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

version in the Gospel of Truth may be derived from Matthew’s gospel alone. 22
In the light of
this, it is desirable to see both the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Truth as secondary
versions.
6-2-2. The Analysis of the Parable
The phrase, , at the outset of the parable of the Lost Sheep makes the
audience imagine the proper action of the shepherd in general rather than appealing to the
23
personal experience of the hearers. The suggestion that the point in this case is the point ‘if
you… how much more God?’, found in v. 7 matches well. 24 It has been suggested by some
theologians that Jesus made a sharp attack on the Pharisees with the use of a negative
shepherd analogy on the grounds that shepherding was a despised occupation, since it was
believed that they did not follow the law faithfully by driving their flocks into foreign land
and embezzling the produce of the flock. 25 However, given the fact that the shepherd image
is used widely in the Old Testament in several ways, 26 there is little doubt that the Pharisees
had the OT shepherd image in mind, more than that of it being a despised trade at Jesus’ time.
In order to designate gods, kings, and other officers, the image of the shepherd is commonly
used in the literatures of antiquity, such as writings from Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and
Rome. 27
The one hundred sheep in the parable may be a figure devised to make the lost one
immediately more conspicuous, namely, one of one hundred sheep like one of ten coins, not
one of eighty-seven sheep rather than simply a picture on a grand scale and exaggeration. It is
not important whether one hundred sheep is a small or large number of that time, but also it
takes substantial risks to conjecture on the grounds of such reasoning: the shepherd has an
22. Christopher M. Tuckett, “Synoptic Tradition in the Gospel of Truth and the Testimony of Truth,” JTS 35
(1984), 133-45, here 133-34.
23. Cf. 11:5, 11; 12:25; 14:28 and 17:7.
24. Forbes, The God of Old: The Role of the Lukan Parables in the Purpose of Luke’s Gospel, 114.
25. Jeremias, Parables, 133; Bailey, Poet and Peasant, 147; Forbes, The God of Old: The Role of the Lukan
Parables in the Purpose of Luke’s Gospel, 115. See also m. Qid. 4.14; b. Sanh. 25b, Midr. Ps. 23.2: “R. Jose bar
Hanina taught: In the whole world you find no occupation more despised than that of the shepherd, who all his
days walks about with his staff and his pouch. Yet David presumed to call the Holy One, blessed be He, a
shepherd!”
26. In the OT the shepherd image presents largely as God’s tender care of his people (Pss 28:9; 80:1; Jer 31:10;
Ezek 34:15, 31; Mic 7:14), leaders of the people (2 Sam 5:2; 7:7; 1 Chron 11:2; 17:6; Ps 78:71-71; Isa 44:28; Jer
17:16; 23:2, 4; Zech 11:3-5, 7, 9; 11:16-17; 13:7; Ezek 34:1-22; 34:23; 37:24; Mic 5:4) and the eschatological
deliverer (Mic 5:2, cf. Matt2:6).
27. Hultgren, Parables, 52
66