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

eligion. 37
However, Bailey fails to adequately consider the concept of repentance in
imageries and stories of repentance in Luke-Acts, owing to only a concentration on a word
study of and . In the same way, he misses linking repentance to the other
themes of Luke. Notwithstanding, he has made very significant contributions to
understanding the concept of repentance in Luke-Acts.
Guy D. Nave attempts to show how repentance serves as the means for establishing and
resocializing the Christian community in Luke-Acts, and for transforming traditional world
views within the context of the narrative and on the narrative structure in Luke-Acts as a
literary approach. Repentance, as found in Greco-Roman, Jewish, and early Christian
literature, has the same meaning with them, and represents a change in thinking that logically
results in a change in behaviour or way of life. For him repentance is the indispensable
change in thinking and behaviour, so that individuals as the people of God help to fulfill
God’s plan of universal salvation, and still more, serve to establish a community composed of
all people. Nave argues that while repentance in Luke presents primarily a change of thinking
in interaction with other people, repentance in Acts is chiefly concerned with a change of
thinking regarding Jesus of Nazareth. Moreover, he goes so far as to contend that repentance
for the Gentiles differs from the Jews in that repentance for the Gentiles is described simply
38
as believing in Jesus. However, Nave appears to miss the fact that lack of repentance and
not sin is the reason to God’s condemnation of a person. 39
His contention implies that sin is
not the reason for God’s condemnation toward a person. For him, it is also not convincing in
showing a distinction between Jewish and Gentile repentance, since both a change in thinking
about Jesus and a new belief in Jesus as simply believing in Jesus carry almost the same
meaning. Nevertheless, his work does offer a considerable insight for a study of repentance in
Luke-Acts in that he seeks to find a function and a role of repentance in God’s salvation plan
throughout Luke-Acts.
Having felt that compared with materials of Acts in studies of conversion, those of the
Gospel of Luke have been relatively neglected by scholars, Pernando Méndez-Moratalla tries
to establish a coherent theological pattern of conversion in Luke. He singles out ten
40
paradigms of conversion in Luke as the result of analysis of seven texts on conversion, that
37. Bailey, ‘Repentance in Luke-Acts,’ 28-121, 284-293.
38. Nave, Repentance in Luke-Acts, 39-144, 145-224.
39. Ibid., 178, 222.
40. Seven texts which he analyzes in Luke is as follows: Baptist (3:1-17), Levi (5:27-32), a city woman (7:36-
50), the Parable of Prodigal Son (15:11-32), Zaccheus (19:1-10) and the Ruler (18:18-30) as non-conversion.
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