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

ancient Near East. What is more, although m. Kelim 12.7 is presented as evidence to support
a headdress, this would presume that the coin had already lost its value as a coin. In other
words, coins pierced for use as an ornament would have little value as a coin. 61
The woman’s diligent search presents a threefold question: “Does not one light a lamp
and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it?” She lights a lamp and sweeps the
house, expecting to hear the coin tinkle, since the house would have had little natural light,
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because, if it had windows, the windows would be small. The Greek word and
the phrase represent her diligent and exhaustive efforts.
When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbours to rejoice with her. It
is preferable to view the gender of her friends and neighbours in this verse as feminine, in
contrast to those of the Lost Sheep. Once again, as in the parable of the Lost Sheep,
communal joy over the found is experienced, again with the analogy to the joy experienced in
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heaven. Even though ‘the angels of God’ in v. 10 replaces ‘in heaven’ in v. 7, it carries the
same meaning, with the parallel between the rejoicing of the shepherd/the woman, with
his/her friends and neighbours, and that of God with the angels in heaven.
6-3-2. The Interpretation of the Parable
With regard to a female reading of this parable, Durber argues that these parables in Luke 15
are sexist, on the basis of a patriarchal culture, revealing a lack of images of women, in
particular in the parable of the Prodigal Son, or presenting images which are in themselves
sexist. In addition to that, she assumes that these parables are addressed to men, not to
women. Even though the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin are parallels, for Durber there are
significant differences, in that the readers less closely identify themselves with the female
domestic than with the male owner of sheep. She assumes from both introductions, of v. 4
(“If one of you”) and v. 8 (“Or again if a woman”), and that the woman’s comparison with
God is less obvious in the parable of the Lost Coin, than the shepherd in the parable of the
Lost Sheep, for, while the shepherd is referred to as God in ‘the greater joy in heaven’, the
61. Derrett, “Fresh Light on the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin,” 40-41; Susan Marie Praeder, The Word in
Women’s Worlds: Four Parables (Wilmington: Michael Glazier, 1988), 39; Hultgren, Parables, 66; Snodgrass,
Stories with Intent, 114.
62. Beaten earth or stone was commonly used to make floors of houses. Near Capernaum in particular basalt
was plentiful, which were used for floors. Peter Richardson, Building Jewish in the Roman East (Waco, Tex:
Baylor University Press, 2004), 76-81.
63. A.F. Walls, “‘In the Presence of the Angels’ Luke 15:10,” NovT 3 (1959), 314-16.
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