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

in Matthew has a more succinct form and an element of uncertainty. At any rate, it is not
important here to consider the question of priority, for almost all attempts to establish which
is the earlier version tend to be spurious rather than resting on solid evidence. It is reasonable
to consider that Jesus told the parable on more than one occasion to different audiences for
different purposes. It is therefore more likely to consider that they are independent versions
of the parable, with a considerable adaptation by either each evangelist or oral tradition.
The parable also appears in the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Truth. Both the
Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Truth are gnostic in that the largest sheep symbolizes
the gnostic Christian, and the restoration of the lost one means to become perfect. 18
Although some argue that the Gospel of Thomas 107 is based on independent tradition, 19 the
fact that it depends on the Synoptics, as I have already noted earlier, is widely accepted, and
affirmed strongly by Bruce Chilton. 20 On the other hand, with respect to the Gospel of Truth,
Christopher M. Tuckett claims convincingly, on the basis of Van Unnik’s theory, 21
that the
Synoptic Gospels, 189; E. Linnemann, Parables of Jesus: Introduction and Interpretation (London: SPCK,
1966), 67; Fitzmyer, The Gospel According to Luke, 1074 and Drury, Parables, 139. For the priority of the
Lukan version, see C.G. Montefiore, The Synoptic Gospels (New York: Ktav Pub. House, 1968), 2:987;
Jeremias, Parables, 40; Bailey, Poet and Peasant, 153; Scott, Hear Then the Parable, 406; Donahue, The
Gospel in Parable, 148 and Forbes, The God of Old: The Role of the Lukan Parables in the Purpose of Luke’s
Gospel, 114.
18. Gos. Thom. 107: Jesus said “The Kingdom is like a shepherd who had a hundred sheep. One of them, the
largest, went astray. He left the ninety-nine and looked for that one until he found it. When he had gone to such
trouble, he said to the sheep, ‘I care for you more than the ninety-nine.’” (James M. Robinson, The Nag
Hammadi Library in English (3d ed. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1988), 137.
Gospel of Truth 31-31: He is the shepherd who left behind the ninety-nine sheep that were not lost. He went
searching for the one that had gone astray. He rejoiced when he found it, for ninety-nine is a number that is in
the left hand that holds it. But when the one is found, the entire number passes to the right (hand). As that which
lacks the one-that is, the entire right(hand)-draws what was deficient and takes it from the left-hand side brings
(it) to the right, so too the number becomes one hundred. It is the sign of the one who is in their sound; it is the
Father (Quoted from NHLE 46.).
19. Jeremias, Parables, 24; W.L. Peterson, “The Parable of the Lost Sheep in the Gospel of Thomas and the
Synoptics,” NovT 23 (1981), 128-47; Hendrickx, The Parables of Jesus, 144 and Stephen J. Patterson, The
Gospel of Thomas and Jesus (Sonoma, Calif.: Polebridge Press, 1993), 71, contends that the Thomas version is
more primitive than those in the canonical Gospels on the grounds that it contains no allegorizing, but his
argument is contradicted in the sense that there is too allegorizing, for instance, the sheep which is the largest
and most valued.
20. Bruce Chilton, “The Gospel according to Thomas as a Source of Jesus’ Teaching,” in ed., David Wenham,
The Jesus Tradition outside the Gospels (Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1985), 155-76, here 158.
21. He, after looking at the Gospel of Truth, concludes that it seems that the writer of the Gospel of Truth used
practically and widely New Testament Canon, including Pauline Epistles, Hebrews, Revelation, Acts, 1 John
and 1 Peter. Van Unnik, “The Gospel of Truth and the New Testament,” in ed., F.L. Cross, The Jung Codex
(London: Mowbray 1955), 79-129, here 122. The Gospel of Truth is counted widely to be a Christian gnostic
text with Valentinian affinities at the middle of the second century.
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