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

e) 11:14-36 e’) 17:11-37 Healing , Kingdom signs, judgment warning
f) 11:37-54 f’) 17:1-10 Brotherly rebuke and meals
g) 12:1-48 g’) 16:1-31 Hell, riches, and stewardship
h) 12:49-13:9 h’) 14:25-15:32 Family loyalties, prudence, repentance
i) 13:10-17 i’) 14:1-6 Sabbath healing, people more important than animals
j) 13:18-30 j’) 14:7-24 Kingdom parables, banqueting, and the outcasts
k) 13:31-33 k’) 13:34-35 Perishing in Jerusalem.
In the two passages of the second column, the sequence of chiasmus breaks easily.
Moreover, he has considerable difficulty in binding together a pair which bears little
resemblance to each other. For this reason, he attributes chiasmus structures in the central
section to the final redactor of the work. 35
Viewing the chiastic structure in the central section as the work of a pre-Lukan Jewish-
Christian theologian, K.E. Bailey divides it into ten main sections, each of which include
subdivisions and parallels:
a) 9:51-56 a’) 19:10, 28-48 Jerusalem: eschatological events-day, death, fulfillment,
judgment, salvation
b) 9:57-10:12 b’) 18:35-19:9 Follow me: people come to Jesus, Jesus goes out
c) 10:25-42 c’) 18:18-30 What shall I do to inherit eternal life?
d) 11:1-13 d’) 18:1-14 Prayer: assurance, steadfastness, right approach
e) 11:14-32 e’) 17:11-37 Sign and the (present/coming) kingdom: Son of man
f) 11:37-12:34 f’) 16:9-31 Conflict with the Pharisees: money, heavenly treasure
g) 12:35-59 g’) 16:1-8, 16 The kingdom is not yet and is now
h) 13:1-9 h’) 14:12-15:32 The call of the kingdom to Israel (and outcasts)
i) 13:10-20 i’) 14:1-11 The nature of the kingdom: love and not law-Sabbath
healings, humility
j) 13:22-35 Jerusalem: eschatological events-salvation, judgment,
vision, fulfillment, death, day.
He observes that, of the material in the travel narrative, about 90% constructs an inverted
outline, with a few exceptions in some short pieces of tradition. It is striking that by means of
repetition, Luke underlines Jerusalem on the outside and at the center of the so-called the
Jerusalem Document. According to him, death and the eschatological day reach the acme of
the document. The theme of humility is stressed in the second half of the inverted structure,
introducing the theme from a discussion of humility in 14:7-11, concluding with the remark
that, “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be
35. Talbert, Literary Patterns, Theological Themes, and the Genre of Luke-Acts, 51-56, later extends the
chiasmus structures to the entire travel narrative. See Talbert, Reading Luke. A Literary and Theological
Commentary on the Third Gospel, 111-112.
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