-14)
10-1. The Literary Context of the Parable
The parable is linked to the foregoing parable (Luke 18:1-8) by the common theme of prayer
and the use of the word group which appears in vv. 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 14. 1
As for the common theme, both accounts basically deal with the attitudes the disciples of
Jesus should have in praying, not simply prayer, but importunity and humility in praying,
although the Pharisee and the Tax Collector can refer to any teaching, apart form that of
prayer. In view of the contrast of characters in a parable, the parable has an affinity with the
parable of the Prodigal Son in that there is a contrast between the desperate and humble
confession of the prodigal and the distancing and disdain of the elder brother. On the same
line, the parable can be also related to the parable of the Good Samaritan in its contrast of the
Samaritan to the priest and the Levite as well as in a chiastic arrangement of Luke’s central
section. 2
Apart from v. 9 and v. 14b, the authenticity of the parable (vv. 10-14a) has largely been
3
accepted by scholars, although there is a different opinion with reference to v. 14a. On the
other hand, with respect to the authenticity of v. 14b, the opinions are primarily divided into
two arguments, contentions that v. 14b is from Jesus from the beginning, 4
or that, as a
1. For example, see (“grant justice” or “vindicate”) in 18:3, 5, 7, 8,
(“opponent”) in 18:3, “unjust”) in 18:6, 11, (“just”) in 18:10, and
(“having been justified”) in 18:14. Stephanie Harrison, “The Case of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector:
Justification and Social Location in Luke’s Gospel,” CurTM 32 (2005), 99-111, especially 100, n. 2; Snodgrass,
Stories with Intent, 466; Forbes, The God of Old: The Role of the Lukan Parables in the Purpose of Luke’s
Gospel, 211.
2. Blomberg, “Midrash, Chiasmus, and the Outline of Luke’s Central Section,” 240-44.
3. Jeremias, Parables, 140; Crossan, In Parables, 68-69; Bailey, Through Peasant Eyes, 145; Marshall, Luke,
678; Fitzmyer, The Gospel According to Luke, 1183-84; Scott, Hear Then a Parable, 93-98; Blomberg,
Interpreting the Parables, 256-58; F. Gerald Downing, “The Ambiguity of The Pharisee and the Toll collector
(Luke 18:9-14) in the Greco-Roman World of Late Antiquity,” CBQ 54 (1992), 80-99; Nolland, Luke, 874;
Herzog, Parables as Subversive Speech, 173-93; Michael Farris, “A Tale of Two Taxations (Luke 18:10-14b):
The Parable of the Pharisee and the Toll Collector,” in ed., V. George Shillington, Jesus and His Parables:
Interpreting the Parables of Jesus Today (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1997), 23-33; Hultgren, Parables, 125;
Forbers, The God of Old: The Role of the Lukan Parables in the Purpose of Luke’s Gospel, 211; Snodgrass,
Stories with Intent, 470-71; Robert Doran, “The Pharisee and the Tax Collector: An Agonistic Story,” CBQ 69
(2007), 259-70, here 261-65. John J. Kilgallen, “The Importance of the Redactor in Luke 18,9-14,” Bib 79
(1998), 69-75, especially 69; idem, “The Pharisee and the Publican (Luke 18:9-14): The Point?,” ExpTim 114
(2003), 157-59; idem, The Twenty Parables of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke, 149.
4. Blomberg, Interpreting the Parables, 258-59, who view v. 14b as an original part of the parable on the
grounds that v. 14b does provide an appropriate conclusion as some kind of explanation for a radical verdict in v.
14a. See also Marshall, Luke, 681; Bock, Luke, 1459-60; Plummer, Luke, 420; Ellis, Luke, 216; Kilgallen, “The
Importance of the Redactor in Luke 18,9-14,” 71.
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