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

follows, I will first of all present the current scholarly views about the Lukan travel narrative
in four categories such as historical approach, redaction critical approach, chiastic structure,
and Old Testament models.
2-1. Historical Approach
In explaining the arrangement of the travel narrative, the historical interpretation was the
leading method until the beginning of the 20th century. The historical interpretation,
according to Luke’s preface with , views the Lukan travel narrative as a
chronologically and geographically exact description of Jesus’ last journey to Jerusalem. The
historical point of view can be divided into two categories, one single journey and multiple
journeys. As far as the single journey is concerned, F. Godet argues that Luke describes one
continuous journey as Jesus’ the last journey to Jerusalem, and at the same time tries to
situate it in the Johannine scheme. He asserts that Jesus passed through Perea in consonance
with Mark 10:1, since he arrives at Jerusalem from Jericho (18:35, 19:1). 3 In the same vein,
A. Plummer claims that “however long the time, and however circuitous the route, it is a
journey from Capernaum to Jerusalem” which is described in great detail by Luke. He adds
the historical truth of this section to it on the grounds of Luke’s honesty that he does not
attempt an accuracy concerning things that he did not find in his sources. 4
There are,
however, some problems with this view. The travel narrative still has a Jewish environment
which one can find neither in Perea nor in Samaria, and still more, Luke never mentions
Perea or the Decapolis in his Gospel. Even the historical approach cannot so much as explain
the reason why the Journey has lack of a topographical and chronological setting, as well as
want of continuity and progression of the Journey.
On the other hand, with respect to multiple journeys, another attempt at explanation
mentions that Luke made use of sources that contained several journeys of Jesus to Jerusalem.
F. Schleiermacher contends that according to the Gospel of John, Jesus did not come from
Galilee, when he sets off on his last journey to Jerusalem, and so the beginning (departure
from Galilee) and the end in the Lukan central section do not deal with the same journey,
namely, one originally connected journey. In other words, Luke has combined accounts of
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both journeys, harmonizing that departure from Galilee with this entry into Jerusalem. His
3. Godet, Luke, 2:4, 6-8.
4. A. Flummer, The Gospel according to St. Luke (ICC; Edinburgh: Clark, 1964), 260-61.
5. F. Schleiermacher, Luke: A Critical Study (Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellin Press, 1993), 166-68. Dean Wickes
also views the Journey as a composite of two distinct sources with Jesus’ travel to Jerusalem. Dean R. Wickes,
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