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

location of Luke’s first audience. Having discarded a specific setting drawn from P. Esler who
argues that the Lukan community situates in tensions within their membership and with the
world outside, 81 he presumes that Luke’s location is “in an urban setting in the eastern parts
of the Mediterranean,” namely, “in typical aspects of urban life in a Greco-Roman city.” 82
Firstly, he puts forward some distinctive qualities of urban communities and their structures.
Power and social relations in the Hellenistic city characterizes the quest for honour, a system
of patronage, and reciprocity (generalized reciprocity, balanced reciprocity and negative
reciprocity). Secondly, he deals with meals, God-fearers, women, and the rich and poor under
the title of ‘Luke’s community within the Hellenistic city’. Meals at that time represented an
expression of honour and status for the city elite, typical forms of benefactions, an integral
part of temple worship and offerings, and a Jews’ expression. Luke describes meal narratives
with cult scenes in which Jesus enters the stage as host or guest (Luke 5:29-32; 7:36-50; 14:1-
24; 19:5-10). In the first community in Jerusalem, meals are portrayed as a typical element,
and the acceptance of new members into the community (Acts 2:46; 10:17-29; 11:3). On the
other hand, meals stir up tensions in social relationships inside and outside that group,
thereby starting, sustaining, and destroying the mechanism of sociability. 83 For Moxnes, the
Lukan communities were composed of primarily Hellenistic, non-Jewish Christians including
a few Jewish Christians, thereby fostering conflicts within the community with law-observant
Christian Jews. Moreover, there is also a conflict caused by a competition to win God-fearers
who, as their patrons, provided material and social protection (Acts 10:22; Luke 7:1-10). 84
Luke’s portrayal of women in Luke-Acts are seen as serving (Luke 4:38-39; 8:1-3) Jesus and
the apostles, and providing for missionaries with their property, as patrons. Women, unlike
male disciples, do not request honour or privilege, but rather follow Jesus as a model of a
serving patron. As ideal disciples, women are restricted in their domestic tasks, and they, at
the same time, are located on the fringe of social power. With respect to rich and poor, Jesus
not only breaks down the elite system and all its values, but also betrays social sanctions
(Luke 14:1-14; 22:24-27), claiming hospitality without a return (Luke 14:12), and being one
who serves (Luke 22:26). Therefore, the ideal rich in Luke is to be a person on the fringe of
society, not one of the elite. Luke attempts to create a common identity for a mixed group of
81. Esler, Community and Gospel in Luke-Acts: The Social and Political Motivations of Lucan Theology, 26.
82. Moxnes, “The Social Context of Luke’s Community,” 380-81.
83. Ibid., 383.
84. Ibid., 384.
281