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

eyes to heaven,” 59 “beating his breast,” 60 and “saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner.’”
He is praying standing at a distance from “the holy place, the Pharisee or others at prayer,” 61
since he perceives himself as sinner within his relationship to God, unlike the Pharisee who
was aware of himself in a comparison to others. It is a sign of shame based on awareness of
guilt that he did not dare to raise his eyes toward heaven. Moreover, beating his breast which
presents one’s deepest intentions and is the place of evil intentions is also an expression of
extreme anguish or contrition. 62 The tax collector, as opposed to the Pharisee’s prayer,
implores God for mercy, recognizing that he is a sinner by means of the definite article,
, and reflecting his hopeless and feeble condition. The aorist passive imperative,
, in v. 13b normally has either the sense of “propitiate” or that of “expiation,” with
cultic resonance, as in the language to refer to the purpose of the daily Tamid in Exod
30:16. 63 In the case of LXX, 64 it has too the meaning of being merciful or gracious. It is
most likely that the original audience would have expected “Be propitiated to me” with
sacrificial overtones rather than “Be merciful to me” in that his prayer took place in the
Temple where atonement was made by a sacrifice. 65
The perfect passive participle indicates that the tax collector is “in the
state of having been justified by God, that is, God has justified him, declared him to be in
66
right relationship with himself.” Even though some attempt to search for the Pauline
doctrine of justification in v. 14, 67
it fails to make sense enough to espouse it, since in v. 14,
59. Ps. 123:1; Ezra 9:6; 1 Esd. 4:58; 1 Enoch 13:5; Mk 6:41; 7:34; John 11:41; 17:1; 1Tim 2:8.
60. Cf. Josephus, Ant. 7.10.5; Homer, Iliad 18:30-31; Eccl. Rab. 7.2. Bailey refers that beating one’s chest was
commonly only performed by women in the Middle East. Bailey, Through Peasant Eyes, 153.
61. Hultgren, Parables, 123.
62. Jeremias, Parables, 141; Bailey, Through Peasant Eyes, 153; Marshall, Luke, 680; Nolland, Luke, 877;
Green, Luke, 649; Scott, Hear Then a Parable, 96; Herzog, Parables as Subversive Speech, 188; Forbes, The
God of Old: The Role of the Lukan Parables in the Purpose of Luke’s Gospel, 217; Hultgren, Parables, 124;
Friedrichsen, “The Temple, A Pharisee, A Tax Collector, and The Kingdom of God: Rereading a Jesus Parable,”
112-13; Kilgrllen, Twenty Parables of Jesus, 153-54.
63. Hamm, “The Tamid Service in Luke-Acts: The Cultic Background behind Luke’s Theology of Worship
(Luke 1:5-25; 18:9-14; 24:50-53; Acts 3:1; 10:3, 30),” 224; Bailey, Through Peasant Eyes, 154; Marshall, Luke,
680; Scott, Hear Then a Parable, 96; Forbes, The God of Old: The Role of the Lukan Parables in the Purpose of
Luke’s Gospel, 218; Friedrichsen, “The Temple, A Pharisee, A Tax Collector, and The Kingdom of God:
Rereading a Jesus Parable,” 114.
64. 4 Kgdms 24:4; Lam. 3:42; Dan. 9:19.
65. Bailey, Through Peasant Eyes, 154; Herzog, Parables as Subversive Speech, 189; Hultgren, Parables, 124;
Snodgrass, Stories with Intent, 472-73; Friedrichsen, “The Temple, A Pharisee, A Tax Collector, and The
Kingdom of God: Rereading a Jesus Parable,” 114.
66. Hultgren, Parables, 124.
67. F.F. Bruce, “Justification by Faith in the Non-Pauline Writings of the New Testament,” EvQ 24 (1952), 66-
77, here 66-69; Jeremias, Parables, 141; Ellis, Luke, 214; Fitzmyer, The Gospel According to Luke, 1184-85;
152